Life Sciences and Chemistry

The expression pattern of certain genes may someday help doctors to diagnose and predict whether or not an individual has an aggressive form of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), Jefferson cancer researchers have found.

Scientists, led by Carlo Croce, M.D., director of Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center and professor and chair of microbiology and immunology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, looked at the expression of genes that

Using a new molecular genetic technique, scientists have turned procrastinating primates into workaholics by temporarily suppressing a gene in a brain circuit involved in reward learning. Without the gene, the monkeys lost their sense of balance between reward and the work required to get it, say researchers at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

“The gene makes a receptor for a key brain messenger chemical, dopamine,” explained Barry Richmond, M.D., NIMH Labo

Investigators from an international consortium of research institutes, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, have identified compounds that mimic the effects of a low calorie diet without changing the amount of essential nutrients. The researchers believe it may be possible to design drugs that imitate many of the beneficial effects of calorie restriction resulting in the prevention of diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, which are more common in people w

The difference in size between males and females of the same species is all down to the battle for a mate, according to a study of shorebirds published by British scientists today (August 9 2004).

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are the first explanation for a rule identified over forty years ago by German scientist Bernhard Rensch.

Rensch’s rule, as it has become known, says that the ratio between the sizes of the sexes is

A “stink fight” between ring-tailed lemurs might be dead serious to them. But to observers, the scented struggle ranks among the more odd, even comical sights at the Duke University Primate Center — already renowned for the biological eccentricities of its exotic denizens.

Preparations for battle begin when male combatants load their “weapons” — vigorously rubbing their tails against their shoulders and between their wrists, infusing the fur with scent from glands there.

Science can put a dent in the sex life of a scarab beetle by blocking its ability to pick up female scent, according to Walter Leal, professor of entomology at UC Davis. The research could eventually lead to methods to control insect pests without affecting harmless or beneficial insects.

“Chemical communication is the prime means of communication in insects,” Leal said. If those communications can be controlled in the environment, insect pests could be prevented from breeding, he