Life Sciences and Chemistry

Researchers have used a recently developed anti-inflammatory drug as a starting point to construct a possible new, targeted anti-cancer agent. The new agent works by triggering cancer cells to self-destruct.

The agent is now undergoing laboratory testing by the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Rapid Access to Intervention Development (RAID) program.

The potential new drug was developed by researchers at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy and the OSU Comprehensive Can

A University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues have discovered a new mechanism that regulates the interaction of proteins in cell membranes. This discovery may lead to more efficient drug screening and possibly different methods for fighting infections.

Roger Koeppe, University Professor of chemistry and biochemistry, Thomas Suchnya, Frederick Sachs and Phillip Gottlieb of SUNY Buffalo and Sonya Tape and Olaf Andersen of Weil Medical College of Cornell University report their findi

A new report in top science magazine “Nature” shows that rising carbon dioxide or CO2, is causing a massive increase in dissolved chemicals in Britain’s waters. The chemicals (called DOC or dissolved organic carbon) could harm our health and accelerate current rises in atmospheric CO2 levels.

The discovery was made by a team led by wetland researcher Dr Chris Freeman, Royal Society Industry Fellow at the University of Wales, Bangor, who explained: “We’ve known for some time that CO2 levels

University of Iowa researchers have shown for the first time that gene therapy delivered to the brains of living mice can prevent the physical symptoms and neurological damage caused by an inherited neurodegenerative disease that is similar to Huntington’s disease (HD).

If the therapeutic approach can be extended to humans, it may provide a treatment for a group of incurable, progressive neurological diseases called polyglutamine-repeat diseases, which include HD and several spinocerebe

About half of the 700,000 annual cases of suspected appendicitis in the United States lack the usual symptoms – pain in the lower right abdomen, fever and a rising white blood cell count – making the decision to operate somewhat problematic. Now, thanks to a new imaging agent based on technology developed by nuclear medicine researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, doctors may finally have a way to rapidly and accurately detect those hard-to-diagnose cases.

The U.S. Food

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have developed a new technique for rapidly identifying the functions of genes.

The “high throughput” technique can be used in both cell culture and in animal models to screen thousands of genes for a particular biological function. It provides a method for the rapid development of a cDNA library, which would contain protein-encoding sequences of DNA. Researchers then can use the library to analyze a specific gene function.