Discovery could lead to new drug therapy for some childhood cancers

Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered a previously unrecognized way that certain types of cancer cells can be forced to activate a self-destruction program called apoptosis.

The finding suggests that drugs designed to activate apoptosis might be effective anti-cancer therapies. This strategy would target specific molecules in the cancer cell rather than rely on chemothera

First detection by infrared interferometry of an extragalactic object

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are one of the most energetic and mysterious phenomena in the universe. In some galaxies indeed, the core generates amounts of energy which surpass those of normal galaxies, such as the Milky Way, by many orders of magnitude.

The central engine of these power stations is thought to be a supermassive black hole. Indirect lines of evidence have suggested that these massive black

NASA and university astronomers have found evidence the 11-year sunspot cycle is driven in part by a giant conveyor belt-like, circulating current within the Sun.

The astronomers, Dr. David Hathaway, Robert Wilson and Ed Reichmann of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and Dr. Dibyendu Nandy of Montana State University in Bozeman, reported their findings the week of June 16 at the annual meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Soci

In combating West Nile virus, information could be the ultimate repellant. In an effort to develop an early-warning system for potential West Nile virus outbreaks, Cornell University’s Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC) and the Department of Entomology will spend this summer collecting climate data in areas where disease-carrying mosquitoes are found.

The U.S. government-funded research, it is hoped, will result in the first Web-based, degree-day calculator that warns publ

Animal Models Offer Newborn Opportunity to Permanently Rescue Insulin-making Cells and Possibly Even Protect Against Future Onset

A common condition that leads to low birthweight babies may predispose the infants to obesity and diabetes later in life by denying cells in the pancreas access to the chemical signals they need to mature, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Moreover, the condition, which they have successfully modeled in rodents

After seven years of work, researchers have succeeded in deducing the three-dimensional structure of an elusive and complex protein enzyme that is central to regulating the body’s largest family of receptors. These receptors, called G-protein-coupled receptors, nestle in the cell membrane and respond to external chemical signals such as hormones and neurotransmitters, to switch on cell machinery.

The thousands of such receptors throughout the body play a fundamental role in the mechan