Greater insight into human brain disease may emerge from studies of a new genetic mutation that causes adult fruit flies to develop symptoms akin to Alzheimer’s disease.

“This is the first fruit fly mutant to show some of the outward, physical manifestations common to certain major human neurodegenerative diseases,” said principal investigator Michael McKeown, a biology professor at Brown University.

A research team found the mutation in a gene they named “blue cheese.” Reporting i

Increasing hormone causes increase of appetite, eating

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have identified a key hormone involved in appetite control and demonstrated its effect on the brain. Scientists have shown that the hormone, called ghrelin, activates specialized neurons in the hypothalamus involved in weight regulation. The research involved scientists at several collaborating institutions, including: Yale Medical School, Baylor College of Medicine, the Uni

On a semiconductor chip, one essential element is missing: a lightsource. An integrated lightsource can be very useful, however. In optical telecommunications, for example, or in lab-on-a-chip applications. University of Twente’s Phuong Le Minh developed a nanoscale integrated lightsourse. The principle of this tiny light source was discoverd by coincidence, performing semiconductor breakdown experiments. Le Minh succeeded in fabricating a micro channel

The nano-lightsource is formed by ‘con

Since the 1980s most experts have assumed that heterosexual sex transmitted 90% of HIV in Africa. In the March International Journal of STD and AIDS, an international team of HIV specialists presents groundbreaking evidence to challenge this consensus, with “profound implications” for public health in Africa.

In a series of articles, Dr David Gisselquist, Mr John Potterat and colleagues argue that the spread of HIV infections in Africa is closely linked to medical care. In their unique stud

A Mediterranean diet significantly lessens the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, shows a small Swedish study in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. But it takes a minimum of six weeks for the diet to take effect, the study shows.

The researchers were only able to study 51 people out of a possible 300, because of the various combinations of drugs patients were taking. In the end, 26 people with stable rheumatoid arthritis were assigned to an experimental Mediterranean/Cretan, diet for three

The universe has been mapped! Not the universe of stars, planets, and black holes, but the protein universe, the vast assemblage of biological molecules that are the building blocks of living cells and control the chemical processes which make those cells work. Researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have created the first three-dimensional global map of the protein structure universe. This map provides important insight i