Latest Biology News from Bio-Medicine.Org

Caltech scientists find emotion-like behaviors, regulated by dopamine, in fruit flies

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:09:40 MST

PASADENA, Calif.Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have uncovered evidence of a primitive emotion-like behavior in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster . Their findings, which may be relevant to the relationship between the neurotransmitter dopamine and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are described in the December issue of the journal Neuron...

Hormone ghrelin can boost resistance to Parkinson's disease

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:09:35 MST

Ghrelin, a hormone produced in the stomach, may be used to boost resistance to, or slow, the development of Parkinson's disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Neuroscience . Parkinson's disease is caused by a degeneration of dopamine neurons in an area of the midbrain known as the substantia nigra, which is responsible...

Researchers discover biological basis of 'bacterial immune system'

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:01:20 MST

Athens, Ga. Bacteria don't have easy lives. In addition to mammalian immune systems that besiege the bugs, they have natural enemies called bacteriophages, viruses that kill half the bacteria on Earth every two days. Still, bacteria and another class of microorganisms called archaea (first discovered in extreme environments such as deep-sea volcanic vents) manage just fine, thank you, in...

Magic box for mission impossible

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:29:25 MST

On September 11, firefighters, police officers and ambulance workers faced a terrifying rescue effort in the World Trade Center complex. They battled to save people from the collapsing Twin Towers, searched for survivors, tackled fires and evacuated as many people as they could in an area which contained an estimated 17,000 people. And making their jobs even harder was the problem of poor comm...

Johnson & Johnson award goes to research of the cause of brain cell damage in Parkinson's

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:29:21 MST

Dr. Sarit Larisch, Head of the Cell Death Research Laboratory in the University of Haifa's Department of Biology, has been awarded the prestigious Johnson & Johnson Focused Funding grant for her research exploring the cause of brain cell damage in Parkinson's disease. The award, which is granted each year to scientists in support of innovation and excellence in science, was announced in 2008...

It's not just dirt!

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:29:17 MST

MADISON, WI, NOVEMBER 25, 2009 Soil is the linchpin of the environment, where atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere meet. Despite that, many students see soil as "just dirt" a place to grow plants, but nothing more. Soil science educators are challenged with the task of helping students and the public recognize the critical importance of soil in the environment. A collaborative project...

New genetic cause of cardiac failure discovered

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:29:14 MST

Over the course of a lifetime, the heart pumps some 250 million liters of blood through the body. In the order to do this, the muscle fibers of the heart have to be extremely durable. The research group headed by Dr. Wolfgang Rottbauer, vice chair of the Department of Medicine III at Heidelberg University Hospital (Chairman: Prof. Dr. H. A. Katus), has discovered a protein that is responsible...

Kent State University professors focus research on the environment with grants totaling $890,000

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:29:07 MST

Two Kent State University assistant professors recently received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue research beneficial to understanding the environment. The three grants total $890,000. Christopher Blackwood, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded grants to support two separate research projects. His first project, titled...

Feeding the clock

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:17:31 MST

LA JOLLA, CAWhen you eat may be just as vital to your health as what you eat, found researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Their experiments in mice revealed that the daily waxing and waning of thousands of genes in the liverthe body's metabolic clearinghouseis mostly controlled by food intake and not by the body's circadian clock as conventional wisdom had it. "If fe...

Got a pain? -- Have a cup of Brazilian mint

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:25:01 MST

For thousands of years it has been prescribed by traditional healers in Brazil to treat a range of ailments from headaches and stomach pain to fever and flu. Now for the first time, researchers at Newcastle University have been able to scientifically prove the pain relieving properties of Hyptis crenata otherwise known as Brazilian mint. Testing this ancient South American herb on mic...

Lupus Research Institute announces 2009 novel research grants

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:32:55 MST

The Lupus Research Institute (LRI) today named 12 new grant recipients for 2009. The awards, totaling $3.6 million, recognize innovative work across a broad spectrum of lupus research. All were selected for their creativity, novelty, and potential to drive scientific discovery to ultimately prevent, treat, and cure the complex disease of systemic lupus. The 2009 grants go to both new and e...

Rocket science leads to new whale discovery

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:32:46 MST

Rocket science is opening new doors to understanding how sounds associated with Navy sonar might affect the hearing of a marine mammal or if they hear it at all. The same type of large industrial sized X-ray scanners that NASA uses to detect flaws in the space shuttle's behemoth solid fuel rockets is now allowing scientists to peek inside the giant head of a whale. The scans are providing...

A sticky solution for identifying effective probiotics

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:32:40 MST

Scientists have crystallised a protein that may help gut bacteria bind to the gastrointestinal tract. The protein could be used by probiotic producers to identify strains that are likely to be of real benefit to people. "Probiotics need to interact with cells lining the gut to have a beneficial effect, and if they attach to surfaces in the gut they are more likely to stick around long enoug...

A coating for life

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:32:37 MST

Stents that keep weakened and flabby arteries from collapsing have been true life-savers. But after six months, those stents are no longer needed -- once the arteries are strengthened, they become unnecessary. Previously, doctors had no choice but to leave them in place. Prof. Meital Zilberman of Tel Aviv University's Department of Biomedical Engineering has developed a new patent-pending...

Atomic-level snapshot catches protein motor in action

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:32:33 MST

The atomic-level action of a remarkable class of ring-shaped protein motors has been uncovered by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) using a state-of-the-art protein crystallography beamline at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). These protein motors play pivotal roles in gene expression and replication, and are vital to the survival of all biological cells,...

Springer and the American College of Medical Toxicology to work together

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:32:28 MST

Springer and the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) have signed an agreement to collaborate on the publication of the Journal of Medical Toxicology (JMT), the official journal of the ACMT, beginning in March 2010. It was previously published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The Journal of Medical Toxicology , an international, peer-reviewed journal, is dedicated to...

Report shows dramatic decline in Siberian tigers

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:32:25 MST

NEW YORK (November 24, 2009) -- The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced today a report revealing that the last remaining population of Siberian tigers has likely declined significantly due to the rising tide of poaching and habitat loss. WCS says the report will help inform Russian officials of what needs to be done to protect remaining populations of...

LSU gets to the bottom of things -- in Antarctica

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:32:19 MST

BATON ROUGE Antarctica has long held secrets of the earth's history locked in its icy depths, and until recently, there has been very little information on the environments that have been sealed beneath miles of ice for millions of years. Now, a team of researchers from nine institutions including LSU have been funded to the tune of $10 million dollars by the National Science Foundation,...

Fish food fight: Fish don't eat trees after all, says new study

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:28:45 MST

What constitutes fish food is a matter of debate. A high-profile study a few years ago suggested that fish get almost 50 percent of their carbon from trees and leaves, evidence for a very close link between the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. But new research from the University of Washington shows this is not likely to be true. Algae provide a much richer diet for fish and other aqua...

Researchers establish common seasonal pattern among bacterial communities in Arctic rivers

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:28:41 MST

Cambridge, Md. (November 24, 2009) New research on bacterial communities throughout six large Arctic river ecosystems reveals predictable temporal patterns, suggesting that scientists could use these communities as markers for monitoring climate change in the polar regions. The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition, shows that bacter...