Researchers from the Broad Institute and MIT have teamed up with colleagues from the University of Tokyo to form the first high definition picture of the Cas9 complex – a key part of the CRISPR-Cas system used by scientists as a genome-editing tool to silence genes and probe the biology of cells. Their findings, which are reported this week in Cell, are expected to help researchers refine and further engineer the tool to accelerate genomic research and bring the technology closer to use in the treatment of human genetic disease. First discovered in bacteria in 1987, CRISPRs ...

In the first study of its kind, a consortium led by UCLA physicians found that giving stroke patients intravenous magnesium within an hour of symptom onset does not improve stroke outcomes, according to research presented today at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference. However, the eight-year study found that, by working with paramedics in the field, intravenous medications can be given to stroke patients within the "golden hour," the window in which patients have the best chance to survive and avoid debilitating, long-term neurological damage. ...

WORCESTER, MA – Everyday our cells take in nutrients from food and convert them into the building blocks that make life possible. However, it has been challenging to pinpoint exactly how a single nutrient or vitamin changes gene expression and physiology. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have developed a novel interspecies model system that allows these questions to be answered. In a study appearing in the journal Cell, UMMS researchers use this new approach to show how bacterially supplied vitamin B12 changes gene expression, development and ...

Software that can fix 90 percent of broken links in the web of data, assuming the resources are still on the site's server, has been developed by researchers in Iran. The details are reported this month in the International Journal Web Engineering and Technology. Everyone knows the frustration of following a link to an interesting web site only to discover the target page is no longer there and to be presented with an error page. However, more frustrating and with wider implications for science, healthcare, industry and other areas is when machines communicate and expect ...

Metabolic risk factors cluster similarly in children and adults, according to a study carried out at the University of Eastern Finland. Furthermore, in adults, the clustering of these risk factors increases the risk of premature death caused by type 2 diabetes, myocardial infarction and cardiovascular diseases. The results indicate that lifestyle interventions aiming at the prevention of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases should be invested in already in childhood. The results of the study were recently published in Diabetologia. Metabolic syndrome ...

Japanese researchers have determined that sarcopenia—a loss of skeletal muscle mass—increases risk of sepsis and mortality risk in patients undergoing live donor liver transplantation. Findings published in Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society, suggest that post-transplant sepsis was reduced in candidates with sarcopenia who received early nutritional support with a feeding tube, known as enteral nutrition. While sarcopenia, defined as loss of muscle connected ...

WHO: Chris Field, professor of interdisciplinary environmental studies at Stanford University and co-chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Working Group II. WHAT: The world is staring down the barrel of climate change that is faster than at any time in the last 65 million years, says climate expert Chris Field. He will speak on the topic. WHEN: Friday, Feb. 14, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. CST. WHERE: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, Hyatt Regency, Grand Ballroom B, ...

New research quantifying the risk of admission to hospital for self-harm has identified a raised risk of self-harm among groups of patients with certain physical illnesses. While it is known that psychiatric illnesses are associated with a greatly elevated risk of self-harm, a moderately elevated risk was seen with common physical illnesses such as diabetes, epilepsy and asthma. The research, published today by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, investigated the risk of self-harm comparing people with different psychiatric and physical disorders in England. Other ...

A group of researchers at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of Université de Montréal discovered a promising new approach to treating leukemia by disarming a gene that is responsible for tumor progression. That gene, known as Brg1 is a key regulator of leukemia stem cells that are the root cause of the disease, resistance to treatment and relapse. Julie Lessard, principal investigator and her colleagues at IRIC have spent the past four years studying that gene in collaboration with another research group at Stanford University in California. The ...

Many psychiatric disorders are accompanied by memory deficits. Basel scientists have now identified a network of genes that controls fundamental properties of neurons and is important for human brain activity, memory and the development of schizophrenia. Their results have been published in the online edition of the US journal Neuron. The ability to hold transitory information - e.g. memorizing a telephone number - is a fundamental function of the human brain. This so-called working memory enables us to understand the world that surrounds us. To keep the working ...

Female Asian longhorned beetles lure males to their locations by laying down sex-specific pheromone trails on tree surfaces, according to an international team of researchers. The finding could lead to the development of a tool to manage this invasive pest that affects about 25 tree species in the United States. "Tens of thousands of hardwood trees, mostly maples, have been cut down and destroyed in New York, Ohio and Massachusetts because of the Asian longhorned beetle," said Kelli Hoover, professor of entomology, Penn State. "We discovered a pheromone produced by females ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Thursday, February 13, 2014)—A woman can beat middle-aged spread, her disease risks, and her hot flashes with the help of her healthcare provider. And even a short term program can spell success for women and fit into a busy provider's practice, shows a demonstration obesity-fighting and health risk reduction program detailed in an article just published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Making lifestyle changes can take a lot of work. Programs that have successfully helped women lose weight and reduce their ...

An international team of scientists under the leadership of the University of Bonn disproves a dogma: To date, immunologists have assumed that the macrophages functioning as "scavenger cells" can be classified into two different forms. In an extensive search, the researchers have now discovered that these immune cells turn into far more different manifestations. These findings also give rise to completely new therapeutic approaches for many widespread diseases. The results are now being published in the renowned journal Immunity. In the body, macrophages go on patrol ...

Looking for a good book? Stay away from the award-winning section of the bookstore or library. New research from Amanda Sharkey of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business finds that a book read after winning a prestigious award will likely be judged more negatively than if it's read in its pre-award days. In "The Paradox of Publicity: How Awards Can Negatively Affect the Evaluation of Quality," to be published in the March issue of Administrative Science Quarterly, Sharkey and colleague Balázs Kovács of the University of Lugano analyze thousands of reader ...

After offering information about UV light and sun-protective behaviors, the two health-ed videos diverge: one describes the increased skin cancer risk of UV exposure and the other describes effects on appearance including wrinkles and premature aging. Which of these two videos do you think caused teenagers to use more sunscreen six weeks after it was shown? A University of Colorado Cancer Center study shows that while teens who watched both videos learned and retained the same amount of knowledge about UV light and sun-protective behaviors, only the teens who ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Breathing the air outside their homes may be just as toxic to pregnant women — if not more so — as breathing in cigarette smoke, increasing a mom-to-be's risk of developing deadly complications such as preeclampsia, according to findings from a new University of Florida study. UF researchers compared birth data with Environmental Protection Agency estimates of air pollution, finding that heavy exposure to four air pollutants led to a significantly increased risk for developing a high blood pressure disorder during pregnancy. The research was published ...

This news release is available in German. Researchers at the Helmholtz Center Berlin (HZB) have taken a leap forward towards a deeper understanding of an undesired effect in thin film solar cells based on amorphous silicon – one that has puzzled the scientific community for the last 40 years. The researchers were able to demonstrate that tiny voids within the silicon network are partly responsible for reducing solar cell efficiency by some 10 to 15 percent as soon as you start using them. Their work has now been published in Physical Review Letters (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.066403). Amorphous ...

This news release is available in German. Proteins are made up of a chain of amino acids and are vital for all cell processes. Proteases are among the most important types of protein. Like "molecular scissors", they cut other proteins at given positions and thereby execute important cell functions. By cutting the amino acid chains to the right length or breaking proteins apart they, for example, activate or deactivate proteins, decompose defective ones or switch signal sequences that serve to transport proteins to their proper position within a cell. But proteases ...

Cancer patients could one day experience fewer side effects from chemotherapy following a discovery that opens the door for more targeted treatments. Researchers have identified a possible way of treating tumours that would see doctors place harmless metal implants at the cancer site. The discovery could make treatment more targeted than existing therapies, avoiding unwanted side effects, such as hair loss, tiredness and nausea. These occur when chemotherapy drugs carried in the blood kill healthy cells as well as cancer cells. The scientists found that they could ...

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People whose brainstems are affected by their stroke have a significantly higher prevalence of sleep apnea than those who have stroke-related injury elsewhere in the brain, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2014. Sleep apnea is marked by interrupted breathing during sleep and can lead to serious health problems including heart disease and stroke. "This is the largest population-based study to address the issue of the location of the brain injury and its relationship to sleep apnea in post-stroke patients," ...

Children who take medication to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) don't appear to be at increased stroke risk, according to a study presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2014. In a study of 2.5 million 2- to 19-year-olds over a 14-year period, researchers compared stimulant medication usage in children diagnosed with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke to stimulant usage in children without stroke. Researchers found no association between stroke risk and the use of ADHD stimulant medications at the time of stroke ...

This news release is available in German. Hookworms and whipworms are detrimental to health. Children in many developing countries in particular are prone to regular infection via contaminated soil due to a lack of latrines and clean water. Whipworm eggs enter the body via the gastrointestinal tract and evolve over several devel-opment stages. To contain the health risks of worm infections, the WHO recommends annual de-worm treatment for children and at-risk groups (such as field hands and miners). However, the recommended standard treatment appears to have little ...

A new study from the University of Surrey, published today in the journal PLOS One, has identified the specific effect Chiari malformation has on the shape of a dog's skull and brain. This condition has become prevalent as a result of selective breeding and affects many toy dog breeds which have been bred to look more doll-like, including Griffon Bruxellois, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Chihuahuas and their crosses. Researchers took brain, skull and vertebrae measurements of 155 Griffon Bruxellois and compared dogs affected by the condition, with normal Griffons. ...

This week in the leading journal Nature, a team of French and Swedish researchers present new fossil evidence for the origin of one of the most important and emotionally significant parts of our anatomy: the face. They show how a series of fossils, with a 410 million year old armoured fish called Romundina at its centre, documents the step-by-step assembly of the face during the evolutionary transition from jawless to jawed vertebrates. Vertebrates (backboned animals) come in two basic models: jawless and jawed. Today, the only jawless vertebrates are lampreys and hagfishes, ...