A team of researchers led by UC Davis Health System has found that human alpha-defensin 6 (HD6) – a key component of the body's innate defense system – binds to microbial surfaces and forms "nanonets" that surround, entangle and disable microbes, preventing bacteria from attaching to or invading intestinal cells. The research describes an entirely new mechanism of action for defensins, an important group of molecules known to bolster the defenses of circulating white blood cells, protect cellular borders from invasive pathogens and regulate which "friendly" microbes can ...

Gut bacteria's key role in immunity is tuned to the host species, researchers have found, suggesting that the superabundant microbes lining our digestive tract evolved with us—a tantalizing clue in the mysterious recent spike in human autoimmune disorders. A new study reports that the superabundance of microbial life lining our GI tracts has coevolved with us. These internal bacteria, which are essential for a healthy immune system, are ultimately our evolutionary partners. In other words, humans may have coevolved with gut bacteria unique to humans, which are not immunologically ...

Parents must be considered when states decide to expand genetic screening programs for newborns, according to a new study that looked at mandatory testing panels and political pressure by advocacy groups. Nearly all infants in the United States undergo a heel prick within days of birth for a simple blood test to detect rare genetic disorders. For decades, state-based mandatory newborn screening programs have focused on disorders such as phenylketonuria (PKU) or hypothyroidism in which a prompt diagnosis and treatment could prevent disability or even death. In recent ...

PHILADELPHIA -- Memory devices for computers require a large collection of components that can switch between two states, which represent the 1's and 0's of binary language. Engineers hope to make next-generation chips with materials that distinguish between these states by physically rearranging their atoms into different phases. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have now provided new insight into how this phase change happens, which could help engineers make memory storage devices faster and more efficient. The research was conducted by Ritesh Agarwal, associate ...

Tightening or relaxing the tension on a drumhead will change the way the drum sounds. The same goes for drumheads made from graphene, only instead of changing the sound, stretching graphene has a profound effect on the material's electrical properties. Researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have shown that subjecting graphene to mechanical strain can mimic the effects of magnetic fields and create a quantum dot, an exotic type of semiconductor with a wide range of potential uses in electronic devices. The ...

Researchers have started to unveil the genetic heritage of Ethiopian populations, who are among the most diverse in the world, and lie at the gateway from Africa. They found that the genomes of some Ethiopian populations bear striking similarities to those of populations in Israel and Syria, a potential genetic legacy of the Queen of Sheba and her companions. The team detected mixing between some Ethiopians and non-African populations dating to approximately 3,000 years ago. The origin and date of this genomic admixture, along with previous linguistic studies, is consistent ...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have uncovered a new signal transduction pathway specifically devoted to the regulation of alternative RNA splicing, a process that allows a single gene to produce or code multiple types of protein variants. The discovery, published in the June 27, 2012 issue of Molecular Cell, suggests the new pathway might be a fruitful target for new cancer drugs. Signal transduction in the cell involves kinases and phosphatases, enzymes that transfer or remove phosphates in protein molecules in a cascade or ...

Researchers at McGill University have discovered the cause of an inherited form of epilepsy. The disease, known as double-cortex syndrome, primarily affects females and arises from mutations on a gene located on the X chromosome. Drs. Susanne Bechstedt and Gary Brouhard of the Department of Biology have used a highly advanced microscope to discover how these mutations cause a malformation of the human brain. The results of their study are published in the journal Developmental Cell. When the brain develops in the uterus, new brain cells are born deep within the brain, ...

During the past 2.8 million years extreme warm periods occurred in the Arctic at irregular intervals. Analytical results from the longest sediment core that has ever been drilled in the terrestrial areas of the Arctic have shown temperatures that were previously considered impossible for the Arctic Circle. In addition, a notable correlation of the warm periods in the Arctic with large melting events in Antarctica points to previously unknown interactions between the Polar Regions. These are the findings of an international research team led by Professor Martin Melles of ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A new study of lake sediment cores from Sanak Island in the western Gulf of Alaska suggests that deglaciation there from the last Ice Age took place as much as1,500 to 2,000 years earlier than previously thought, opening the door for earlier coastal migration models for the Americas. The Sanak Island Biocomplexity Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, also concluded that the maximum thickness of the ice sheet in the Sanak Island region during the last glacial maximum was 70 meters – or about half that previously projected – suggesting ...

STANFORD, Calif. — A study spearheaded by a Stanford University School of Medicine scientist has tracked the trajectories of key immune cells in response to short-term stress and traced, in great detail, how hormones triggered by such stress enhance immune readiness. The study, conducted in rats, adds weight to evidence that immune responsiveness is heightened, rather than suppressed as many believe, by the so-called "fight-or-flight" response. The study's findings provide a thorough overview of how a triad of stress hormones affects the main cell subpopulations of the ...

UCLA researchers have combined two tools – gene expression and the use of peripheral blood -- to expand scientists' arsenal of methods for pinpointing genes that play a role in autism. Published in the June 21 online edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics, the findings could help scientists zero in on genes that offer future therapeutic targets for the disorder. "Technological advances now allow us to rapidly sequence the genome and uncover dozens of rare mutations," explained principal investigator Dr. Daniel Geschwind, the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished ...

New Haven, Conn.—Global warming may cause more extinctions than predicted if scientists fail to account for interactions among species in their models, Yale and UConn researchers argue in Science. "Currently, most models predicting the effects of climate change treat species separately and focus only on climatic and environmental drivers," said Phoebe Zarnetske, the study's primary author and a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. "But we know that species don't exist in a vacuum. They interact with each other in ways that deeply ...

Scientists at the University of Exeter have made a new discovery that they hope might lead to effective control of rice blast disease. Rice blast is the most serious disease of cultivated rice and affects all the rice-growing regions of the world, causing losses of up to 30% of the global rice harvest. Yasin Dagdas and colleagues studied the rice blast fungus, which develops a pressurised infection cell, called an appressorium to rupture the rice leaf cuticle. The appressorium generates extreme pressure, estimated to be 40 times that of a car tyre. Dagdas and colleagues, ...

Research: Effect of telehealth on use of secondary care and mortality: findings from the Whole System Demonstrator cluster randomised trial Editorial: Telehealth for long term conditions For people with long term conditions, telehealth can reduce deaths and help patients avoid the need for emergency hospital care, finds a study published on bmj.com today. However, the estimated scale of hospital cost savings is modest and may not be sufficient to offset the cost of the technology, say the authors. Telehealth uses technology to help people with health problems live ...

It might be possible for human-to-human airborne transmissible avian H5N1 influenza viruses to evolve in nature, new research has found. The findings, from research led by Professor Derek Smith and Dr Colin Russell at the University of Cambridge, were published today, 22 June in the journal Science. Currently, avian H5N1 influenza, also known as bird flu, can be transmitted from birds to humans, but not (or only very rarely) from human to human. However, two recent papers by Herfst, Fouchier and colleagues in Science and Imai, Kawaoka and colleagues in Nature reveal ...

Alexandria, VA – In the 1980s, acid rain was a big topic of conversation. Everyone knew about it. Today, just a couple of decades later, it's all but been forgotten. Why and how did this happen? As EARTH explores in the July issue, the problem of acid rain has largely been solved. The solution started with congressional amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990 that called for government regulation of sulfur dioxide emissions, a known cause of acid rain. Two decades later, sulfur dioxide emissions have been halved and previously damaged waterways and forests have largely ...

Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a new type of anti-inflammatory compound that may be useful in treating a wide range of conditions, including neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases. These compounds inhibit the enzyme Nox2, part of a family of enzymes responsible for producing reactive oxygen species (ROS). The results were published Thursday in the journal Chemistry & Biology. "Nox2 inhibitors could be valuable with many conditions where inflammation plays a role," says senior author David Lambeth, MD, PhD, professor of pathology ...

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed new methods to track stem cells and further understanding of what happens to them after they have been in the body for a significant period of time. Stem cells are used to treat conditions such as leukaemia and have the potential to treat many more diseases and disorders where patient survival is reliant on organ and tissue donation. Currently, however, it is difficult for medics to establish whether stem cells have survived following transplantation in the body and if they reach their target site or migrate elsewhere. In ...

Cigarette smoking among drug dependent pregnant women is alarmingly high, estimated at 77 to 99%. Programs that treat pregnant patients for substance use disorders often fail to address cigarette smoking despite the clear risks to both mother and child, including ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion, preterm delivery, low birth weight, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. However, programs to help people quit smoking do not seem to interfere with drug abuse treatment, and may actually improve drug abstinence rates. One of the most effective methods of helping people ...

The purified proteins by the Department of Biotechnology of Neiker-Tecnalia have demonstrated their ability to inhibit the growth of several tumor cell lines. This property shows that the latex proteins of this plant, which is very prolific and easily acclimated, could be considered in clinical trials for cancer treatment due to its anti-tumor activity. The research has been done in collaboration with the University of Oviedo (Spain) and with funding from the Department for the Environment, Territorial Planning, Agriculture and Fisheries of the Government of the Basque ...

Graphene, an ordered monolayer of carbon, is the thinnest substance known, and yet has extraordinary mechanical strength. A new study shows that its two-dimensional network of atoms can even trap light. Thin, thinner, graphene. Graphene, a monolayer of carbon in which the atoms are arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb network, is the thinnest net in the world, is highly stable. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 for their discovery of the electrical conductivity of graphene. Indeed, graphene could in future replace silicon ...

Researchers from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) have found a protein in the blood of pregnant women that can predict if they are likely to have a fetus that doesn't grow properly, and thus has a high risk of stillbirth and long-term health complications. The research, led by Dr. Andrée Gruslin, could lead to a widely available blood test and could help develop ways for improving the outcomes of women and their children who face this risk — estimated to be as many as one of every 20 pregnancies. Dr. Gruslin's study, ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Poor mothers will invest more resources in daughters, who stand a greater chance of increasing their status through marriage than do sons, suggests a study in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Masako Fujita, Michigan State University anthropologist, and her fellow researchers tested the breast milk of mothers in northern Kenya and found that poor mothers produced fattier milk for their daughters than for their sons. On the contrary, mothers who were better off financially favored sons over daughters. The results, also featured in ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — For many adult women, supporting tissues in and around their vagina weaken to the point where the bladder and other organs descend from their normal position, creating a hernia into the vaginal wall known as pelvic organ prolapse. One in five women will undergo surgery to repair such prolapse. Vaginal surgery is one way to correct this condition, which often comes with age, but this surgery can also unmask another problem – urinary leakage. Now, new research by the University of Michigan Health System shows that patients who receive a mid-urethral ...