(National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) NIST has developed Standard Reference Materials for bitter orange, long used in folk medicine and now increasingly used in herbal weight-loss products. Researchers can use the new materials to develop and test analytical methods for compounds in bitter orange or as control materials for quality assurance.
(IEEE-USA) Dr. Kristina M. Johnson, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, recently received the John Fritz Medal from the American Association of Engineering Societies. She is the first woman so honored.Johnson was one of seven honorees during the AAES' 29th annual awards ceremony in the Great Hall of the National Academy of Engineering on May 5.
(National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) Researchers at NIST have reported a new technique to sort batches of carbon nanotubes by length using high-speed centrifuges. The technique should be easy to scale to industrial quantities for a variety of nanotube applications where length is an important factor.
(JFK Communcations) New data show that CAPHOSOL, an advanced electrolyte solution, relieves painful oral mucositis and improves quality of life for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy. These data will be reported in two separate presentations, one today in an oral podium presentation and one tomorrow as a poster session, at the 33rd Annual Congress of the Oncology Nursing Society.
(International Atomic Energy Agency) Delays and denials of shipments involving regulated radioactive materials used in medicine and industry are of growing concern to safety and industry experts. Meeting in Rome this week at an IAEA workshop, they agreed on an action plan for the Mediterranean region that seeks to ease hardships for hospitals, research centers and organizations that rely on timely delivery of beneficial radiation sources.
(Washington University School of Medicine) Changing the sugars attached to a hormone produced in the pituitary gland increased fertility levels in mice nearly 50 percent, a research group at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found. The change appears to alter a reproductive "thermostat," unveiling part of an intricate regulatory system that may one day be used to enhance human fertility.
(Rice University) Based on Rice and MIT findings, the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland, has ruled that Pistorius is eligible to participate in International Association of Athletics Federations sanctioned competitions. If he qualifies for the 2008 Beijing games, Pistorius would be the first disabled athlete ever to run against able-bodied athletes in an Olympic event.
(Arizona State University) People's concern in maintaining germ-free homes has led to the widespread use of anti-bacterial soaps and cleaning agents. But the active ingredients of those antiseptic soaps have come under scrutiny due to environmental and human health concerns. Now, ASU Biodesign Institute researcher Rolf Halden and co-workers have shown that antimicrobial ingredients used a half a century ago persist today in estuarine sediments into which New York City and Baltimore have discharged their treated domestic wastewater.
(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) Reactive oxygen compounds, including the well-known "free radicals," have an oxidation effect and, thereby, damage cells. However, at low levels, they also regulate key life processes. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have developed a highly sensitive biological measuring system for determining the oxidation state of living cells in real time.
(The Wistar Institute) Wistar Institute scientists have developed a new type of enzyme inhibitor capable of blocking a biochemical pathway that plays a key role in cancer development. Based on studies in human melanoma cells, the research paves the way for developing new ways to treat cancer by dampening overactive enzyme activity that leads to uncontrolled tumor growth. The study shows how small-molecule inhibitors can be designed to target a family of signaling proteins, called phosphatidyl-inositol-3-kinases, or PI3Ks.
(American Gastroenterological Association) Highlights of new studies include colonoscopies, pancreatic cancer, liver disease, disparities, celiac disease, NSAIDS and imaging.
(Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center) Researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have identified proteins that could be biological markers of non-cancerous nerve tumors called Neurofibromatosis 1, which can change to a highly aggressive cancer called malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors. This new finding could help resolve a current lack of reliable ways to diagnose NF1 and MPNST in patients, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.
(US Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station) The May issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research presents the preliminary findings of 23 scientists involved in one of the first landscape-scale experiments on how forest management affects western Ponderosa pine ecosystems.
(Medical College of Wisconsin) The absence of two proteins in mammalian embryos prevents the development of a healthy heart, a new study by researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, has found. The study, which appears in the May 15 issue of Developmental Biology, was led by Stephen Duncan, Ph.D., professor of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy at the Medical College.
With the quantity of genomic data increasing at an exponential rate, it is imperative that these data be captured electronically, in a standard format. Standardization activities must proceed within the auspices of open-access and international working bodies. To tackle the issues surrounding the development of better descriptions of genomic investigations, we have formed the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC). Here, we introduce the minimum information about a genome sequence (MIGS) specification with the intent of promoting participation in its development and discussing the resources that will be required to develop improved mechanisms of metadata capture and exchange. As part of its wider goals, the GSC also supports improving the 'transparency' of the information contained in existing genomic databases.
Pulmonary delivery of plasmid DNA (pDNA)/cationic liposome complexes is associated with an acute unmethylated CG dinucleotide (CpG)-mediated inflammatory response and brief duration of transgene expression. We demonstrate that retention of even a single CpG in pDNA is sufficient to elicit an inflammatory response, whereas CpG-free pDNA vectors do not. Using a CpG-free pDNA expression vector, we achieved sustained (?56 d) in vivo transgene expression in the absence of lung inflammation.
DNA vaccines encoding replication-defective viruses are safer than inactivated or live attenuated viruses but may fail to stimulate an immune response sufficient for effective vaccination. We augment the protective capacity of a capsid-deleted flavivirus DNA vaccine by co-expressing the capsid protein from a separate promoter. In transfected cells, the capsid-deleted RNA transcript is replicated and translated to produce secreted virus-like particles lacking the nucleocapsid. This RNA is also packaged with the help of co-expressed capsid protein to form secreted single-round infectious particles (SRIPs) that deliver the RNA into neighboring cells. In SRIP-infected cells, the RNA is replicated again and produces additional virus-like particles, but in the absence of capsid RNA no SRIPs are formed and no further spread occurs. Compared with an otherwise identical construct that does not encode capsid, our vaccine offers better protection to mice after lethal West Nile virus infection. It also elicits virus-neutralizing antibodies in horses. This approach may enable vaccination against pathogenic flaviviruses other than West Nile virus.
Small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) assemble into RISC, the RNA-induced silencing complex, which cleaves complementary mRNAs. Despite their fluctuating efficacy, siRNAs are widely used to assess gene function. Although this limitation could be ascribed, in part, to variations in the assembly and activation of RISC, downstream events in the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, such as target site accessibility, have so far not been investigated extensively. In this study we present a comprehensive analysis of target RNA structure effects on RNAi by computing the accessibility of the target site for interaction with the siRNA. Based on our observations, we developed a novel siRNA design tool, RNAxs, by combining known siRNA functionality criteria with target site accessibility. We calibrated our method on two data sets comprising 573 siRNAs for 38 genes, and tested it on an independent set of 360 siRNAs targeting four additional genes. Overall, RNAxs proves to be a robust siRNA selection tool that substantially improves the prediction of highly efficient siRNAs.
Amgen's retrospective sortie into personalized Vectibix treatment poses some difficult questions for regulators concerning the oversight of companion diagnostics.
