2009 Archives

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

• Starve a Yeast, Sweeten Its Lifespan  
  March 23, 2009
  Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a new energy-making biochemical twist in determining the lifespan of yeast cells, one so valuable to longevity that it is likely to also functions in humans.

Building Blocks, Biological Pathways, and Networks

• Researchers Begin to Decipher Metabolism of Sexual Assault Drug
  November 20, 2009
  Its a naturally occurring brain chemical with an unwieldy name: 4-hydroxybutyrate (4-HB). Taken by mouth, it can be abused or used as a date-rape drug.

Epigenomics

• What Drives Our Genes? Researchers Map The First Complete Human Epigenome  
  October 15, 2009
  Although the human genome sequence faithfully lists (almost) every single DNA base of the roughly 3 billion bases that make up a human genome, it doesn't tell biologists much about how its function is regulated.

NIH Director’s New Innovator Award

• Imaging study shows brain abnormalities in chemotherapy patients  
  November 11, 2009
  Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have used neuroimaging to gain insight into a phenomenon known as “chemo brain,” a condition in which cancer patients have difficulty thinking, focusing and remembering.
• New Synthetic Molecules Trigger Immune Response to HIV and Prostate Cancer  
  November 5, 2009
  Researchers at Yale University have developed synthetic molecules capable of enhancing the body’s immune response to HIV and HIV-infected cells, as well as to prostate cancer cells.
• Stretching the Golgi: a link between form and function  
  October 15, 2009
  A research team at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has provided a surprisingly simple explanation for the mechanism and features of the “Golgi apparatus”—a structure that has baffled generations of scientists.
• Using Simple Genome, Columbia Researchers Move Personalized Medicine Closer to Reality  
  October 13, 2009
  Researchers at Columbia University have developed a statistical method that accurately predicts how an organism will respond to dozens of commonly used drugs.
• Gene action partially explains treatment success in newborn lungs  
  September 23, 2009
  For more than a decade, obstetrician-gynecologists have given pregnant women facing premature birth steroids to hasten the development of their newborn's lungs. Now a study appearing online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences involving a "mystery" gene called Erk3 explains the success of that therapy.
• High fat diet in pregnancy changes metabolome of mother, offspring  
  September 4, 2009
  A high fat diet during pregnancy not only results in offspring with fatty livers, but actually changes the small molecules that govern metabolism, said a consortium of researchers led by those from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
• Large-scale study probes how cells fight pathogens  
  September 3, 2009
  Researchers reconstruct a key molecular circuit in mammalian immune cells; genome-scale methods offer a practical model for future studies.
• Higher drug doses needed to defeat tuberculosis, researchers report  
  July 30, 2009
  The typical dose of a medication considered pivotal in treating tuberculosis effectively is much too low to account for modern-day physiques, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers said.
• Konrad Hochedlinger: A reprogramming revolutionary  
  July 7, 2009
  In 1999, Konrad Hochedlinger squeezed into a packed lecture at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna to hear stem cell researcher Rudolf Jaenisch talk about nuclear transfer cloning techniques.
• Ed Boyden: The brain engineer  
  March 3, 2009
  At the end of his junior year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998, Ed Boyden was hanging out with friends in the basement of the famed Media Lab, trying to figure out what to do for the summer.
• Malaria parasite zeroes in on molecule to enhance its survival, team finds  
  February 19, 2009
  A team of researchers from Princeton University and the Drexel University College of Medicine has found that the parasite that causes malaria breaks down an important amino acid in its quest to adapt and thrive within the human body.
• Penn study finds link between Parkinson's disease genes and manganese poisoning  
  February 2, 2009
  A connection between genetic and environmental causes of Parkinson’s disease has been discovered by a research team led by Aaron D. Gitler, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
• Wireless Microgrippers Grab Living Cells in 'Biopsy' Tests  
  January 12, 2009
  Johns Hopkins researchers have invented dust-particle-size devices that can be used to grab and remove living cells from hard-to-reach places without the need for electrical wires, tubes or batteries.

NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program

• Drug kills cells through novel mechanism  
  December 10, 2009
  MIT and Boston University researchers have discovered that the drug hydroxyurea kills bacteria by inducing them to produce molecules toxic to themselves — a conclusion that raises the possibility of finding new antibiotics that use similar mechanisms.
• Scripps research study describes new tool in the fight against autoimmune diseases, blood cancers  
  November 30, 2009
  Novel approach facilitates identification of molecules that prevent immune cells from attacking the body.
• An exquisite container  
  November 3, 2009
  A tiny cage of gold covered with a smart polymer respond to light, opening to empty its contents.
• Harvard scientists bend nanowires into 2-D and 3-D structures  
  October 21, 2009
  New ‘stereocenters’ introduce triangular joints into otherwise linear nanomaterials.
• Large-scale study probes how cells fight pathogens  
  September 3, 2009
  Researchers reconstruct a key molecular circuit in mammalian immune cells; genome-scale methods offer a practical model for future studies.
• Cost of Decoding a Genome Is Lowered  
  August 11, 2009
  A Stanford engineer has invented a new technology for decoding DNA and used it to decode his own genome for less than $50,000.
• UCSB Study Links Strength and Beauty to Anger, Pro-War Attitudes  
  August 5, 2009
  Anthropologists, psychologists, and other experts in human behavior have long recognized anger as a universal emotion.
• Scientists Discover Origin of Malaria (PDF, 2 pages)  
  August 3, 2009
  Discovery Could Lead to Development of New Treatments, Prevent Future Plagues.
• A matter of density, not quantity  
  July 10, 2009
  Individual bacterial cells are capable of quorum sensing when confined in small volumes.
• Research may hold key to maintaining embryonic stem cells in lab  
  July 9, 2009
  In a new study that could transform embryonic stem cell (ES cell) research, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered why mouse ES cells can be easily grown in a laboratory while other mammalian ES cells are difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.
• Microscopic marvels: The naked microscope  
  June 30, 2009
  Sunney Xie's newest microscopes don't look like the latest in sophistication. Tucked away in his biochemistry lab at Harvard University, they seem to be ad hoc assemblies of lasers, objectives and electronics, surrounded by a thicket of optical equipment.
• Trimming The Fat Boosts Blood Recovery After Marrow Transplant
  June 17, 2009
  Seeking ways to improve blood recovery after chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have discovered that fat cells, which accumulate in bone marrow as people age, inhibit the marrow's ability to produce new blood cells.
• Why do people with Down syndrome have less cancer?  
  May 20, 2009
  Research in mice and human stem cells suggests new therapeutic targets.
• Embryo's Heartbeat Drives Blood Stem Cell Formation  
  May 13, 2009
  Clues about how blood forms could yield new strategies for treating blood diseases.
• Using combinatorial libraries to engineer genetic circuits advances synthetic biology  
  April 22, 2009
  Streamlining the construction of synthetic gene networks has led a team of Boston University researchers to develop a technique that couples libraries of diversified components with computer modeling to guide predictable gene network construction without the back and forth tweaking.
• Study finds blood cells can be reprogrammed to act as embryonic stem cells  
  April 20, 2009
  In a recent study, U.S. researchers have reprogrammed cells found in circulating blood into cells that are molecularly and functionally indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells.
• Penn Scientists Use RNA to Reprogram One Cell Type into Another  
  April 16, 2009
  Implications for Cell-Based Personalized Therapies for Neurodegenerative Diseases.
• Shedding some light on Parkinson's treatment  
  April 16, 2009
  Scientists use optical approach to study deep brain stimulation.
• The games microbes play  
  April 6, 2009
  One of the perplexing questions raised by evolutionary theory is how cooperative behavior, which benefits other members of a species at a cost to the individual, came to exist.
• Sleep: Spring cleaning for the brain?  
  April 2, 2009
  If you've ever been sleep-deprived, you know the feeling that your brain is full of wool.
• Tracking deadly viruses' spread from animals to humans  
  January 16, 2009
  Pandemics can be prevented before they're spread globally, says Dr. Nathan Wolfe.
• Novel technique changes lymph node biopsy, reduces radiation exposure in breast cancer patients  
  January 13, 2009
  Information obtained from a new application of photoacoustic tomography (PAT) is worth its weight in gold to breast cancer patients.
• Synthetic HDL: A new weapon to fight cholesterol problems
  January 9, 2009
  Buttery Christmas cookies, eggnog, juicy beef roast, rich gravy and creamy New York-style cheesecake. Happy holiday food unfortunately can send blood cholesterol levels sky high.

NIH Director’s T-R01 Award Program

• MIT launches new center to investigate endometriosis, leading cause of female infertility  
  December 4, 2009
  MIT will officially launch a new center to investigate the underlying causes of endometriosis and other chronic noncancerous diseases of the female reproductive tract.

Nanomedicine

• Nanotech Researchers Develop Artificial Pore  
  September 28, 2009
  Using an RNA-powered nanomotor, University of Cincinnati (UC) biomedical engineering researchers have successfully developed an artificial pore able to transmit nanoscale material through a membrane.
• With A Flash Of Light, A Neuron's Function Is Revealed  
  September 16, 2009
  There’s a new way to explore biology’s secrets. With a flash of light, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley zeroed in on the type of neural cell that controls swimming in larval zebrafish.

Structural Biology

• Scripps Research Scientists Find Structure of a Protein that Makes Cancer Cells Resistant to Chemotherapy
  March 25, 2009
  A research team at the Scripps Research Institute has obtained the first glimpse of a protein that keeps certain substances, including many drugs, out of cells.
   

• NIH Announces First National Research Study Recruitment Registry
  Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
• NIH Launches Second Phase of Patient Reported Outcomes Initiative
  Friday, Oct 16, 2009
• NIH Announces 115 Awards to Encourage High-Risk Research and Innovation
  Thursday, Sep 24, 2009
• NIH Funds Grantees Focusing on Epigenomics of Human Health and Disease
  Wednesday, Sep 16, 2009
• NIH Expands National Consortium for Transforming Clinical and Translational Research, Releases First Progress Report
  Tuesday, Jul 14, 2009
• New Technique Could Sustain Cancer Patients’ Fertility
  Tuesday, Jul 14, 2009
• NIH Expands Human Microbiome Project; Funds Sequencing Centers and Disease Projects
  Tuesday, Jun 23, 2009
• Study Finds Unexpected Bacterial Diversity on Human Skin
  Thursday, May 28, 2009
• NIH Clinical and Translational Science Consortium Grows to 39 Members
  Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009
• NIH Nanotechnology Task Force and the NIH Nanomedicine Roadmap Initiative Host NanoWeek 2009
  Thursday, Apr 02, 2009
• Three New Informatics Pilot Projects to Aid Clinical and Translational Scientists Nationwide
  Monday, Jan 26, 2009