EurekAlert! InContext Modules

Public Release: 16-Apr-2013

Lancet Respiratory Medicine
Gene study helps understand pulmonary fibrosis
A study of the genomes of more than 1,500 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis found multiple genetic associations with the disease, including one variant in a gene called TOLLIP that was linked to an increase in the risk of death. This finding suggests that an abnormal immune response to infectious agents or environmental injury may be central to the disease.

National Institutes of Health, Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, Simmons Endowment for Pulmonary Research, Balbach Fund

Public Release: 15-Apr-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
An important discovery in breast cancer by IRCM researchers
A team of researchers at the IRCM, led by Dr. Jean-François Cote, made an important discovery in breast cancer, which will published online this week by the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Montreal scientists identified the DOCK1 protein as a potential target to reduce the progression of metastases in patients suffering from breast cancer, the most common type of cancer in women.

Canadian Cancer Society, Fonds de recherche du Quebec -- Sante

Public Release: 13-Apr-2013

Plant Biology 2013
ASPB names 2013 awards recipients
The American Society of Plant Biologists is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2013 awards, honoring excellence in research, education, outreach, and service.

Public Release: 12-Apr-2013

FASEB Journal
IFR scientists use the force to decode secrets of our gut
A new technique based on atomic force microscopy was developed at the Institute of Food Research to help "read" information encoded in proteins that make up the mucus layer that lines our gut.

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Public Release: 12-Apr-2013

Evolutionary Biology
Study proposes alternative way to explain life's complexity
Evolution skeptics argue that some biological structures, like the eye, are too complex for natural selection to explain. Biologists have proposed various ways that so-called "irreducibly complex" structures could emerge incrementally over time. But a new study proposes an alternative route.

National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 11-Apr-2013

Journal of Animal Science
Molecular techniques are man's new best friend in pet obesity research
Illinois professor of animal and nutritional sciences Kelly Swanson and his research team recently published a study that shows how molecular biology technologies are making the mechanisms underlying the pet obesity epidemic more easily understood.

Public Release: 11-Apr-2013

Science
Scientists discover gene mutation that causes children to be born without spleen
An international team of researchers has identified the defective gene responsible for a rare disorder in which children are born without a spleen, which makes them susceptible to life-threatening bacterial infections. The findings may lead to new diagnostic tests and raises new questions about the role of this gene in the body's protein-making machinery.

March of Dimes

Public Release: 11-Apr-2013

BioScience
Researchers call for marine observation network
A marine biodiversity observation network that would build on existing efforts and safeguard ocean biodiversity resources could be established with modest funding within five years, according to an expert assessment.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Public Release: 10-Apr-2013
8 M € from EU to enhance access by scientists to the largest European 'biobanks'
A four-year project involving 30 partners from 17 European countries has received a 8M € funding to enhance access by academic and industry scientists to the largest European 'biobanks.' The project is led by the Institute of Molecular Medicine Finland and the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.

Public Release: 9-Apr-2013

AACR Annual Meeting 2013
TGen-Scottsdale Healthcare clinical trial results for BIND-014 presented at AACR 2013
The nanoparticle drug BIND-014 is effective against multiple solid tumors, according to results generated by the Translational Genomics Research Institute and Scottsdale Healthcare, and presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2013.

Public Release: 9-Apr-2013

AACR Annual Meeting 2013
AACR news: Misregulated genes common to tobacco-related cancers offer potential new prognostic tool
"We ultimately envision this as a prognostic tool to predict survival rates for people with tobacco-related cancers. Recognizing patients with high expression of these genes could help us predict risk and so match patients with the most appropriate treatments," says a researcher.

Public Release: 5-Apr-2013
Penn Medicine's new center for personalized diagnostics unlocks cancer's secrets
Penn Medicine's new Center for Personalized Diagnostics, a joint initiative of the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center, is diving deeper into each patient's tumor with next generation DNA sequencing. These specialized tests can refine patient diagnoses with greater precision than standard imaging tests and blood work, all with an aim to broaden treatment options and improve their efficacy.

Public Release: 27-Mar-2013

Nature Genetics
An international study identifies new DNA variants that increase the risk for cancer
The European Collaborative Oncological Gen-Environmental Study project, whose main goal is to decipher the complex genetic bases of breast, prostate and ovarian cancers, publishes today a total of 12 research articles in several prestigious journals, including Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, The American Journal of Human Genetics and PLOS Genetics. Using mass sequencing techniques, the study has identified up to 80 new regions of the genome associated with an increased susceptibility to developing breast, prostate and ovarian cancers.

Public Release: 27-Mar-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Proteins in detail
IRB Barcelona scientists pave the way towards describing the conformation of proteins that do not have a defined structure. Structural and theoretical techniques are combined to develop new methodologies for the analysis of proteins.

Public Release: 26-Mar-2013

Aging Cell
University of Montreal researchers discover how drug prevents aging and cancer progression
University of Montreal researchers have discovered a novel molecular mechanism that can potentially slows the aging process and may prevent the progression of some cancers.

Prostate Cancer Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Public Release: 26-Mar-2013

GigaScience
Squished bug genomics: Insect goo aids biodiversity research
GigaScience (a BGI and BioMed Central open access journal) announces the publication of an article that presents a new method for assessing and understanding biodiversity that uses a DNA-soup made from crushed-up insects and next generation sequencing technology. This bulk-collected insect goo has the potential to rapidly, accurately, and, quantitatively, reveal the diversity and make-up of both known and unknown species collected in a particular time and place.

China National GeneBank, BGI, National High-Tech Research and Development Project (863) of China

Public Release: 24-Mar-2013

Nature
The genomic studies of wheat sheds new light on crop adaptation and domestication
Chinese scientists report the latest genomic studies of wheat, shedding new light on crop adaptation and domestication.

Public Release: 22-Mar-2013

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making Journal
APL novel method accurately predicts disease outbreaks
Scientists from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory have developed a way to accurately predict dengue fever outbreaks several weeks before they occur.

Department of Defense

Public Release: 21-Mar-2013

Journal of the American Chemical Society
Enzymes allow DNA to swap information with exotic molecules
John Chaput, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute has been hunting for a biological Rosetta Stone -- an enzyme allowing DNA's 4-letter language to be written into a simpler (and potentially more ancient) molecule that may have existed as a genetic pathway to DNA and RNA in the prebiotic world.

Public Release: 21-Mar-2013

PLOS ONE
Novel insights into the evolution of protein networks
System-wide networks of proteins are indispensable for organisms. Function and evolution of these networks are among the most fascinating research questions in biology. Bioinformatician Thomas Rattei, University of Vienna, and physicist Hernan Makse, City University New York, have reconstructed ancestral protein networks. The results are of high interest not only for evolutionary research but also for the interpretation of genome sequence data.

Public Release: 20-Mar-2013

Nature Methods
Genomic data are growing, but what do we really know?
"We live in the post-genomic era, when DNA sequence data is growing exponentially", says Miami University (Ohio) computational biologist Iddo Friedberg. "But for most of the genes that we identify, we have no idea of their biological functions." Friedberg and his colleagues organized the Critical Assessment of protein Function Annotation, or CAFA, a community-wide experiment to assess the performance of the many methods used today to predict the functions of proteins, reported in Nature Methods.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 18-Mar-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Human microbe study provides insight into health, disease
Microbes from the human mouth are telling Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists something about periodontitis and more after they cracked the genetic code of bacteria linked to the condition.

Public Release: 18-Mar-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Researchers create map of 'shortcuts' between all human genes
Researchers have generated the full set of distances, routes and degrees of separation between any two human genes, creating a map of gene "shortcuts" that aims to simplify the hunt for disease-causing genes in monogenic diseases.

Public Release: 18-Mar-2013

Nature Nanotechnology
Cell on a chip reveals protein behavior
A simplified version of an artificial cell produces functional proteins and even sorts them.

Public Release: 17-Mar-2013
New cicada book catalogs all species in USA and Canada
"The Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae) of North America North of Mexico," a new book published by the Entomological Society of America, offers a comprehensive review of the North American cicada fauna and provides information on synonymies, type localities, and type material.


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