EurekAlert! InContext Modules

Public Release: 8-Oct-2012

Nature Methods
A welcome predictability
Berkeley Lab researchers have developed an adapator that makes the genetic engineering of microbial components substantially easier and more predictable.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 8-Oct-2012

Lancet Oncology
Scientists develop a blood test that detects aggressive prostate cancers
Scientists from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid, along with British colleagues from the Institute for Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, have developed a test that studies genetic patterns in blood cells to detect advanced–stage prostate cancer. The results of the study are being published today in the journal the Lancet Oncology.

Public Release: 4-Oct-2012
TGen's Dr. Daniel Von Hoff delivers first Lori Groetken Memorial Lecture
Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, Physician-In-Chief of the Translational Genomics Research Institute is the first recipient of the Lori Groetken Memorial Lecture and Award. Dr. Von Hoff's lecture, "A Relentless Molecular Pursuit Approach to Take Out Pancreatic Cancer," is at 12 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

Lori Groetken Memorial Lecture

Public Release: 3-Oct-2012
Virginia Tech to tackle the 'Big Data' challenges of next-generation sequencing with HokieSpeed
The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health today announced nearly $15 million in new big data fundamental research projects. Among the awards is a $2 million grant to Iowa State, Virginia Tech, and Stanford University to develop high-performance computing techniques on massively parallel heterogeneous computing resources for large-scale data analytics.

National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 1-Oct-2012

Genetics
Evolutionary analysis improves ability to predict the spread of flu
A team of scientists from Germany and the United Kingdom analyzed the DNA sequences of thousands of influenza strains isolated from patients worldwide, dating to 1968. They were able to determine which strains are likely to survive and replicate and which mutations may die out, leading to improved prediction methods to determine which strains of the flu virus to be included in the upcoming year's flu vaccine.

Wellcome Trust, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 1-Oct-2012

Genetics
Genetics Society of America's GENETICS journal highlights for October 2012
These are the selected highlights for the October 2012 issue of the Genetics Society of America's journal, GENETICS.

Public Release: 28-Sep-2012

PLOS ONE
TGen and Scottsdale Healthcare report first study of clonal evolution in Maxillary Sinus Carcinoma
Knowing how tumors evolve can lead to new treatments that could help prevent cancer from recurring, according to a study published today by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Scottsdale Healthcare. TGen researchers tracked several years of tumor evolution in a 47-year-old male patient with maxillary sinus carcinoma, a rare cancer of the sinus cavities beneath the cheeks that often requires surgical removal that is disfiguring.

IBIS Foundation of Arizona, Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation

Public Release: 28-Sep-2012

GigaScience
Local funding leads to big things in parrot genomics
Researchers at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez have sequenced the genome of the critically endangered Puerto Rican Parrot. The work provides numerous benefits for avian genetics, conservation studies, and evolutionary analyses; but what is remarkable is that a small institution could undertake this work, and did so by raising money in a variety of creative ways, including student organized art and fashion shows, social-networking sites, and private donations from Puerto Rican citizens.

People of Puerto Rico, Fundación Toyota de Puerto Rico, US Fish and Wildlife Service

Public Release: 27-Sep-2012

PLOS: Computational Biology
Predatory bacterial crowdsourcing
Scientists at Rice University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School have discovered the mechanism that allows one of the world's smallest predators -- the soil bacteria Myxococcus xanthus -- to form collective waves that spread and engulf bacterial prey. The study, featured on the cover of this month's PLOS Computational Biology, finds that the same mechanism helps M. xanthus spread quickly and stay atop prey until it is devoured.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 27-Sep-2012

Proceedings of the Royal Society B
UCSB scientists capture clues to sustainability of fish populations
Thanks to studies of a fish that gives birth to live young and is not fished commercially, scientists at UC Santa Barbara have discovered that food availability is a critical limiting factor in the health of fish populations.

Public Release: 27-Sep-2012

Cell
Major cancer protein amplifies global gene expression, NIH study finds
Scientists may have discovered why a protein called MYC can provoke a variety of cancers. Like many proteins associated with cancer, MYC helps regulate cell growth. A study carried out by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and colleagues found that, unlike many other cell growth regulators, MYC does not turn genes on or off, but instead boosts the expression of genes that are already turned on.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 26-Sep-2012
Singing in the brain
What does anger sound like? What music does sorrow imply? Human emotion is being given a new soundtrack thanks to an exciting new collaboration between art and neuroscience.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, University of Western Sydney/Marcs Institute

Public Release: 26-Sep-2012

Nature
Gut bacteria could cause diabetes
Studying gut bacteria can reveal a range of human illness. Now, new research shows that the composition of a person's intestinal bacteria could play an important role in the development of type 2 diabetes. These results, from a joint European and Chinese research team, have just been published in the journal Nature.

Ministry of Science and Technology of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China

Public Release: 26-Sep-2012

BMC Veterinary Research
Psychology of equine performance and the biology behind laminitis
Achieving the best performance from a horse is the goal of professional riders and the millions of amateur riders all over the world. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Veterinary Research, looks how the psychology of horse mood, emotion and temperament can be used to enhance performance. A sister article looks at the devastating disease laminitis, and finds that it is linked to general inflammation, especially of the digestive system.

Public Release: 24-Sep-2012

Nature Methods
Cutting through the genomic thicket in search of disease variants
Scientists and clinicians have turned to computer tools that sift meaningful genomic variants from the glut of mutations they face. Using a new tool devised by Sudhir Kumar and his team, researchers can now improve the accuracy of their analysis.

Public Release: 24-Sep-2012
UC San Diego bioengineers take on key role in new NIH common funds metabolomics
With a $6 million grant over five years, bioengineers from the University of California, San Diego will play a central role in a new program from the National Institutes of Health to accelerate "metabolomics", an emerging field of biomedical research that offers a path to a wealth of information about a person's nutrition, infection, health, disease status and more.

NIH/Common Fund

Public Release: 24-Sep-2012
New online, open access journal focuses on microbial genome announcements
The American Society for Microbiology is launching a new online-only, open access journal, Genome Announcements, which will focus on reports of microbial genome sequences. Genome Announcements will begin publishing in January 2013.

Public Release: 24-Sep-2012

Current Biology
Research shows ants share decision-making, lessen vulnerability to 'information overload'
Scientists at Arizona State University have discovered that ants utilize a strategy to handle "information overload." Temnothorax rugatulus ants, commonly found living in rock crevices in the Southwest, place the burden of making complicated decisions on the backs of the entire colony, rather than on an individual ant.

National Science Foundaction

Public Release: 23-Sep-2012

Nature
Understanding the brain by controlling behavior
A team of researchers have been able to take control of Caenorhabditis elegans – tiny, transparent worms – by manipulating neurons in the worms' "brain" using precisely-targeted pulses of laser light. The research sheds new light on how the brain works.

Public Release: 20-Sep-2012
Treating disease by the numbers
Advances in mathematical modeling are allowing medical professionals to better understand the risk factors that lead to disease.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 20-Sep-2012
Pinpointing genes that control breast cancer key in finding treatments
As scientists continue to map breast cancer's complex genetic makeup, research at Michigan State University could lead to better diagnoses and new treatment targets. Eran Andrechek has been awarded a $1.5 million National Cancer Institute grant to understand why when a gene known as a transcription factor is removed from a certain type of breast cancer, tumors are delayed and the cancer's ability to spread is vastly reduced.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 20-Sep-2012

Science
Intrinsically disordered proteins: A conversation with Rohit Pappu
For 100 years, the dogma has been that amino acid sequence determines protein folding and that the folded structure determines function. But as Rohit Pappu and two colleagues explain in a perspective published Sept. 20 in Science, a large class of proteins doesn't adhere to the structure-function paradigm. Called intrinsically disordered proteins, these proteins fail fold either in whole or in part and yet they are functional.

Public Release: 19-Sep-2012

Nature
Oyster genome uncover the stress adaptation and complexity of shell formation
Chinese scientists report oyster genome uncover the stress adaptation and complexity of shell formation.

Public Release: 18-Sep-2012
One click away: Finding data on Florida's endangered species just got easier
A new online tool will make data on several of Florida's threatened and endangered species--including the Florida panther, American crocodile, and Key deer--more readily accessible to resource managers and planners. The tool, a searchable database known as "Threatened and Endangered Vertebrates in Florida," was developed by a team of researchers from the University of Florida, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Park Service.

U.S. Geological Survey

Public Release: 18-Sep-2012
The 2013 HFSP Nakasone Award goes to Stephen Quake of Stanford University
The Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) is pleased to announce that the 2013 HFSP Nakasone Award has been conferred upon Stephen Quake of Stanford University for his pioneering inventions and discoveries that made innovative physical techniques available for biology and that are revolutionizing biophysics, biological automation, genome analysis, and personalized medicine.

The Human Frontier Science Program Organization


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