EurekAlert! InContext Modules

Public Release: 9-Jan-2012

AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer
TGen researchers map potential genetic origins, pathways of lung cancer in nonsmokers
Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute have begun to identify mutations and cellular pathway changes that lead to lung cancer in never-smokers -- a first step in developing potential therapeutic targets.

Public Release: 5-Jan-2012
MU researcher's photoacoustic device finds cancer cells before they become tumors
University of Missouri researchers are one step closer to melanoma cancer detection at the cellular level, long before tumors have a chance to form. Commercial production of a device that measures melanoma using photoacoustics, or laser-induced ultrasound, will soon be available to scientists and academia for cancer studies. The commercial device also will be tested in clinical trials to provide the data required to obtain US Food and Drug Administration approval for early diagnosis of metastatic melanoma and other cancers.

Public Release: 5-Jan-2012

Bioinformatics
The bigger picture of population genomics
Making sense of the mass of genetic data generated by rapid-throughput methods remains tricky. Attention is now switching to automatic procedures to help researchers understand large amounts of DNA sequence information. The group of Christian Schlötterer at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna has now developed a tool to compare data from sequences of pooled samples. The program is described in the current issue of the journal Bioinformatics.

Public Release: 5-Jan-2012

Science
Who's the boss? Research shows cells influence their own destiny
In a major shake-up of scientists' understanding of what determines the fate of cells, researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have shown that cells have some control over their own destiny.

National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Victorian Government and Science Foundation Ireland

Public Release: 4-Jan-2012
The Encyclopedia of Life expanding at a record pace
The Encyclopedia of Life continues to expand at a record pace with the addition of new content and partners. At the start of 2012, EOL provides data on nearly half of all described species, with new content in Spanish, rich information about conservation issues from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and NatureServe, and more images and videos than ever before.

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, EOL member institutions

Public Release: 2-Jan-2012

Radiology
Quantitative CT helps identify COPD patients at risk for exacerbations
National Jewish Health researchers report that a computerized form of radiology, known as quantitative CT, can offer valuable prognostic information about patients with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The findings indicate that quantitative CT scans can help identify patients at greater risk for damaging exacerbations of their disease. They also help identify distinct phenotypes among the COPD patient population, who could benefit from individualized, targeted management of their disease.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 25-Dec-2011

Nature Neuroscience
Sea snails help scientists explore a possible way to enhance memory
Efforts to help people with learning impairments are being aided by a species of sea snail. The mollusk, which is used by researchers to study the brain, has much in common with other species including humans. At the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, neuroscientists used this animal model to test an innovative learning strategy designed to help improve the brain's memory and the results were encouraging.

National Institutes of Health, Keck Center National Library of Medicine Training Program in Biomedical Informatics of the Gulf Coast Consortia

Public Release: 22-Dec-2011

Cell
Defending the genome
New research published in the journal Cell by the labs of William E. Theurkauf and Zhiping Weng at the University of Massachusetts Medical School sheds light on how the genome defends itself from invading transposons.

Public Release: 22-Dec-2011

Genome Research
Gene fusion in lung cancer afflicting never-smokers may be target for therapy
Smoking is a well-known risk factor for lung cancer, but nearly 25 percent of all lung cancer patients have never smoked. In a study published online today in Genome Research, researchers have identified a previously unknown gene fusion event that could explain a significant proportion of lung cancer cases in never-smokers, and might serve as a target for new therapies.

Macrogen Inc.

Public Release: 22-Dec-2011
Science Magazine honors cutting-edge DNA web sites
Because of their remarkable scope and value as educational tools, Science magazine is honoring the DNA Learning Center Web sites with a Science Prize for Online Resources in Education.

Public Release: 19-Dec-2011

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
A major step forward towards drought tolerance in crops
When a plant encounters drought, it does its best to cope with this stress by activating a set of protein molecules called receptors. Plant cell biologists at the University of California, Riverside have discovered how to rewire this cellular machinery to heighten the plants' stress response -- a finding that can be used to engineer crops to give them a better shot at surviving and displaying increased yield under drought conditions.

National Science Foundation, Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc.

Public Release: 19-Dec-2011
MMV and SCYNEXIS offer 400 active compounds for neglected disease drug research at no cost
In a bid to catalyze malaria and neglected disease drug discovery, MMV and SCYNEXIS, Inc. have assembled a Malaria Box of 400 carefully selected commercially available compounds with antimalarial activity and will provide it to researchers at no cost.

Public Release: 19-Dec-2011
German research team targets 'at risk' data on biodiversity
A new German-based project is setting out to rescue biodiversity data at risk of being lost, because they are not integrated in institutional databases, are kept in outdated digital storage systems, or are not properly documented. The project, run by the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, provides a good example for a GBIF recommendation to establish hosting centers for biodiversity data. This is one of a set of data management recommendations just published by GBIF.

German Research Foundation

Public Release: 18-Dec-2011

Nature
Researchers create living 'neon signs' composed of millions of glowing bacteria
In an example of life imitating art, biologists and bioengineers at UC San Diego have created a living neon sign composed of millions of bacterial cells that periodically fluoresce in unison like blinking light bulbs. Their achievement was detailed in this week's advance online issue of the journal Nature.

NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 16-Dec-2011
2 research facilities awarded technology seeding grants
The Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI) has awarded two research facilities with $10,000 each to test or develop leading-edge technologies to better aid the work of Ontario researchers.

Ontario Genomics Institute

Public Release: 16-Dec-2011
BGI-BOX terminal server debut operation in China Agricultural University
BGI-BOX terminal server began its debut operation in China Agricultural University.

Public Release: 16-Dec-2011
Genomic sequences of 2 iconic falconry birds - Peregrine and Saker Falcons- successfully decoded
Genomic sequences of two iconic falconry birds - Peregrine and Saker Falcons- have been successfully decoded.

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

PLOS Genetics
Genome tree of life is largest yet for seed plants
Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the New York Botanical Garden, and New York University have created the largest genome-based tree of life for seed plants to date.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

BMC Bioinformatics
New biodiversity data publishing framework proposed
A special supplement of BMC Bioinformatics focuses on recommendations by a task group set up by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, to establish a framework for biodiversity data publishing. Its recommendations include a range of measures designed to increase incentives to share biodiversity data, and to remove remaining barriers obstructing free and open access to such data.

Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Public Release: 15-Dec-2011

Science
Study of skates and sharks questions assumptions about 'essential' genes
Biologists have long assumed that all jawed vertebrates possess a full complement of nearly identical genes for critical aspects of their development. But a paper in the December 16 issue of Science with Benjamin King of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory as lead author shows that elasmobranchs, a subclass of cartilaginous fishes, lack a cluster of genes, HoxC, formerly thought to be essential for proper development.

Maine INBRE

Public Release: 14-Dec-2011
Nikolaus Rajewsky of the MDC to receive the Leibniz Prize
Professor Nikolaus Rajewsky of the Max Delbrueck Center Berlin is to receive Germany's most prestigious research award, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. The announcement was made by the German Research Foundation on Dec. 8, 2011. The prize will be awarded to a total of eleven scientists. The Leibniz Prizes, each endowed with up to 2.5 million euros, will be presented in an award ceremony in Berlin on Feb. 27, 2012.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Public Release: 11-Dec-2011
BGI study results on resequencing 50 accessions of rice cast new light on molecular breeding
BGI study results on resequencing 50 accessions of rice cast new light on molecular breeding.

Public Release: 8-Dec-2011

2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
First genome sequencing clinical trial for triple negative cancer points to new treatments
Initial results from an ongoing clinical trial, the first designed to examine the utility of whole-genome sequencing for triple negative breast cancer, were reported today during the CRTC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Public Release: 6-Dec-2011
How will patients, families and doctors handle the coming flood of personalized genetic data?
With advances in technology, one person's entire genome can now be sequenced in a few months for about $4,000. But knowing just what to do with this knowledge has not kept pace with the gusher of genetic data. A four-year, $8.8 million federal grant to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia focuses on how families and pediatricians will understand and use such information.

National Human Genome Research Institute

Public Release: 6-Dec-2011
NHGRI broadens sequencing program focus On inherited diseases, medical applications
A new funding plan by the National Human Genome Research Institute sharpens the focus of its flagship Genome Sequencing Program on medical applications. In addition to continuing on-going studies, the four-year, $416 million plan launches new efforts to find causes of rare inherited diseases and accelerate the use of genome sequence information in the medical care of patients.

National Institutes of Health


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