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Woolly mammoth could be reality in four years

Mon, 01/17/2011 - 12:11 by Priyanka

Woolly mammoth, an extinct species of mammoth elephants, could become a reality in roughly four years time, according to professor Akira Iritani from the Kyoto University in Japan.

Enzyme link with aging investigated

Tue, 11/30/2010 - 10:26 by Prince damin

Boston -- A U.S. study suggests reactivating an enzyme that protects the tips of chromosomes in cells can reverse premature aging, researchers say.

Studies at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston showed that mice engineered to lack the enzyme, called telomerase, became prematurely decrepit, an article published by the journal Nature reported. When the enzyme was replaced, the mice recovered their health, the researchers said.

Reawakening the enzyme in cells in which it has stopped working might slow normal human aging, Ronald DePinho, a cancer geneticist at the Dana-Farber institute, says.

"This has implications for thinking about telomerase as a serious anti-aging intervention," he says.

Scientists learn to 'program' cells

Tue, 11/30/2010 - 07:48 by Prince damin

Palo Alto, Calif. -- U.S. scientists say they are a step closer to being able to "program" cells to respond to certain conditions and react in a pre-determined manner.

Researchers at Stanford University say they have created RNA molecules that could rewire cells to sense certain conditions and respond by making particular proteins, ScienceNews.org reported Monday.

The technique could produce cell-based therapies and cancer-fighting treatments, researchers say.

Christina Smolke, a biochemical engineer at Stanford, and her colleagues created RNA molecules that work something like a cellular security system "programmed" to be triggered by only one type of intruder.

Remote stimulation of cells has potential

Thu, 07/08/2010 - 01:45 by Pankaj Damin

Buffalo, N.Y. -- Heated magnetic nanoparticles aimed at cell membranes can control ion channels, neurons and even an animal's behavior, U.S. physicists found.

The research has applications beyond making worms reverse course -- as University of Buffalo physicists found -- potentially leading to innovative cancer treatments, improved diabetes therapies or even development of new therapies for some neurological disorders, the university said Tuesday in a news release.

Researchers develop new leukemia therapy

Tue, 06/08/2010 - 12:17 by Pankaj Damin

Gainesville, Fla. -- U.S. oncologists say they've developed a therapy that targets not only leukemia cells, but also the blood vessels that supply the cancer cells with nutrients.

University of Florida researchers say the new drug, Oxi4503, poisons leukemia cells and destroys the blood vessels that supply them with oxygen and nutrients. They said the agent was successful in the treatment of mouse models of acute myelogenous leukemia, or AML, and human tests are expected to begin later this year.

Better islet transplant procedure created

Tue, 06/08/2010 - 12:14 by Pankaj Damin

Waco, Texas -- U.S. and Japanese scientists say they've created a way to isolate pancreatic islet cells from brain dead donors for a more successful transplantation rate.

The researchers from Baylor University and Japan's Okayama Graduate School of Medicine said their technique more consistently isolates pancreatic islet cells from brain dead donors using ductal injection, a process that immediately cools donor islet cells at the injection site. The more successful islet isolation process resulted in the three type 1 diabetes patients, who received islet cell transplants, becoming insulin independent.

Stem cells captured for regenerative use

Thu, 05/06/2010 - 11:43 by Pankaj Damin

Boston -- A U.S. chemical engineer has been awarded a $1.9 million federal grant to develop techniques for cultivating stem cells for use in damaged tissue replacement.

Northeastern University Assistant Professor Shashi Murthy will use the three-year grant to lead an international team of researchers in designing and building small devices to extract stem cells that help to grow new tissue for diseased or non-functional cardiac muscle or skin.

"Our goal is to advance regenerative-medicine technologies by more effectively extracting and cultivating stem cells to multiply and develop into new tissue," Murthy said.

Study looks at how cells communicate

Tue, 11/10/2009 - 20:39 by Inderjit Singh

San Diego -- U.S. scientists say they've developed tools that allow them to visualize how different populations of cells communicate with each other.

The University of California-San Diego scientists say their study that shows how bacteria talk to one another might lead to new therapeutic discoveries for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and allergies.

Assistant Professor Pieter Dorrestein and post-doctoral students Yu-Liang Yang and Yuquan Xu, along with Paul Straight from Texas A&M University, said they used imaging mass spectrometry to observe the effects of multiple microbial signals in an interspecies interaction, revealing chemical "conversations" between bacteria involve many signals that function simultaneously.

Patients’ own tissue grafts to treat kidney dialysis

Fri, 04/24/2009 - 17:40 by Harleen Kaur

Los Angeles, April 24: In a novel breakthrough, doctors have grown blood vessels from patients' own cells for use in kidney dialysis. This is likely to make the use of dialysis machines much easier and quite safer.