Scientists have created the nanotechnology equivalent of a Trojan horse to smuggle a powerful chemotherapeutic drug inside tumor cells – increasing the drug’s cancer-killing activity and reducing its toxic side effects.
Previous studies in cell cultures have suggested that attaching anticancer drugs to nanoparticles for targeted delivery to tumor cells could increase the therapeutic response. Now, U-M scientists have shown that this nanotechnology-based treatment is effective in living animals.
One of the medical marvels of stem cells is that they continue to divide and renew themselves when other cells would quit. But what is it that gives stem cells this kind of immortality. Researchers now report in the June 16, 2005 issue of the journal Nature that microRNAs — tiny snippets of genetic material that have now been linked to growth regulation in normal cells as well as cancer growth in abnormal cells — appear to shut off the “stop signals” or brakes that would normally tell cells to stop dividing.
Continue reading “Scientists find key to stem cell immortality”
In the latest version of the hide-and-seek game between pathogens and the hosts they infect, researchers have found that a virus appears to cloak itself with a recently discovered gene silencing device to evade detection and destruction by immune cells.
The report by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers in an article published in the June 2, 2005, issue of Nature may be the first to show how a virus uses the gene silencing machinery for its own infectious purposes.
Continue reading “Virus Uses Tiny RNA To Evade The Immune System”
Stem cells with the capacity to form any type of tissue can be created from adult cells without destroying embryos, according to new research that suggests a way of sidestepping ethical controversy over the field.
Three separate teams of scientists have used genetic trickery to wind back the biological clock of mature skin cells from mice, to give them the unlimited potential of stem cells that are normally found only in embryos.
Though it remains uncertain whether the same technique would work in humans, the successes raise the prospect that powerful master cells for use in medicine and research could one day be created from adult bodies, removing any need to use embryos.
Read the article at Times Online site
A major advance in understanding the genetics behind several of the world’s most common diseases has been reported.The landmark Wellcome Trust study analysed DNA from the blood of 17,000 people to find genetic differences. They found new genetic variants for depression, Crohn’s disease, coronary heart disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 and 2 diabetes.
The remarkable findings, published in Nature, have been hailed as a new chapter in medical science.
Read rest of the article at BBC Newssite
The ability to regenerate nerve cells in the body could reduce the effects of trauma and disease in a dramatic way. In two presentations at the NSTI Nanotech 2007 Conference, researchers describe the use of nanotechnology to enhance the regeneration of nerve cells. In the first method, developed at the University of Miami, researchers show how magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) may be used to create mechanical tension that stimulates the growth and elongation of axons of the central nervous system neurons. The second method from the University of California, Berkeley uses aligned nanofibers containing one or more growth factors to provide a bioactive matrix where nerve cells can regrow.
Continue reading “Nanomedicine opens the way for nerve cell regeneration”
Researchers have identified a new population of stem cells that act to repair muscle after damage.
Until now, researchers had assumed that all of these cells, which are called satellite cells, had similar properties. They all seemed to follow the same developmental path to becoming mature muscle. The new discoveries show that the developmental fate of a given satellite cell depends on its physical orientation immediately after cell division.
Continue reading “Muscle Repair Depends on Multiple Cell Types”
I would like to point out that I have been posting nanotechnology related advances in my other blog called Nanosingularity for some time. The idea of nanosingularity remains similar to biosingularity, to follow major advances in the nanotech field. However, I should mention that I don’t consider myself an expert of this field and would highly encourage the readers who are knowledgable in the area to post comments on significance of the stories. I will continue to post here the nanotech advances related to biology.
Link to Nanosingularity
Researchers at Harvard University and Princeton University have made a crucial step toward building biological computers, tiny implantable devices that can monitor the activities and characteristics of human cells. The information provided by these “molecular doctors,” constructed entirely of DNA, RNA, and proteins, could eventually revolutionize medicine by directing therapies only to diseased cells or tissues.
Continue reading “Scientists develop tiny implantable biocomputers”
In work that could lead to more effective diagnoses and treatments of bone diseases using only a pinhead-sized sample of a patient’s bone, MIT researchers report a first-of-its-kind analysis of bone’s mechanical properties.
The work, reported in the May 21 advance online edition of Nature Materials, sheds new light on how bone absorbs energy.
Continue reading “MIT researchers probe bones’ tiny building blocks”
The discovery of how some abnormal cells can avoid a biochemical program of self-destruction by increasing their energy level and repairing the damage, is giving investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital insights into a key strategy cancer cells use to survive and thrive.
The finding offers an explanation of how abnormal cells that have cheated death once by disabling the main suicide pathway called apoptosis can also foil a backup self-destruct program, which allows them to survive and become cancerous.
Continue reading “Cells re-energize to come back from the brink of death”
This is a three year old experiment but still remarkable to watch it in action.
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: a brain nurtured in a Petri dish learns to pilot a fighter plane as scientists develop a new breed of “living” computer. In ground-breaking experiments in a Florida laboratory, however, that is exactly what is happening. The “brain”, grown from 25,000 neural cells extracted from a single rat embryo, has been taught to fly an F-22 jet simulator by scientists at the University of Florida.
The $1 million, two-month project is a collaboration of 454 Life Sciences and the BCM Human Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC), said Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the HGSC and a scientific advisor to the Connecticut-based company. The announcement, aside from its meaning to Watson, is significant because it demonstrates that it will be possible in the future to sequence anyone’s genome – a goal toward which many sequencing firms are working. The time and cost will decrease as the technology improves.
Dr. Watson will receive a DVD with his genomic sequence. He will decide which of his data will be published.
Continue reading “Nobel laureate James Watson receives his personal genome sequence”
eople whose blood shows signs of inflammation are more likely to later develop Alzheimer’s disease than people with no signs of inflammation, according to a study published in the May 29, 2007, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Continue reading “Blood inflammation plays role in Alzheimer’s disease”
Regular exercise appears to modestly increase levels of high-density lipoprotein, or “good,” cholesterol, according to a meta-analysis study in the May 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Continue reading “Exercise may slightly boost ‘good’ cholesterol levels”
Substituting soy nuts for other protein sources in a healthy diet appears to lower blood pressure in postmenopausal women, and also may reduce cholesterol levels in women with high blood pressure, according to a report in the May 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Continue reading “Soy nuts may improve blood pressure in postmenopausal women”
New early data showed that an investigational device that specifically targets rapidly growing cancer cells with intermediate frequency electrical fields — called Tumor-Treating Fields (TTFields) — more than doubled the median overall survival rates in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive type of malignant brain tumor. These survival rates observed in the data were compared to historical data.
Continue reading “Innovative device to treat brain cancer shows promise in early studies”
Putting on weight and feeling lethargic?
Then new research from Newcastle University and funded by Gateshead NHS Foundation Trust shows it is worth having your thyroid levels checked – as these can be symptoms of thyroid disease which is easily identified and treated.
Continue reading “How the treatment of common thyroid disease reduces tiredness and the risk factors for heart disease”
A natural compound found in blueberries, tea, grapes, and cocoa enhances memory in mice, according to newly published research. This effect increased further when mice also exercised regularly.
“This finding is an important advance because it identifies a single natural chemical with memory-enhancing effects, suggesting that it may be possible to optimize brain function by combining exercise and dietary supplementation,” says Mark Mattson, PhD, at the National Institute on Aging.
Continue reading “A natural compound found in fruits, cocoa and tea enhances memory in mice”
Researchers exploring the notion that certain nutrients might protect against pancreatic cancer found that lean individuals who got most of these nutrients from food were protected against developing cancer. The study also suggests this protective effect does not hold true if the nutrients come from vitamin supplements.
Continue reading “Dietary vitamin B6, B12 and folate, may decrease pancreatic cancer risk among lean people”
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