Autistic Children More Likely To Have Handwriting Problems
Wednesday, November 11, 2009

A new study reveals that Autistic children are more likely to have problems in handwriting than those without autism. The study was conducted by researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Handwriting samples, motor skills, and visuospatial abilities of children were compared with autism spectrum disorders to typically developing children. The researchers found that handwriting of children with ASD was worse than that of typically developing children. Particularly, children with ASD had trouble forming letters. In other categories like size, alignment, and spacing, their handwriting was comparable to that of typically developing children. Parents of children with ASD are often the first ones to examine their children’s poor handwriting quality. This finding recognises fine motor control as a core source of the problem and reveals that children with ASD may not have difficulties across all domains. By identifying handwriting as a valid impairment, parents, teachers and therapists will now be able to follow techniques that will improve children’s handwriting. "The ability to keep up in classes and convey ideas through handwriting is fundamental to life," said Christina Fuentes, lead study author and researcher at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. "Knowing the causes of impairment allows us to strategically identify techniques that will help children with ASD improve their handwriting”. “Our study suggests that teaching children how to form letters, in combination with general training of fine motor control through techniques that include stabilizing the arm and the use of proper writing utensils, may be the best direction for improving handwriting performance," Fuentes added. The study has been published in the journal, Neurology.

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Gonorrhea Medication Might Help Fight Cancer
Sunday, November 8, 2009

Drugs sometimes have beneficial side effects. A glaucoma treatment causes luscious eyelashes. A blood pressure drug also aids those with a rare genetic disease. The newest surprise discovered by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is a gonorrhea medication that might help battle cancer. "Often times we are surprised that a drug known to do something else has another hidden property," says Jun Liu, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences at Johns Hopkins and author on the study published Oct. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In this case, the surprise is a big one. The drug, acriflavine, used in the 1930s for treating gonorrhea, has turned out to have the previously unknown ability to halt the growth of new blood vessels. Preliminary tests showed that mice engineered to develop cancer had no tumor growth if treated with daily injections of acriflavine. Acriflavine stops blood vessel growth by inhibiting the function of the protein hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1, which was discovered by Semenza's team in 1992. When HIF-1 senses that the surrounding environment is low in oxygen, it turns on genes necessary for building new vessels. Though essential for normal tissue growth and wound healing, HIF-1 is also turned on by cancers to obtain the oxygen they need to survive. Most importantly, in order for HIF-1 to work, two subunits must bind together like puzzle pieces. Most drugs are unable to prevent protein binding because the drug molecules can be much smaller than the proteins they interact with. A medicine must hit just the right spot, a critical domain or pocket on the surface of one protein to stop it from binding to another protein. Even though drugs that stop binding are uncommon, they are such an effective means to stop protein function that Semenza decided to look for one that might block HIF-1. To do that, he turned to the Johns Hopkins Drug Library, a collection of FDA- and internationally approved compounds in that was assembled by Liu. To visualize protein binding, scientists engineered a cell line so that when the HIF-1 subunits came together, they would cause the cell to light up like a firefly. They then tested each of the more than 3,000 drugs in the drug library in hopes of finding one that would turn out the light. Acriflavine did, andfurther studies confirmed that it was binding directly to HIF-1. Liu hopes that acriflavine can one day be incorporated into chemotherapy cocktails, one drug among many that help fight cancer. Hopkins is seeking even more new uses for old drugs. So far, drugs in the library have been screened for use against malaria, uberculosis, HIV and the Ebola virus. In the future, Liu expects even more researchers to take advantage of the library, which is continuing to grow as more drugs are added to the collection. "In the public domain, Hopkins has the largest drug library," says Liu. "The more drugs you have, the more possibilities, the higher the chance you rediscover something that will help." This study was funded by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering and the Foundation for Advanced Research in the Medical Sciences. So keep visiting.

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Bad Driving : Genetic Basis
Friday, October 30, 2009

Now, bad drivers may in part have their genes to blame, suggests a new study by UC Irvine neuroscientists. People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it -- and a follow-up test a few days later yielded similar results. About 30 percent of Americans have the variant. "These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away," said Dr. Steven Cramer, neurology associate professor and senior author of the study published recently in the journal Cerebral Cortex. This gene variant limits the availability of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor during activity. BDNF keeps memory strong by supporting communication among brain cells and keeping them functioning optimally. When a person is engaged in a particular task, BDNF is secreted in the brain area connected with that activity to help the body respond. Previous studies have shown that in people with the variant, a smaller portion of the brain is stimulated when doing a task than in those with a normal BDNF gene. People with the variant also don't recover as well after a stroke. Given these differences, the UCI scientists wondered: Could the variant affect an activity such as driving? "We wanted to study motor behavior, something more complex than finger-tapping," said Stephanie McHughen, graduate student and lead author of the study. "Driving seemed like a good choice because it has a learning curve and it's something most people know how to do." The driving test was taken by 29 people -- 22 without the gene variant and seven with it. They were asked to drive 15 laps on a simulator that required them to learn the nuances of a track programmed to have difficult curves and turns. Researchers recorded how well they stayed on the course over time. Four days later, the test was repeated. Results showed that people with the variant did worse on both tests than the other participants, and they remembered less the second time. "Behavior derives from dozens and dozens of neurophysiologic events, so it's somewhat surprising this exercise bore fruit," Cramer said. The gene variant isn't always bad, though. Studies have found that people with it maintain their usual mental sharpness longer than those without it when neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Huntington's and multiple sclerosis are present. "It's as if nature is trying to determine the best approach," Cramer said. "If you want to learn a new skill or have had a stroke and need to regenerate brain cells, there's evidence that having the variant is not good. But if you've got a disease that affects cognitive function, there's evidence it can act in your favor. The variant brings a different balance between flexibility and stability." A test to determine whether someone has the gene variant is not commercially available. Letz wait and watch, what the researchers do further in this field.

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Where women want to be touched
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Itz for everyone to know, so keep on going after reading. Forget a woman's cleavage, there are more erogenous spots that you can now explore to get your lady sexcited. Read on to discover her ten most sensuous body parts waiting to be discovered. Women are sensuous creatures and they love being kissed and caressed. What guys often mistake is that they go straight for the woman's breasts or other private parts, without concentrating on her other moan zones. So, if you want to get your gal into the mood, stimulate some of her often-neglected body parts. Touch these places during foreplay and sex, or just give her some pleasure after a hard day and she'll surely reward you with brownie points in bed.
Tresses
All guys like women with gorgeous locks. But what you need to know is that women love being touched on their head. It's quite a stress reliever. Running your hands sensuously through her tresses is likely to send shivers down her spine. Massage her temples to the nape of her neck and she’ll be game to your desires.
Nape of her neck
In ancient Japan, the back of a woman’s neck was considered extremely attractive by men as it was one of the few zones that were not covered by the elaborate kimono. Today, very few men focus on the nape of the neck, but we suggest you build up the pleasure by gentle touching and kissing your lady love from her hairline down to her shoulders. It will make her reach dizzying heights of pleasure.
Collar bone
A well-defined collarbone is what men find irresistible. So, why not touch and kiss her there. Unbutton her shirt just a little and stimulate her collarbone with your touch. Create circles with your tongue and give her love bites right there, just to remind her of how much you want her.
Small of her back
Most women love it when their guy places his protective hand against the small of her back as it shows that he feels very strongly about her. So, why not incorporate this gesture into your foreplay routine, by kissing or licking down her spine to end up with a kiss on the small of her back. It will definitely get her into the mood for more!
Behind her knees
This area is a power house of sensitive nerve endings. You can gently caress the back of her knee under her skirt while the two of you are in an open public space as it is sure to get her excited by the time you reach home.
Palms of her hands
We use our hands to please our partners, but have you ever thought that you could arouse a woman by stimulating the palm of her hand? Run your finger along her palm as that will make her feel relaxed and ready for a sexy rendezvous ahead.
Her earlobes
This is one of the most erogenous moan centers of a woman's body. Touching, kissing and even gently biting her earlobes will send her into a sexual tizzy. If you are getting extra adventurous, simply nibble around the outside of the rest of her ear as well, but don't put your tongue inside her ear. That's a major turn off!
Happy feet
There's nothing more sinfully seductive than a foot massage. It will help her relax, especially if her job requires her to be on them all day. Get yourself some aromatic massage oil or lotion. Pay extra attention to the pressure points such as her toes, ankles and the sides of her feet too. Some women love enjoy having their toes sucked, but others find it repulsive, so ask your babe what she would have you do before putting them in your mouth.
Soft thighs
Touching a woman's inner thighs without touching her private parts is the most sensual tease that is sure to get her all charged up. Employ your hands and mouth to caress and kiss the insides of her thighs, remember to pull back before going all the way.
So stay in touch with special touch!!!!!

Posted bySaini at 12:22 PM 0 comments  

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More on DNA Replication
Monday, October 26, 2009

Now a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has identified a key player in a molecular process essential for DNA replication within cells. The new findings highlight a protein called FLASH, already shown to play a role in initiating apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Apoptosis is a normal biochemical response that occurs when a cell is damaged beyond repair after viral infection or accumulation of mutations that could lead to uncontrolled cellular proliferation, or cancer. Apoptosis is also crucial to the developing embryo through selective cell death, which allows proper differentiation of physical structures, such as fingers and toes. According to senior study author Zbigniew Dominski, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UNC, the new study demonstrates that FLASH is also required for the proper synthesis of histone messenger RNA, which gives rise to histone proteins. Histones are the chief protein components of chromatin and act as a scaffold allowing packaging of DNA into a condensed form that fits inside the nucleus of a cell. As the DNA interacts with histones and with metabolic signals from within the cell, these proteins help regulate gene expression."Our study suggests for the first time that a potential link exists between the processes of histone messenger RNA formation and apoptosis," Dominski said. "FLASH is crucial for the production of histone messenger RNA, without which the cell can't make the histone proteins around which DNA is packaged."The research is described in the October 23rd issue of the journal Molecular Cell.For the study, Dominski adapted a laboratory system that reproduces in the test tube what normally occurs in the cell when FLASH participates in the biochemical cleavage event that results in mature histone messenger RNA. This enabled his team to explore what might occur when FLASH was added or removed."We could then figure out exactly what portion of FLASH would restore the protein's function in generating histone mRNAs and remarkably, only the first 100 or so amino acids are required. The remaining 2,000 amino acids of this large protein likely control other processes in the cell, including apoptosis and DNA replication" he explained.Co-author William F. Marzluff, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of biochemistry & biophysics and executive associate dean for basic research. He noted that FLASH is the first component found in this protein complex "that integrates or initiates many cellular functions -- DNA replication, apoptosis, histone production. Having this small piece of the puzzle makes it a lot easier to identify others."Other UNC coauthors include Xiao-cui Yang, laboratory technician, and Yan Yan, undergraduate student, both of the dept of biochemistry & biophysics and the UNC Program in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and Brandon D. Burch, graduate student in the Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology.

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Scientists Develop Brain-To-Brain Communication
Sunday, October 18, 2009

A group of scientists at the University of Southampton have developed brain to brain communication, which makes it possible to send messages from one person to other living far apart. In this process, the signal of a person’s brain is carried over the internet to another person staying at a long distance apart. This is called brain-computer interfacing, which allows computers to analyse brain signals and send messages through an internet connection. According to the scientist, Christopher James, this is an initial step to achieve an advanced technology by which people will be able to send own thoughts, images and images directly into the minds of other people. “This could be useful for those people who are locked into their bodies, who can’t speak, can’t even blink,” James also said. As part of the experiment, two people were connected to electrodes that measure activity in specific parts of the brain. Then the first person generated a series of zeros and ones through the movement of arms. It was sent via internet after the first person’s PC converted the signals to the PC of the second person. The scientists saw flashes for one and zero. James clarified, “It’s not telepathy.” He also said, “There’s no conscious thought forming in one person’s head and another conscious thought appearing in another person’s mind.The next experiments are to get that second person to be aware of the information that is being sent to them. For that, I need to get my thinking cap on, so to speak.”

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Nasalsprayformemoryimprovemenmt
Sunday, October 4, 2009

Good news for procrastinating students: a nasal spray developed by a team of German scientists promises to give late night cram sessions a major boost, if a good night's sleep follows. In a research report featured as the cover story of the October 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, these scientists show that a molecule from the body's immune system administered through the nose helps the brain retain emotional and procedural memories during REM sleep."Sleep to remember, a dream or reality?" said Lisa Marshall, co-author of the study, from the Department of Neuroendocrinology at the University of Lubeck in Germany. "Here, we provide the first evidence that the immunoregulatory signal interleukin-6 plays a beneficial role in sleep-dependent formation of long-term memory in humans. "To make this discovery, Marshall and colleagues had 17 healthy young men spend two nights in the laboratory. On each night after reading either an emotional or neutral short story, they sprayed a fluid into their nostrils which contained either interleukin-6 or a placebo fluid. The subsequent sleep and brain electric activity was monitored throughout the night. The next morning subjects wrote down as many words as they could remember from each of the two stories. Those who received the dose of IL-6 could remember more words. "If a nasal spray can improve memory, perhaps we're on our way to giving some folks a whiff of common sense, such as accepting the realities of olution," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "This is exciting piece of interdisciplinary science, since IL-6 had previously been considered a by-product of inflammation, not an agent that affects cognition."

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New Genetic discovery in the field of wine
Thursday, September 24, 2009

One of the best known episodes in the 8000-year history of grapevine cultivation led to iological changes that have not been well understood – until now. Through biomolecular detective work, German researchers have uncovered new details about the heredity of Vitis varieties in ltivation today. In the process, they have opened the way to more meaningful classification, accelerated breeding, and more accurate evaluation of the results, potentially breaking a bottleneck in the progress of the wine industry. Their discovery removes a major obstacle to a development already under way – that is, a shift toward grapevine breeding guided by highly specific genetic markers. It may even point the way toward production of European-tasting wines from North American cultivars, free of the "musty" or "foxy" flavors associated with New World grapevines. In response to the "great European wine blight" of the mid-1800s, growers aimed at preserving the most desirable qualities of European grapes while breeding in the hardiness of North American varieties. These were naturally resistant to native pests that had found their way – by steamship, most likely – across the Atlantic to Europe. Beginning around 1860, the introduction of two North American pests – an aphid and a fungus – nearly destroyed the wine industry, particularly in France. A century ago, many hybrids were in use, but the wine they produced was judged to be so inferior in flavor that winemakers were prohibited from blending them with higher-quality traditional wines. Today, breeders as well as growers have many reasons to want to know the heritage of grapevines, and readily observed traits are seldom sufficient. To distinguish among the countless grapevine cultivars, even experts need more than meets the eye. Much of a plant's history can be read on the molecular level, from its DNA and biochemistry, and modern scientific tools have been developed to discern the "fingerprints" of Old World, New World, and hybrid grapevines. New research shows, however, that one of the best established fingerprinting tools is not completely reliable, because it assumes a simpler genetic history than the biomolecular evidence records. The investigation was a collaboration between the Technische Universität München in Bavaria and the JKI Institute for Grapevine Breeding, along the famous Weinstrasse or "wine route" in the Pfalz region. Clues led the researchers to suspect that a difference in a particular phytochemical marker that has long been used to distinguish grape varieties stemmed not from a single gene mutation, but from a double mutation. Furthermore, they revealed, the chromosome bearing the double-mutated gene is one that may also carry a gene responsible for the poor, "musty" aroma of the North American varieties. A complex series of experiments and analyses confirmed this, and ruled out other possible explanations. A detailed description of the methods and results has been published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The biochemical process at the crux of the investigation is the production of anthocyanin pigments. Red European Vitis vinifera cultivars produce only pigment compounds such as the one called oenin whereas most other Vitis species and hybrids can produce pigment compounds like malvin as well. This subtle difference, which has been used to classify wines according to their varietal origin, had been attributed to a particular gene mutation inherited by the European plants. If that was the whole story, however, certain breeding programs might have been expected to turn on malvin production in European varieties, and this had never been observed.

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Sony To Launch 3-D Television
Thursday, September 3, 2009

Sony Corp, which is one of the world's largest electronic company has decided to launch a liquid-crystal-display television which will be capable of playing 3-D programming. According to sources, the company will launch the liquid-crystal-display television by the end of next year. The Sony is to announce its plans for the new TV next week at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co, LG Electronics Inc and Japan's Panasonic Corp, who are Sony's rivals have also said that they are planning to introduce 3-D products as well because 3-D video for the home is a big money maker. The 3-D plan has come up after Sony Corp incurred losses in its television sector for five years in a row and is undertaking cost cutting measures.

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World's Smallest Semiconductor Laser
Monday, August 31, 2009

Now researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have reached a new milestone in laser physics by creating the world's smallest semiconductor laser, capable of generating visible light in a space smaller than a single protein molecule. This breakthrough, described in an advanced online publication of the journal Nature on Aug. 30, breaks new ground in the field of optics. The UC Berkeley team not only successfully squeezed light into such a tight space, but found a novel way to keep that light energy from dissipating as it moved along, thereby achieving laser action. "This work shatters traditional notions of laser limits, and makes a major advance toward applications in the biomedical, communications and computing fields," said Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering and director of UC Berkeley's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, and head of the research team behind this work. The achievement helps enable the development of such innovations as nanolasers that can probe, manipulate and characterize DNA molecules; optics-based telecommunications many times faster than current technology; and optical computing in which light replaces electronic circuitry with a corresponding leap in speed and processing power. While it is traditionally accepted that an electromagnetic wave - including laser light - cannot be focused beyond the size of half its wavelength, research teams around the world have found a way to compress light down to dozens of nanometers by binding it to the electrons that oscillate collectively at the surface of metals. This interaction between light and oscillating electrons is known as surface plasmons. Scientists have been racing to construct surface plasmon lasers that can sustain and utilize these tiny optical excitations. However, the resistance inherent in metals causes these surface plasmons to dissipate almost immediately after being generated, posing a critical challenge to achieving the buildup of the electromagnetic field necessary for lasing. Zhang and his research team took a novel approach to stem the loss of light energy by pairing a cadmium sulfide nanowire - 1,000 times thinner than a human hair - with a silver surface separated by an insulating gap of only 5 nanometers, the size of a single protein molecule. In this structure, the gap region stores light within an area 20 times smaller than its wavelength. Because light energy is largely stored in this tiny non-metallic gap, loss is significantly diminished. With the loss finally under control through this unique "hybrid" design, the researchers could then work on amplifying the light. "When you are working at such small scales, you do not have much space to play around with," said Rupert Oulton, the research associate in Zhang's lab who first theorized this approach last year and the study's co-lead author. "In our design, the nanowire acts as both a confinement mechanism and an amplifier. It's pulling double duty." Trapping and sustaining light in radically tight quarters creates such extreme conditions that the very interaction of light and matter is strongly altered, the study authors explained. An increase in the spontaneous emission rate of light is a telltale sign of this altered interaction; in this study, the researchers measured a six-fold increase in the spontaneous emission rate of light in a gap size of 5 nanometers. Recently, researchers from Norfolk State University reported lasing action of gold spheres in a dye-filled, glasslike shell immersed in a solution. The dye coupled to the gold spheres could generate surface plasmons when exposed to light. The UC Berkeley researchers used semiconductor materials and fabrication technologies that are commonly employed in modern electronics manufacturing. By engineering hybrid surface plasmons in the tiny gap between semiconductors and metals, they were able to sustain the strongly confined light long enough that its oscillations stabilized into the coherent state that is a key characteristic of a laser. "What is particularly exciting about the plasmonic lasers we demonstrated here is that they are solid state and fully compatible with semiconductor manufacturing, so they can be electrically pumped and fully integrated at chip-scale," said Volker Sorger, a Ph.D. student in Zhang's lab and study co-lead author. "Plasmon lasers represent an exciting class of coherent light sources capable of extremely small confinement," said Zhang. "This work can bridge the worlds of electronics and optics at truly molecular length scales." Scientists hope to eventually shrink light down to the size of an electron's wavelength, which is about a nanometer, or one-billionth of a meter, so that the two can work together on equal footing. "The advantages of optics over electronics are multifold," added Thomas Zentgraf, a post-doctoral fellow in Zhang's lab and another co-lead author of the Nature paper. "For example, devices will be more power efficient at the same time they offer increased speed or bandwidth." In addition to the three co-lead authors, other co-authors of the paper are Renmin Ma and Lun Dai from Peking University, and Christopher Gladden and Guy Bartal from Zhang's research group.

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Megan Fox Not Playing Catwoman
Friday, August 28, 2009

Hollywood sexy star Megan Fox has revealed that she will not donning the iconic leather cat suit of Catwoman in the next Batman flick. The `Transformers` star, who has been voted the `Sexiest Woman in the World` was earlier reported to have been chosen for essaying the character of the catty vamp in the next ‘Batman’ flick which is scheduled to be produced by Warner Brothers, People reported. "It`s rumour. It`s not true, there is no script. There is no project to be cast in," a studio representative told the magazine. A British tabloid had earlier reported that Megan Fox, who will next been seen in the horror movie `Jennifer`s Body`, will be stepping into the shoes of Hollywood actresses Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry for essaying the role of the catty vamp, Catwoman, in the next superhero flick, which will be directed by director Christopher Nolan.

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Transmissible Prion Disease is caused by Gene Mutation
Thursday, August 27, 2009

For the first time, Whitehead Institute researchers have shown definitively that mutations associated with prion diseases are sufficient to cause a transmissible neurodegenerative disease. Until now, two theories about the role mutations play in prion diseases have been at odds. According to one theory, mutations make carriers more susceptible to prions in the environment. Alternatively, mutations themselves might cause the disease and the spontaneous generation of transmissible prions. Prions cause several diseases, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE, or "mad cow disease") in cows, and scrapie in sheep. Some prion diseases, like BSE, can be transmitted from feed animals to humans. Deciphering the origins of prion diseases could help farmers and policy-makers determine how best to control a prion disease outbreak in livestock and to prevent prion transmission to humans. Prions are misfolded versions of a protein called PrP. In its normal form, PrP is expressed in the brain and other neural tissues. But specific events, such as exposure to prions from the environment, can cause PrP to change from its normal shape to that of a prion. Once in the prion shape, the protein can convert other normal PrP proteins to the abnormal shape. As PrP proteins convert to prions, they form long chains that damage brain and nerve cells, causing the neurodegenerative and behavioral symptoms characteristic of prion diseases. To determine if a mutation in the PrP gene can cause a transmissible prion disease, Walker Jackson, first author of the Neuron article and a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist, engineered a knock-in mouse expressing a PrP gene carrying the mutation associated with the human prion disease fatal familial insomnia. In knock-in experiments, the researcher removes a gene of interest, makes specific changes to it in a test tube, and then places it back in its original place in the genome. In this case, Jackson replaced the mouse PrP gene with an altered version carrying the FFI mutation. This version also carried a sequence from human PrP that prevented the mice from acquiring normal mouse prions that could potentially be in the environment.
"It's more difficult to create a knock-in mouse, instead of randomly integrating the mutated gene into the mouse's genome," says Jackson. "But creating a knock-in like this makes sure the gene is expressed when and where it normally would be. That's the number one reason we think this disease model worked so well, compared to others' experiments." As adults, the mice exhibited many of the same traits as human FFI patients: reduced activity levels and sleep abnormalities. When Jackson examined the mice's brains, they resembled those of human FFI patients, with prominent damage to the thalamic region of the brain. After establishing that the mice have the behavioral and pathological characteristics of FFI, Jackson injected diseased brain tissue from the FFI mice into healthy mice. The healthy mice also carried the same human derived barrier as the FFI mice, preventing their infection by normal mouse prions and ensuring that the only prion they could acquire was the one engineered by Jackson. After injection with the affected tissue, the healthy mice exhibited similar symptoms and neuropathology as the mice with the FFI mutation. The mutated gene engineered by Jackson had created a transmissible prion disease that could not be attributed to any prions in the environment. "One of the major tenets of the prion hypothesis is that a single amino acid change in PrP, associated with human disease, is sufficient to cause the spontaneous production of infectious material," says Lindquist, who is also a professor of biology at MIT and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. "Many people have tried and come close. But this is the first time it has been nailed."

Posted bySaini at 6:49 AM 0 comments  

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Jos now releasing on September 3
Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The much-awaited Josh, starring newcomers Naga Chaitanya and Karthika in the lead roles, is to be released on September 3 worldwide. Produced by Dil Raju, who gave the hits Dil, Bhadra, Bommorilu and Happy Days, Josh is directed by debutant Vasu Varma. The movie has aroused interest in trade circles as the lead pair are the offspring of two illustrious names in the industry. Naga Chaitanya is the son of mega star Nagarjuna and Karthika is the daughter of yesteryear actress Radha. Nagarjuna said he was contemplating to provide the launchpad for his son when Dil Raju came up with an interesting storyline. Things fell in place once the heroine was finalized and now the film is ready. "Naga is lucky to have his first film produced by a leading name with a string of hits," said the proud father.

Posted bySaini at 6:12 AM 0 comments  

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Use Of Genes in Evolutionarily Preserved Mechanism
Sunday, August 23, 2009

Researchers at Uppsala University have found that the protein coding parts of a gene are packed in special nucleosomes. The same type of packaging is found in the roundworm C elegans, which is a primeval relative of humans. The mechanism can thereby be traced back a billion years in time, according to the study presented in the journal Genome Research. Human genes are packed in nucleosomes, which contain epigenetic signals directing how the genes are to be used. The cell nucleus contains DNA, which is wound around proteins to form units called nucleosomes, not unlike pearls on a string. Genes on average contain ten protein coding units called exons. Previously there was no known correlation between nucleosomes and exons . New results show that nucleosomes are placed over exons. This means that the area containing the protein code is packed in discrete units. These results are presented by a research team at Uppsala University, led by Professor Claes Wadelius at the Department of Genetics and Pathology and Professor Jan Komorowski at the Linnaeus Centre for Bioinformatics as well as University of Warsaw. Epigenetics is a cellular memory which identifies a cell's identity and way to respond to the environment. Epigenetic signals control genes in a flexible manner. Each genetic package, or pearl on the string, has an epigenetic signal indicating how active it is. In the present study it was shown that there is a previously undiscovered epigenetic mark on protein coding parts of the gene. "A gene can be read in several ways and create different proteins. We have now demonstrated that there is an epigenetic control that determines which parts of the gene that are read," says Claes Wadelius. The study is based on extremely large amounts of data published by other scientists, but not previously analyzed in such detail. "Our findings show the value of sophisticated bioinformatic analyses and the need to delve deeper into the gigantic amounts of data from modern biological research," says Jan Komorowski. The scientists also show that the same type of genetic packaging exists in the tiny roundworm C elegans. Humans are related to this worm through a common ancestor that lived a billion years ago. This means that the mechanism has been evolutionarily preserved during nearly one fourth of the time the earth has existed eller one fourth of earth's existence. In humans, the genetic code has been divided into smaller parts that fit into the individual packages or pearls.

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Rs 1,000 cr for budget homes TDI
Saturday, August 22, 2009

he New Delhi-based realty firm TDI is planning to invest Rs 1,000 crore to build low-priced homes in the national capital region in the next three years, a senior company executive said. “The demand for homes is coming back slowly,” said TDI managing director Kamal Taneja, outlining the company’s priority to attract buyers. TDI, which has its real estate projects spread over New Delhi, Kundli and Panipat in Haryana and Mohali in Punjab, recently launched 350 residential units in Kundli and claims to have sold all these in just a month. Taking its presence further, the company is now planning to launch another 350 homes over the weekend in Kundli, around 35 kms from central Delhi. The 900-sq ft independent floor homes will be priced between Rs 16.50-19.50 lakh. A total of 700 homes entailing an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore would come up in Kundli over the next three years, Mr Taneja said. TDI has tied up with architectural firms Drew Dickson Associates of Australia and HO Partners of Hong Kong for development of its 1,600-acre Kundli township. Of late, there has been a surge in fund-raising activity via QIP by many listed real estate companies, including Unitech, HDIL and Sobha, following a revival in the capital market. Some other unlisted firms such as Lodha Developers and Emaar MGF are also lining up their initial share sale. But Mr Taneja thinks that the market is still volatile and an IPO for TDI is not on the cards. He said his company is relatively less leveraged and doesn’t intend to go in for any private equity deals immediately and would focus on selling homes to raise cash. “There is very little private equity money available and there are too many developers chasing it. Also, private equity investments made these days are actually debt structured as equity,” he pointed out, explaining why he is not excited about getting PE fund infusion in his company.

Posted bySaini at 6:24 AM 0 comments  

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Anti-aging Gene and High Blood Pressure
Thursday, August 20, 2009

Now researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have shown the first link between a newly discovered anti-aging gene and high blood pressure. The results, which appear this month in the journal Hypertension, offer new clues on how we age and how we might live longer. Persistent hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a risk factor for stroke, heart attack, heart failure, arterial aneurysm and is the leading cause of chronic kidney failure. Even a modest elevation of arterial blood pressure leads to shortened life expectancy. Researchers, led by principal investigator Zhongjie Sun, tested the effect of an anti-aging gene called klotho on reducing hypertension. They found that by increasing the expression of the gene in laboratory models, they not only stopped blood pressure from continuing to rise, but succeeded in lowering it. Perhaps most impressive was the complete reversal of kidney damage, which is associated with prolonged high blood pressure and often leads to kidney failure. “One single injection of the klotho gene can reduce hypertension for at least 12 weeks and possibly longer. Klotho is also available as a protein and, conceivably, we could ingest it as a powder much like we do with protein drinks,” said Sun, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiovascular expert at the OU College of Medicine.Scientists have been working with the klotho gene and its link to aging since 1997 when it was discovered by Japanese scientists. This is the first study showing that a decline in klotho protein level may be involved in the progression of hypertension and kidney damage, Sun said. With age, the klotho level decreases while the prevalence of hypertension increases. Researchers used one injection of the klotho gene in hypertensive research models and were able to markedly reduce blood pressure by the second week. It continued to decline steadily for the length of the project – 12 weeks. The klotho gene was delivered with a safe viral vector that is currently used for gene therapy. The virus is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in humans. Researchers are studying the gene’s effect for longer periods to test its ability to return blood pressure levels to normal. They also are looking at whether klotho can prevent hypertension.

Posted bySaini at 9:54 PM 0 comments  

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Asin's mailbox hacked
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The beauty from South, Asin looks very worried these days. The actress just found out that her personal mailbox is hacked! The accused person not only sneaked into her account but also, changed her password. Asin learned this when recently she couldn’t access her account due to an invalid password. On consulting a technician, it was discovered that someone conveniently has hacked her account and is maybe using it for illicit purposes.
Traumatized Asin says, "It was my official mail ID. The fan mails that used to come to my website also used to be directed there. I put up a warning on my website asking people not to mail on that ID." She adds, "I have stopped mailing people, and I have decided to post my messages on the website itself."The Ghajini babe now refrains herself from using internet for e-mail purposes.

Posted bySaini at 3:13 PM 0 comments  

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A Way To Treat Ischemic Pathologies
Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Now a team of researchers from CIC bioGUNE from the Cellular Biology and Stem Cell Unit, alongside a team from Paris’ Cardiovascular Research Centre have developed a new area of research which looks extremely promising regarding the development of new therapeutic responses to ischemic pathologies and cardiovascular diseases in general. he results of this research project, which was initiated in 2005 and is supported by Bizkaia:Xede and the Basque Government’s Etortek programme, were published in the journal Circulation. By activating a protein called HIF, the strategy is to stimulate revascularisation and the repair of the damaged organ following ischemia caused by the obstruction of a blood vessel preventing normal blood flow. These obstructions occur, for example, in the event of thrombosis in a limb, myocardial infarction or a stroke. In this sense, it is important to highlight the fact that cardiovascular diseases are the principal cause of death throughout the world.In general, cells tend to respond to the lack of oxygen caused by poor blood flow by activating HIF. However, in the case of an ischemic pathology, HIF is not sufficiently activated. Dr Berra, Cellular Biology and Stem Cell Unit’s leader, stated that they decided to over-produce HIF following ischemia as an attractive therapeutic alternative. For their research purposes, they used an ischemic model provoked in a mouse leg through ligation of the femoral artery. In other words, they closed off the femoral artery and stopped the blood flow to the limb. When this happens, the leg develops necrosis and after a time, the mouse dies. The aim was to artificially help stimulate the production of HIF after the femoral artery had been closed off. And they saw that when they did this, the mouse’s leg revascularised and no longer entered into a degenerative process. How is this high level of HIF production achieved? HIF is a protein which, when not required, degrades constitutively and this degradation is regulated by enzymes called PHDs.

Posted bySaini at 5:18 PM 0 comments  

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Metastatic Cancer And Macrophages
Monday, August 17, 2009

The deadliest part of the cancer process, metastasis, appears to rely on help from macrophages, potent immune system cells that usually defend vigorously against disease, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report. n a new study published online in PLoS ONE, Einstein cancer research specialist Jeffrey W. Pollard, Ph.D., and seven colleagues analyzed the movement of breast cancer cells in mice to show that a distinct population of macrophages helps malignant cells set up shop at distant sites. This process, known as metastasis, is the main reason cancer patients die. Dr. Pollard and his colleagues propose that their discovery offers a potentially useful new target for anti-cancer therapy. What they've found is a vulnerable step in the cancer process that might be blocked by drug treatments. In three different ways, the scientists showed that metastatic tumor growth is inhibited if these unusual macrophages are killed. They also showed that even after breast cancer cells have lodged in the animals' lungs and started aggressive growth, erasing the special macrophages dramatically slowed growth of the metastasized tumors. "This suggests that anti-macrophage therapy will have an impact in patients even with metastatic disease," Dr. Pollard said. Based on this new work, he added, "macrophages themselves, or their unique signaling pathways, represent new therapeutic targets that may be efficacious in reducing cancer mortality." Ordinarily, macrophages are vital for maintaining health as an integral arm of the immune system, one of the body's main lines of defense. Their assigned tasks include cleaning up debris in the wake of disease or injury, alerting other immune system cells when an infection begins, and helping identify viruses and bacteria that need to be killed. The findings of this study build on earlier cancer research by Dr. Pollard and his team that shows macrophages can act at the primary tumor site to enhance tumor progression and malignancy. Thus, they've now shown that macrophages can become traitors, enhancing the worst aspect of the disease – metastatic tumor growth. "This new study is important because it definitively shows the effects of macrophages at distant sites, as well as the identity of the macrophage population," Dr. Pollard explained. "This is the first proof that they have impact at this location, at the site of metastatic tumor growth." Dr. Pollard noted that "metastatic disease is the major cause of cancer mortality," in part because the distant tumors tend to resist chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Unfortunately, "the biological mechanisms that underlie metastatic disease are poorly understood," so continuing research is needed. And if metastasis can somehow be blocked -- particularly through influencing cells of the metastatic microenvironment -- the impact on cancer mortality would be enormous. The paper, "A Distinct Macrophage Population Mediates Metastatic Breast Cancer Cell Extravasation, Establishment and Growth," was published August 10 in PLoS ONE, a journal of the Public Library of Science. The lead author is post-doctoral fellow Binzhi Qian, Ph.D., Einstein. Other co-authors are Yan Deng and Yiyu Zou, Einstein; Jae Hong Im and Ruth J. Muschel, University of Oxford Churchill Hospital in England; and Richard A. Lang, Children's Hospital Research Foundation, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. Pollard is the director of the Center for the Study of Reproductive Biology and Women's Health, deputy director of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center, professor of developmental and molecular biology, and of obstetrics & gynecology and women's health.

Posted bySaini at 8:20 PM 0 comments  

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New Way To Extract Diluted And Contaminated DNA
Saturday, August 15, 2009

University of British Columbia researchers have developed a new way to extract DNA and RNA from small or heavily contaminated samples that could help forensic investigators and molecular biologists get to "the truth." "By exploiting the physical traits of DNA – electric charge, length and flexibility – we've been able to extract DNA from samples that would otherwise not produce enough clean DNA for analysis," says UBC Biophysics Prof. Andre Marziali.
The technique is being commercialized through Boreal Genomics, a UBC spin-off company, and is expected to have broad applications from basic life-science research to forensic sample analysis, bio-defence and pathogen detection for food safety and clinical diagnostics. The research team, which includes scientists from UBC and BC Cancer Agency's Genome Science Centre, details the technique in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Extracting DNA by conventional methods – which rely on the molecules' chemical properties – has proven challenging when there are only trace amounts of DNA or when the source sample has contaminants with similar chemical traits. "We've found that DNA and RNA respond to electric fields in a way that is very different from other molecules," says Marziali. "By exploiting this unique property, we were able to extract high quality DNA from a highly contaminated sample from the Athabasca oil sands." The team also successfully tested the technique on samples provided by the RCMP.

Posted bySaini at 1:26 PM 0 comments  

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Exercise Is Healthy During Pregnancy
Thursday, August 13, 2009

Now Physicians recommend low to moderate levels of exercise to their pregnant patients, even if they have not exercised prior to pregnancy, states a report published in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS). According to this review article, exercise can strengthen and improve overall musculoskeletal and physiologic health as well as pregnancy related symptoms. Exercise such as aerobics, impact and nonimpact activities, resistance training and swimming: -
1.eases back and other musculoskeletal pain;
2.lowers maternal blood pressure;
3.reduces swelling; and
4.improves post-partum mood, including sadness.
According to study author Capt. Marlene DeMaio, M.D., M.C ., U.S.N., Research Director, Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia, data shows that the pregnant woman’s body can compensate for the changes with no harm to the fetus during low to moderate intensity exercise.
“It is important to remember that pregnancy is a temporary condition, not a disease, and that the musculoskeletal and physiologic changes that happen are normal in the majority of patients,” she said.
Capt. DeMaio’s findings contradict what some physicians recommended in the past. As recently as the 1990s, there was concern that exercise could be detrimental to a pregnant woman and her fetus. These past concerns included a focus on normal changes related to musculoskeletal health that occur during pregnancy, such as increased ligament laxity, weight gain and change in the center of gravity. Today, some physicians continue to advise their pregnant patients to ease back on exercise or refrain from it altogether if they have not already made it a part of their lifestyle.
DeMaio, who collaborated with Capt. Everett Magann, M.D., M.C. U.S.N., Chairman in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, also at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, not only reports that exercise is important during pregnancy, but also believes that starting an exercise program when pregnant, is a perfect way to begin – and stick with – a fitness program.
“When a woman becomes pregnant, she often re-evaluates her lifestyle,” said Dr. DeMaio. “She is motivated in a new way to deliver a healthy baby, and be healthy herself.” Physicians may recommend exercise for pregnant patients in the following categories:-
1.Prenatal: Patients should begin or continue low to moderate exercise. The goal is to maintain fitness and adapt exercise as needed as pregnancy progresses. (For example, runners might switch to running in a swimming pool later in their pregnancy.)
2.Postnatal: Continue exercising at low to moderate levels. Lactation is not negatively affected by exercise. There are fewer reports of mothers having post-partum depression or mood changes when they are exercising.
3.Older: Exercise is even more important if the patient is older, according to Dr. DeMaio. The risk for high blood pressure and increased glucose goes up the older a patient is, but exercise can help reduce these levels.
4.Obese: Physicians should discuss pregnancy as an opportunity to improve overall health and suggest the patient start exercise for life-long health and as an example to the child when the child is older.
5.Infertile: Even if a woman is under treatment for infertility, she can exercise under the supervision of her obstetrician.
6.Athlete: For a pregnant woman wanting more strenuous exercise, or who wants to increase training from moderate to high intensity, a qualified doctor should direct her exercise programs.

Posted bySaini at 6:27 AM 0 comments  

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Michael Jackson laid to rest
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

King of Pop Michael Jackson has finally been laid to rest without any grand ceremony. The Thriller hitmaker, who died at the age of 50 on June 25, was buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills without a fan in sight, Mirror online reported. Jackson's family has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the exact location secret as they are reportedly worried that his followers will throng the resting place of their idol.
They are even considering moving Jackson's body if security becomes an issue, the newspaper said."Michael has already been laid to rest, but other than the Jackson family and the management at Forest Lawn, no one knows the exact spot," a cemetery source said. "Staff at the cemetery have been fed several different locations, it's as if they are hoping to confuse everyone so it can't leak out. The fear is that thousands of Jackson fans will descend on the cemetery and create a security issue or maybe even damage or deface the grave," the source added. The pop icon was laid to rest without a service because his family were satisfied with the ceremony that took place before his Los Angeles memorial concert. Earlier last week, Jackson's brain, which was taken out for some clinical tests, was reunited with his body.

Posted bySaini at 5:53 AM 0 comments  

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One died of swine flu in Ahmedabad
Sunday, August 9, 2009

A 43-year-old man died of swine flu early morning on Sunday at the city civil hospital here, a senior official said. Confirming the first swine flu death in Gujarat, state health secretary Ravi Saxena said Praveen Patel, an NRI, died of swine flu at city civil hospital at around 1:30am.
"He was admitted to the hospital in critical condition yesterday morning. His left lung was badly damaged," Saxena said. Patel, who had returned from Atlanta on July 31, was admitted to a private hospital for pneumonia and common flu on Friday. "He was referred to the civil hospital after doctors treating him realised that it was not common flu," Saxena said, adding where he was confirmed having swine flu. Patel's wife has also been confirmed suffering from swine flu and is being treated at the civil hospital, he said. So far, 10 people have been tested positive for H1N1 virus in the state, he added. The country has now seen four deaths from swine flu with the number of infected cases rising to 782. On Saturday, 53-year-old Fahmida Panwala from Mumbai and 42-year-old teacher Sanjay Tukaram Kokre from Pune had died of swine flu. Earlier on August 3, 14-year-old schoolgirl Reeda Shaikh also from Pune, had died due to the H1N1 virus.

Posted bySaini at 11:58 AM 0 comments  

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First woman photojournalist cancels Nano booking
Friday, August 7, 2009

ndia's first woman photographer Homi Vyarawalla, who was offered the 'Nano' on priority basis has decided to cancel her booking for the small car, after the company failed to keep its promise. "I have written to the Tata Motors to cancel my booking," the 96-year-old photo journalist said. Vyarawalla was upset to learn that the company has already delivered 16 cars in the city yesterday, beginning with customers in Mumbai, followed by Ahmedabad and Vadodara and her name did not figure in this list. "I had booked this car after the company wrote to me on April 9, and had deposited an amount of Rs 95,000 for its registration in my name after they assured the delivery within two months," she said. The ace photographer had threatened to cancel the booking if the car is not delivered to her within a week. "I do not know how long I will live..I find it difficult to do anything without the car..It is not a luxury but a necessity for me.. Everybody keeps on enquiring about the delivery and it hurts me as there is no communication from the company in this regard," she had said. However, the local Tata Motors dealer said that he was unaware of the promise given to her. Vyarawalla, who lives in Nizampura locality, disposed of her 55-year-old Fiat car, imported from Italy to a relative in Mumbai this January after non-availability of spare parts. She has clicked photographs of late Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, late Indira Gandhi, Feroz Gandhi, late Vijaylaxmi Pandit, Lady Mountbatten, Morarji Desai and other dignitaries from India and abroad.

Posted bySaini at 6:40 PM 0 comments  

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Morning Sex

Have you ever wondered why your guy loves a morning romp? The reason can be attributed to nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) that causes a man without erectile dysfunction to experience three to five erections during his sleep. Waking up with an erection makes most men frisky between the sheets in the morning. But women are usually not in the mood to initiate sex the minute she wakes up. Perhaps it's time to add some spunk to your morning sex routine.
Prepare the previous night :-
In order to avoid getting out of bed and feeling unprepared for sex, do your homework the night before. Invest in some breath mints near the bed so that you can quickly pop them in before things start to get steamy. Also, finish attending nature's call before you go to sleep to avoid an early morning leak immediately after you wake up. Also, keep a packet of condoms or a strip of contraceptive pills within arm’s reach.
Set your internal alarm :-
Incase you are gearing up for a morning of hot sex, try and wake up an early so that you don't get delayed for work. Set your internal alarm clock so that you have enough time to enjoy the morning make-out session before you kick start your day. It’s ideal if you can get up before your gal so you can wake her up with warm kisses and sensuous caressing. An important thing to keep in mind is that while you may be all ready to dive into bed, your lady may take a while to get warmed up, so be prepared for a long foreplay.
Be sensuous :-
Most women like a gentle approach in the morning, so control your hormones. Touch her softly and slowly. Kiss her all over her face and body. Play with her hair. Adopting a sensual approach will make sure that she's feeling loved and nurtured when she opens her eyes. This way she will be all the more ready to please you during sex.
Make her feel desirable :-
Most women aren't at their sexiest best when they first wakes up, so to get her into the right frame of mind by telling her how beautiful she is -- even if she’s a bit of a mess. Reassure her that you want her in your arms despite her disheveled hair, ugly pillow creases on her face and her unpleasant morning breath. Make her feel beautiful by showering praises about her natural beauty as this is likely to turn her on. Try the spooning position that is romantically sensual.

Posted bySaini at 6:08 AM 0 comments  

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Geneticists Unearth The Roots Of Human Genetic Variation
Thursday, August 6, 2009

A new study at the University of Leicester is using advanced single molecule methods to explore processes that lie at the very core of DNA variation in humans. The study by researcher Shriparna Sarbajna focuses on the process of ‘recombination’, which re-shuffles our genetic content at the time of egg and sperm production. This ‘re-shuffling’ creates new combinations that are passed on to future generations. Ultimately, these new combinations accumulate over many years to generate the patterns of genetic variations seen in contemporary human populations.
Doctoral research by Sarbajna uses techniques pioneered by world-renowned geneticist Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, to analyse human sperm DNA molecules. These techniques are ultimately used to directly understand the nature, location and frequency of changes occurring in our DNA. Sarbajna said: “These studies are enabling us to explore the very basis of human genetic variation and aiding our understanding of how errors in the process produce pathological changes like those associated with conditions such as alpha thalassaemia and Down syndrome.” “Our research has far reaching consequences, ranging from assisting in genetic counselling through identifying factors contributing to infertility and chromosomal abnormalities, to understanding pathogenic rearrangements frequently seen in cancers and some inherited disorders.”
“Interestingly, understanding how recombination influences patterns of diversity can also shed valuable light into the history and origins of various human populations. Studying recombination is thus, not only of basic scientific importance, but also allows valuable insights into issues ranging from medicine to history and ancestry.” “At the heart of the problem is the fact that although vast catalogues of human genetic variation now exist, little is known about the processes that give rise to these in the first place.” This research is funded by The Royal Society, the U.K. Medical Research Council and the Louis-Jeantet Foundation.

Posted bySaini at 10:42 PM 0 comments  

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How To Diagnose, Fight Flu
Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Researchers at Emory University are using a new and faster method of rapidly producing highly targeted monoclonal antibodies for use in diagnostic tests as well as a temporary therapy to stave off infectious diseases such as the H1N1 (swine flu) virus. Rafi Ahmed, PhD, director of the Emory Vaccine Center and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, and his collaborators generated high-affinity monoclonal antibodies against a strain of the influenza virus only a month after vaccinating human volunteers.
This new, timely technique allows researchers to quickly generate human antibodies against a pandemic flu strain as a stopgap therapy or to protect people from infection.
The antibodies, which can be isolated from a small amount of blood of humans infected with the virus, could be targeted against H1N1 and rapidly reproduced to detect or attack the virus. The monoclonal antibody technology was described last year in the journal Nature and is being developed in collaboration with scientists at the University of Chicago. Not only is the new method quicker and less cumbersome, the researchers' new technique could be applied to almost any infectious disease, says Ahmed.

Posted bySaini at 4:46 PM 0 comments  

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Rakhi Sawant finally selects life partner
Monday, August 3, 2009

India's first televised 'swayamvar' concluded here late Sunday with item girl Rakhi Sawant choosing Toronto-based Elesh Parujanwala as her life partner in a unique reality TV show. In NDTV Imagine's 'Rakhi ka Swayamvar', Rakhi made the final choice from the three finalists -- from the original list of 16 contestants in 26 episodes. The other two finalists were young aspirant Manas Katyal and businessman Chhitiz Jain, both from New Delhi.
'I have been watching Elesh from day one. On and off the camera, he has been the same and has really taken care of me. He is everything I was looking for and I am glad to have found him on the Swayamvar. The swayamvar means finding a jeevan saathi and I have found Elesh. 'Today is our engagement. I am ready to get married now, but we need to understand each other better off camera. We will soon get married in front of all of you in keeping with all our traditions,' Rakhi said after announcing her choice to a waiting audience across the country.
Decked up in red and gold lehenga-choli by Neeta Lulla and kundan jewellery, Rakhi looked a perfect bride. Elesh, Manas and Chhitiz too were dressed for the occasion -- in traditional sherwanis and turbans. In the dramatic finale, she garlanded Elesh -- as the audience clapped on.
The colourful event, held at the Hotel Leela Kampinsky here Sunday, saw a host of celebrities like choreographer Saroj Khan, actors Ravi Kishen and Ram Kapoor, who posed as brothers to the bride, apart from others like Smita Bansal and Sudha Shivpuri in the audience.

Posted bySaini at 6:37 AM 0 comments  

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Implantable Bone Material
Sunday, August 2, 2009

Now scientists are very closer to understanding how to grow replacement bones with stem cell technology, thanks to research published in the journal Nature Materials. Many scientists are currently trying to create bone-like materials, derived from stem cells, to implant into patients who have damaged or fractured bones, or who have had parts of diseased bones removed. The idea is that, ultimately, these bone-like materials could be inserted into cavities so that real bone could meld with it and repair the bone. So far, scientists have found they can grow small 'nodules' of what appeared to be bone-like material in the laboratory from different types of bone cells and stem cells. All of these cell types are attracting considerable interest as promising candidates for future implants in people with clinical trials already underway. However, scientists still need to thoroughly explore and understand the in-depth chemical properties and structure of the bone-like materials they are growing.
Now, scientists from Imperial College London have compared the 'bone-like' material grown from three different commonly used clinically relevant cell types and have discovered significant differences between the quality of bone-like material that these can form. For example, the researchers have discovered that the 'bone-like' materials that were grown from bone cells from mouse skull and mouse bone marrow stem cells successfully mimicked many of the hallmarks of real bone, which include stiffness. However, they found that the 'bone-like' material grown from mouse embryonic stem cells was much less stiff and less complex in its mineral composition when compared to the other materials. The researchers suggest that further research is now needed to explore the implications of these results for different stem cell therapies.
Professor Molly Stevens, from the Department of Materials and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, says: "Many patients who have had bone removed because of tumours or accidents live in real pain. By repairing bone defect sites in the body with bone-like material that best mimics the properties of their real bone we could improve their lives immeasurably. Our study provides an important insight into how different cell sources can really influence the quality of bone that we can produce. It brings us one step closer to developing materials that will have the highest chance of success when implanted into patients." To carry out their analysis, researchers used laser-based raman spectroscopy to understand the detailed chemical make-up of live cells as they grew and multivariate statistical analysis techniques, which enabled them to compare and analyse data about the growth of different cell populations. They also used a nano-indenter and high resolution electron microscopy, which allowed the researchers to probe the samples so that they could understand how stiff the bone-like materials were and what their structure was at a microscopic level. So stay in touch to know further.

Posted bySaini at 7:50 AM 0 comments  

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Love Aaj Kal
Saturday, August 1, 2009

Love Aaj Kal; Star Cast:- Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, debutantes Giselle Monteiro and Florence Brudenell Bruce, Rishi Kapoor and Rahul Khanna ; Director: Imtiaz Ali
Studying in London, Jai (Saif) and Meera (Deepika) are in a relationship for two years but when career beckons, they mutually break off their relationship. Meera prepares to go to India to pursue her career in old historical places restorations whereas Jai waits in London with a hope of getting his dream job in San Fransico’s Golden Gate Co. The couple though broken off decides to keep in touch via net and phone calls and continue to remain friends. Restaurant owner Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor) is a silent observer to their break up process since it happens in his restaurant. Unable to bear the far too casual approach related to affairs of heart of the couple, he tries to convince a reluctant Jai that he is making a mistake. Sensing that Jai is not taking him seriously, Veer then starts narrating him his own love story with Harleen Kaur (Giselle Monteiro) which took place far back in 1965 in Delhi. From then on begins the unfolding of these two love stories running parallel together which incidentally end up with a similar culmination after many twists and turns which also are similar despite the different period zones.
After making the much loved Jab We Met, Imtiaz Ali succeeds in giving us an extremely different love story that we have never witnessed before on Indian screen. He scores high on his writing and his treatment of the film. In the initial 10 minutes he successfully establishes Saif and Deepika’s relationship and their character quirks. He surprises you then by putting a melancholic song (Ye Dooriyan) as opening credits role showing montages of various important twists of the plot that lie ahead. In fact his screenplay is indeed full of surprises ahead, especially in the second half. As you begin to anticipate a particular thing happening ahead in the plot, almost 9 times out of 10 he proves you wrong. Making the film extremely relatable to everyone who has ever been in love and broken off with his/her partner, Imtiaz takes it notches higher by his dialogues that sound simple but convey a lot. Plenty of scenes stay with you as you come out. Imtiaz has repeated his technical team trio of JWM – Aarti Bajaj (Editing), Teddy Maurya (Art Direction) and Cinematographer (N. Nataraj Subramaniam) and each of them have excelled in their respective departments. Music of the film by Pritam is already ruling the charts and thankfully none of the songs act as speed breakers. The picturisation of Main Kya Hoon in San Francisco showing various changes in Saif is simply fantastic.
Without any doubt, these are career best performances of both Saif and Deepika and it should not be a surprise if they both end up winning most of awards for this year. Saif has always been at ease playing the cool no strings attached dude but in here he also succeeds in playing the brooding romantic Sardar Veer Singh very well and is extremely impressive in the post interval emotional sequences. Deepika wins hearts not just by looking extremely attractive throughout but also with the effortless ease she portrays her complex character. Rishi Kapoor is extremely loveable as the mature Veer Singh and lends tremendous dignity to his character. Debutante Giselle Monteiro manages to speak volumes just through her expressions. Rahul Khanna in a special appearance is good and suits the character perfectly well. Raj Zutshi playing Harleen’s father reminds of Pawan Malhotra’s character of Kareena’s uncle in Jab We Met. Florence Brudenell Bruce playing Saif’s Swiss girlfriend doesn’t have much to do but manages to do a good job. Love Aaj Kal is a film definitely not to be missed. It offers us something fresh and and is a unique experiment in story telling and direction that works big time. It is one film that Saif, Deepika and Imtiaz shall always be proud of whenever they look back at their career.

Posted bySaini at 6:08 AM 0 comments  

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Ash Abhi in trouble
Thursday, July 30, 2009

Bollywood actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan failed to return to their hotel just after shooting for their new film "Ravan" on Wednesday evening after an elephant went out of control and killed its mahout.
The incident, which occurred after the shooting around 5 p.m. in Athirapally waterfalls area, blocked the road at nearby Athirapally forest area of Kerala's Thrissur district. Kunju, the elephant, stood in the middle of the road, thus, obstructing the traffic to move through the road.
As per the latest information "Kunju" had been controlled by chaining it veterinary doctors were on their way from Thrissur to attend the disgruntled elephant, possibly to tranquillise it. . The killed mahout was Andavan, aged 51. 'Ravan' is being shot in Hindi and Tamil at the thick forests near the waterfalls. Abhishek plays the lead role in the Hindi version while Tamil actor Vikram plays the lead role in regional version, with Aishwarya being the heroine in both versions of the film.
Kerala's Athirapally waterfalls has been one of the favourite locations for major blockbuster films in south India. Noted film director Mani Ratnam's "Dil Se" song "Jiya Jale", and the film Guru song "Barso re" were shot at the Athirapally waterfalls. Located at the entrance to Sholayar ranges, it's a favourite location of film makers. Athirappally Waterfalls is located 78 kms from Kochi. The Athirappally falls join the Chalakkudy river after plummeting down 80 ft.

Posted bySaini at 5:57 PM 0 comments  

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Teen Pregnancy
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

“Psychological distress does not appear to be caused by teen childbearing, nor does it cause teen childbearing, except apparently among girls from poor households,” said Stefanie Mollborn, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at the Institute of Behavioral Science of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The study, published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, used data from two large long-term U.S. surveys that followed thousands of teen girls and women. Participants responded to items on symptoms associated with depression, such as how often they found things that did not usually bother them to be bothersome, how easily they could shake off feeling blue or whether they had trouble concentrating. The researchers did not use the term “depression,” which is a clinical diagnosis. Only the combination of poverty and existing distress was a good predictor of teen pregnancy.
Previous studies had shown high levels of depression among teen mothers, but nationally representative studies had not examined if distress was present before the pregnancy and stresses of young motherhood. “Psychologically distressed girls are at risk for teen childbearing and vice versa, even if the two things usually do not cause each other,” Mollborn said. “This could help educators and clinicians identify at-risk adolescents.”
Looking for symptoms of depression or distress should be part of normal health screening for all teenagers, said Diane Merritt, M.D., director of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “Talking to teenagers about their sexuality and responsible behavior is key,” she said. Responsible behavior would include the use of birth control if the teenager were sexually active. One of the best ways to prevent teen pregnancy is for teens to have long-term goals and good self-esteem, Merritt added. High levels of depression have long-term negative consequences for both mothers and children, Mollborn said. The higher levels of psychological distress in women who had teenage pregnancies continued well into adulthood, she added.

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Jackson fans seek Nobel peace prize for star
Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Fans of the late pop star Michael Jackson have launched an Internet campaign to have their idol nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Two online petitions have already collected more than 12,000 signatures in support of nominating the singer, who died of cardiac arrest on June 25, for one of the world's most prestigious awards. "Michael's message for humankind has always been rooted in compassion, and kindness. He has succeeded a lifelong dedication to the well being of humanity," one of the petitions said.
The fans explain that Jackson should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for devoting his life to "helping others in their darkest time of need". "It would be nearly impossible to count the multiple hundreds of millions of dollars Michael has donated to charity from his own finances and also through organising major fund raising events," reads the petition, which has been signed by more than 2,000 people. The other group of more than 10,000 fans has signed letters to Nobel Peace Prize laureates and the United Nations to nominate the king of pop for the award.
"Unfortunately we didn't succeed in getting Michael nominated," authors of the petition said. The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established in the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel. The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901. Every September, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, comprising five people elected by the Norwegian parliament, sends letters to members of parliament, political leaders, international organizations and other "qualified people", asking them to put forward their own candidates for the prize.

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Salman is ready for marriage but Katrina Kaif not
Sunday, July 26, 2009

After being termed as the lucky mascot of Bollywood, after having become the face of every possible big brand, after having been voted as the Sexiest Woman for umpteen times, after having graced a million magazine covers, the gorgeous Katrina is the latest cover-girl in this edition of 'People'.
Call this as a 'confession edition' or whatever you may like, but this issue of 'People' is definitely something that can be preserved for ages to come.
As it's in this issue, Katrina clears off all the airs and controversies that constantly surround her!
To start with, she clarifies her take on Salman being ready for marriage, while she isn't! Other clarifications include the much alleged spark between her and Ranbir on the sets of Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahaani, Salman's latest muse Claudia Ciesla etc.
This edition is indeed one of must buy for Katrina fans.

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Human Cells Secrete Cancer-killing Protein
Saturday, July 25, 2009

Human cells are able to secrete a cancer-killing protein, scientists at the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Center have found. Researchers led by Vivek Rangnekar, UK professor of radiation medicine, have determined that the tumor-suppressor protein Par-4, initially thought to be active only within cells expressing the Par-4 gene, is in fact secreted by most human and rodent cells and can target large numbers of cancer cells by binding to receptors on the cell surface. This discovery, published today in the leading journal Cell, makes Par-4 a very attractive molecule for future research aimed at developing new cancer treatments.
"It was a pleasant surprise, when we noticed that Par-4 protein is secreted by cells," Rangnekar said. "This new finding means it is not necessary to make genetic modifications, or to employ recombinant viruses, to deliver the Par-4 gene to cancer cells, and it significantly expands the potential applications of Par-4 to selectively kill cancer cells." Funded by several grants from the National Institutes of Health, Rangnekar's study found that when the Par-4 molecule binds to its receptor GRP78 on the surface of a tumor cell, it triggers a biological process called apoptosis or "cell suicide." Consistent with previous research by Rangnekar's laboratory with intracellular Par-4, the newly discovered secreted Par-4 acts selectively against cancer cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed. Few other molecules are known to exhibit such selectivity.
One molecule, known as TRAIL, also exerts cancer-cell-specific effects. However, Rangnekar's most recent study discovered that apoptosis inducible by TRAIL is dependent upon extracellular Par-4 signaling via cell surface GRP78. Thus, the researchers conclude, Par-4 activates a novel pathway involving cell surface GRP78 receptor for induction of apoptosis. In other words, without Par-4, TRAIL lacks the ability to cause "cell suicide." Rangnekar first discovered the Par-4 gene in 1993. In 2007, Rangnekar's team introduced the gene into a mouse embryo, creating a cancer-resistant "supermouse" that did not develop tumors. In fact, the mice possessing Par-4 actually live a few months longer than lab mice without the gene, indicating that Par-4 mice have no toxic side effects.
While Par-4 is not necessarily a "magic bullet" — it does not target every type of cancer cell — Rangnekar says it could play a major role in developing new combination treatment modalities for cancer patients. His hope is that the next generation of treatments will be even more effective than conventional treatments available today, with fewer and less severe side effects. "I look at this research from the standpoint of how it can be developed to benefit the cancer patient, and that's what keeps us focused," Rangnekar said, discussing the potential of Par-4 in 2007. "The pain that cancer patients go through — not just from the disease, but also from the treatment — is excruciating. If you can treat the cancer and not harm the patient, that's a major breakthrough." Rangnekar holds the Alfred Cohen, M.D., Endowed Chair in Oncology Research at the UK College of Medicine.

Posted bySaini at 3:05 PM 0 comments  

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Another cause of HIV : Pre-chewed Food
Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Researchers have uncovered the first cases in which HIV almost certainly was transmitted from mothers other caregivers to children through pre-chewed food. The source of HIV in the pre-chewed food was most likely the infected blood in the saliva of the people who pre-chewed the food before giving it to the children. The researchers said their findings suggest that HIV-infected mothers or other caregivers should be warned against giving infants pre-chewed food and directed toward safer feeding options. The cases indicate that physicians and clinics should routinely include questions about pre-chewing food in their health screening of infant caregivers who have HIV or are suspected of the infection. Also, possible cases of HIV transmission through pre-chewed food should be reported to public health agencies to help increase understanding of the prevalence of such transmission.
Led by Aditya Gaur, M.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, with colleagues from St. Jude, the University of Miami and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers published their findings in the August 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics. Gaur is an assistant member of the St. Jude Infectious Diseases department.
Giving infants pre-chewed food has been reported to transmit infections such as streptococcus and the hepatitis B virus, Gaur said. However, until these cases there was no evidence that the blood-borne HIV could be similarly transmitted. The source of blood in the saliva of the person pre-chewing the food for the child may likely have been visible or microscopic bleeding from the gums or some other part of the mouth, he added.
In their paper, the researchers described three cases in which pre-chewed food was likely the source of HIV transmission to infants.
The case that led to this published report was a 9-month-old infant who was referred to St. Jude because she was HIV positive after earlier tests had been negative.
"Her HIV-positive mother had not breastfed her, and further investigation had ruled out transmission by blood transfusion, injury or sexual abuse," Gaur said. Also, genetic testing, led by Kalish at the CDC, showed that the daughter had been infected with the same HIV strain as the mother.
"Fortunately, the St. Jude nurse practitioner, Marion Donohoe, was very thorough in her questioning about feeding practices, and she asked about pre-mastication. It turned out this mother had fed her daughter pre-chewed food," Gaur said.
When Gaur contacted Dominguez at the CDC about the possible case of transmission via pre-chewed food, the center alerted him to two similar cases previously reported by senior author Mitchell and colleague Rivera from the University of Miami. Those cases were not reported to the public at the time because of the lack of sufficient evidence of transmission via pre-chewed food. One case involved pre-chewing by an HIV-infected mother, and the other an HIV-infected aunt who was the caregiver.
Gaur said that information in the three cases suggests that one factor aiding such transmission was mouth bleeding in the caregiver, as well as in the infant due to teething or infection. He also said caregivers' lack of adherence to their own drug-treatment regimens probably increased their blood HIV levels, increasing the likelihood of transmission.
"These three cases are persuasive enough that they justify cautioning HIV-positive caregivers against giving infants pre-chewed foods," Gaur said. "Also, we hope increased awareness of this possible mode of transmission will bring more cases to light and more thorough studies, which can either substantiate or refute this transmission route." Also important, Gaur said, will be the results of surveys now being conducted in collaboration with other research groups in the United States and abroad to determine the extent of infant feeding using pre-chewed food.
The findings do not warrant a blanket recommendation against pre-chewed food for infants, the researchers emphasized. The practice, which has been reported from many parts of the world including the United States may be integral to providing adequate infant nutrition and grounded in culture and tradition. On a global level, educating HIV-positive caregivers will require cognizance of culturally sensitive issues and potential nutritional consequences linked to pre-chewing, the investigators said. The findings also do not imply that HIV can be transmitted through saliva during oral contact such as kissing. In the cases the researchers studied, HIV transmission was likely enabled by bleeding gums or open mouth sores.
"Importantly, this report does not challenge the accepted belief that saliva does not carry HIV and that transmission does not occur in kissing," Gaur said. "The exception is that transmission can occur when the people involved have damaged mucosa in their mouths, and blood is mixed with the saliva."

Posted bySaini at 3:14 PM 0 comments  

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Genes And The Environment Interaction
Monday, July 20, 2009

Adolescent alcohol use and behavior problems are influenced by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. A new study has found that socio-regional factors moderate the importance of genetic influences on early adolescent behavior problems in a way that parallels moderating effects observed for alcohol use later in adolescence. "In the past, research on genetic and environmental influences on behavior was often conducted in isolation," explained Danielle Dick, assistant professor of psychiatry, psychology, and human and molecular genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University. "Some scientists were interested in genetic effects, others in environmental effects. We now know that both genetic and environmental influences are important for most behavioral outcomes and our challenge is to understand how they interact."
"This paper adds to a growing and very promising area of research showing that child and adolescent behavioral problems emerge from an interplay of inherited vulnerabilities and life experiences," noted Lisa Legrand, research psychologist at the University of Minnesota. "While inherited factors may place an individual at increased risk, psychosocial or environmental exposures may either aggravate or protect against this risk. Moreover, certain environments may actually modify gene expression such that the influence of genes varies by circumstances." "Much of the research on environmental influences on alcohol use and behavior problems focuses on the impact of parents and peers," added Dick. "While these are clearly critical environmental influences, we have also found that socio-regional, or neighborhood influences, also have big impacts on adolescent behavioral outcomes, and these environmental effects have not received as much attention historically."
Researchers used data from FinnTwin12, a population-based study of health-related behaviors and correlated risk factors that has followed more than 5,000 twins identified in Finland's Population Registry Center as having been born in the years 1983 through to 1987. Drawing from previous findings that community-level factors such as urban/rural residency, migration rates, and prevalence of young adults can moderate the importance of genetic effects on alcohol use among 16- to 18-year olds, this study looked at their influence on behavior problems at 12 and alcohol use at 14 years of age. "One of the key reasons this study is important is that it contributes to the growing body of literature showing that environmental influences play an important role in the expression of an individual's genetic predispositions," said Dick. "In this case, how important genetic influences are on behavior problems in young girls can vary quite a bit as a function of neighborhoods factors."
Certain environments appeared to encourage gene expression while others constrained it, observed Legrand. "The environments that produced higher heritability estimates for female behavioral problems were urban, had a relatively mobile population, and were marked by a higher percentage of older adolescents," she said. "Conversely in rural, stable, and low-adolescent settings, preadolescent behavior problems appeared to be more influenced by the rearing environment." It could be that girls are more susceptible than boys to certain environmental influences, Legrand added. "For example, rural females may remain closer to their parents and under the influence of their monitoring and control for a longer time than rural males," she said. "This is an intriguing area for future research."
"There is now converging evidence across a number of different studies that behavioral problems in kids are associated with both concurrent and future alcohol problems," said Dick. "There is evidence accumulating from genetic studies that behavior problems may be one of the first signs of an individual at increased susceptibility for developing alcohol problems." Taken together, she cautioned, a key message from this kind of research is that genes are not destiny. "We're not all equally predisposed to develop alcohol or behavior problems," she said, "and the environment can be a key factor in whether or not an individual ever develops problems."

Posted bySaini at 7:18 PM 0 comments  

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Sexy Priyanka Chopra's 27th Birthday
Saturday, July 18, 2009

Sexy Priyanka Chopra celebrates her 27th birthday today. This actress is believed to have taken off for a short vacation to celebrate her birthday. This will definitely be a birthday where Priyanka will have lots to celebrate. She is at an alltime high in her career and certainly deserves to savour her success and popularity.
In the past year, Priyanka has not only achieved success at the box office but has also managed to carve a niche for herself as an actress of repute. If there was Aitraaz at the beginning of her career, she had Fashion last year which again had critics and cinegoers saluting her histrionic abilities. Her performance in Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion, followed by the box office success of Dostana has put her in an enviable position. Up ahead, the actress has some more interesting films on hand. She will be eagerly awaiting the release of Vishal Bharadwaj's Kaminey, which sees her coming together with Shahid Kapur on screen. Whatever one has seen of the promos, has been very promising indeed. Then there is also Ashutosh Gowariker's What's Your Rashee coming up for release in September, followed by Jugal Hansraj's Pyaar Impossible for the Yash Raj banner. The actress seems to have left most of her rivals far behind. If Lady Luck continues to shine on her, there are no pinnacles that this girl cannot reach.

Posted bySaini at 9:56 PM 0 comments  

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Sexy Priyanka Chopra doing something special
Friday, July 17, 2009

Sexy Priyanka Chopra is making more than a few eyes pop out of their heads with her stunning photoshoot for the new Harper's Bazaar magazine. Looking stunning in a body-hugging floor-length pink gown with a 1960s Jackie Kennedy bouffant hairstyle, Priyanka embodies this issue's message of the Power of a Woman.
Bollywood's currently most powerful woman has recently been talking about its most powerful man – Shah Rukh Khan: "I have been a huge fan of Shah Rukh Khan since I was six," she says, (ouch!) "During Miss India 2000, he was one of the judges who asked me a question. I got a chance to meet him backstage and managed to say, `Hello`. When he heard that I sing, he asked me to do so. I still don`t remember what I sang. I will always admire Shah Rukh."
Priyanka has also become hooked recently on the power of Twitter, the social messaging site. "It started as a lark, a quest of discovery, and now I find my fingers twitching for my Nokia or my laptop wherever something interesting happens," she explains, "I have great fun interacting with my tweeps. At least they believe it's the real me, unlike some of you guys, who still aren't sure that it's me reading your mails."

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The Repair Strategies Of DNA
Thursday, July 16, 2009

Surprising New Insights Into The Repair Strategies Of DNA:-
A microscopic single-celled organism, adapted to survive in some of the harshest environments on earth, could help scientists gain a better understanding of how cancer cells behave. Experts at The University of Nottingham were astonished to discover that the archaeon Haloferax volcanii was better at repairing DNA damage if enzymes, that are widely considered to be critically important in coordinating the repair of DNA, were mutated. Dr Thorsten Allers, from the Institute of Genetics, said: “These results surprised us. It is the first time, as far as we know, that anybody has found such resistance to DNA damage in mutant cells. Normally, cells that are missing enzymes for DNA repair become more sensitive to DNA damage.”
Like cancer cells, archaea are polyploid — which means they contain more than two sets of chromosomes. Although similar in structure and appearance to bacteria, archaea share a common ancestor with eukaryotes, which include plant and animals. This kinship is at its closest in the way archaea process DNA. Although Dr Allers’s discovery is at the basic biological level, it is the similarities with cancer cells that make him convinced that scientists have much more to learn from archaea.
Discovered just 32 years ago, there are less then 200 experts around the world studying archaea. On the other hand, the mechanisms by which cells perform the repair of DNA breaks has been the subject of decades of research using bacterial and eukaryotic cells. We are only just beginning to learn how this process works in archaea. DNA breaks can be caused by, among other things, radiation, UV rays and chemotherapy. Dr Allers said: “All organisms can use enzymes to simply glue the broken strands of DNA back together, but this is prone to error and can give rise to mutations which cause cancer. The alternative is to perform a kind of molecular gymnastics called recombination, where healthy strands of matching DNA are used to repair the broken ends. This is a complicated and time-consuming strategy to mend DNA, but avoids mutations. When the enzymes that carry out recombination are defective, cancer can develop more easily. This is what happens in patients with mutations in the BRCA breast cancer genes.” Dr Allers’s research, published in the journal PLoS Genetics, shows how, unlike other organisms, Haloferax volcanii deliberately avoids using recombination to repair DNA breaks. His results suggest that other polyploid organisms, such as cancer cells, might work in much the same way. What scientists need to know now is why.

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