Discovery of insulin switches in pancreas could lead to new diabetes drugs
Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered how a hormone turns on a series of molecular switches inside the pancreas that increases production of insulin.
View Article'REST' is crucial for the timing of brain development
Researchers have just shown that the molecule REST acts as an adapter in stem cells, and hope that future studies of REST will contribute to the development of new types of treatments for diseases such...
View ArticleScientists redraw the blueprint of the body's biological clock
The discovery of a major gear in the biological clock that tells the body when to sleep and metabolize food may lead to new drugs to treat sleep problems and metabolic disorders, including diabetes.
View ArticleGeisel researchers sift through 'junk' to find colorectal cancer clues
Two researchers at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth have helped to identify switches that can turn on or off genes associated with colorectal cancer. The finding offers clues about the...
View ArticleResearchers discover biomarkers for prostate cancer detection, recurrence
Alterations to the "on-off" switches of genes occur early in the development of prostate cancer and could be used as biomarkers to detect the disease months or even years earlier than current...
View ArticleAn old drug finds a new use
Dr. Anglea Wandinger-Ness and Dr. Laurie Hudson were awarded a Provocative Questions grant to investigate the use of R-ketorolac against ovarian cancer. Ketorolac is an NSAID that the FDA approved for...
View ArticleNew genetic test detects early breast cancer and identifies future risk
Physicians may now be better at detecting breast cancer than ever before, but much more work remains to ensure accurate diagnosis is possible and especially to assess future risk. That's why...
View ArticleMore than 3,000 epigenetic switches control daily liver cycles
(Medical Xpress)—When it's dark, and we start to fall asleep, most of us think we're tired because our bodies need rest. Yet circadian rhythms affect our bodies not just on a global scale, but at the...
View ArticleThe X factor in liver metabolism
After you eat, your liver switches from producing glucose to storing it. At the same time, a cellular signaling pathway known as the unfolded protein response (UPR) is transiently activated, but it is...
View ArticleScientists can see which cells communicate with each other in the brain, by...
There are cells in your brain that recognize very specific places, and have that as one of their main jobs. These cells, called place cells, are found in an area behind your temple called the...
View ArticleAutophagy-addicted breast cancers killed by anti-malaria drug, chloroquine
The process of autophagy cleans cells – they wrap up the bad stuff and then dispose of it. And so it stands to reason that inhibiting autophagy would make cancer cells less able to cleanse themselves...
View ArticleStudy shows our epigenetics change rapidly in first year of life
(Medical Xpress)—The way our genes are activated changes rapidly when we are infants, a new study of twins at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute has found.
View ArticleProtein linked with tumor growth could be potential target for...
As tumors grow, their centers are squeezed of oxygen. And so tumors must flip specific genetic switches to survive in these hypoxic environments. A series of studies funded to do only basic science and...
View ArticleAging impacts epigenome in human skeletal muscle
Our epigenome is a set of chemical switches that turn parts of our genome off and on at strategic times and locations. These switches help alter the way our cells act and are impacted by environmental...
View ArticleResearchers find possible 'master switch' in deadly brain cancer
(Medical Xpress)—Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have identified a promising target for treating glioblastoma, one that appears to avoid many of the obstacles that...
View ArticleSource of tumor growth in aggressive prostate cancer found
Researchers have discovered a molecular switch that explains, at least in part, how some fast-growing prostate cancers become resistant to hormone treatment, a new study conducted in human cell...
View ArticleResearchers identify 'switch' for long-term memory
Neurobiologists at Heidelberg University have identified calcium in the cell nucleus to be a cellular "switch" responsible for the formation of long-term memory. Using the fruit fly Drosophila...
View ArticleMolecular switch controls the destiny of self-eating cells
The study is the result of a collaboration of scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, University of Michigan, and University of California San Diego, USA, who were interested in finding out...
View ArticleHeading for regeneration
The rabbit can't do it, neither can a frog, but zebrafish and axolotls can and flatworms are true masters of the craft: Regeneration. Why some animals can re-grow lost body parts or organs while others...
View ArticleLaser-controlled molecular switch turns blood clotting on, off on command
Researchers have designed tiny, light-controlled gold particles that can release DNA controls to switch blood clotting off and on. The results are reported July 24 in the open access journal PLoS ONE...
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