May 18th, 2008
Different types of skin cancer
(Photo credit: http://melanoma.blogsome.com/category/skin-image-processing)
University of Minnesota researchers looking to answer the question ‘why does ultraviolet light induce skin cancer?’ believe they have found how sun-induced skin cancer starts. They found the cancer starts in receptor molecules or molecular “hooks” on the outer surface of cells that also pull cannabinoid compounds found in marijuana out […]
By Elaine -- 0 comments
May 18th, 2008
(Photo credit: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/PhotoGallery/Primates/7.cfm )
Scientists have long wondered why early primates inhabited forest canopies, given that climbing appears to consume more energy than walking. However Duke University researchers studying primates walking on treadmills found that there was no energy consumption difference in small primates.
This suggests that ancestors of humans, apes and monkeys may have taken to the trees […]
By Elaine -- 0 comments
April 20th, 2008
Drosophila flies
I just loved this article along with accompanying videos appearing in the BBC news website.
Scientists have managed to give genetically modified fruit flies a sex-change just from a pulse of light to group of 2,000 brain cells responsible for directing courtship displays.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7350403.stm
Oh that it was so easy in humans!
Elaine Warburton www.geneticsandhealth.com
Tags: , Drosophila, Genes, Genetic […]
By Elaine -- 1 comment
March 3rd, 2008
(Photo credit: Flu viruses among cilia - National Geographic magazine http://www.nationalgeographic.com/)
US scientists have discovered a possible reason why the flu virus is seasonal and tends to infect people mostly in the winter. It has a jacket that melts in the summer causing the virus to die off, and stays hard in the winter, until it […]
By Elaine -- 0 comments
March 2nd, 2008
HIV-2 Virus. Reference: http://www.csend.hu/magazin/0102/hiv2.jpg
A team of researchers at the University of Alberta has discovered a gene that is able to block HIV, and in turn prevent the onset of AIDS. Stephen Barr, a molecular virologist in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, says his team has identified a gene called TRIM22 that can block […]
By Elaine -- 2 comments
March 2nd, 2008
Further to my various articles on our ancestry, differences in gene expression levels between people of European versus African ancestry appear to affect how each group responds to certain drugs or fights off specific infections, report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Expression Research Laboratory at Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, CA.
The researchers […]
By Elaine -- 2 comments
February 24th, 2008
Papers published in Nature and Science this week support the previously held theory that humans originated in East Africa, migrating outward until they reached all parts of the globe. But the genetic work from these studies brings a new level of precision to human migration studies, with each group finding subtle and intriguing details that shed light on different aspects of […]
By Elaine -- 2 comments
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