Category Biology/Biotechnology

Antiinflammatory Therapy with Canakinumab for Atherosclerotic Disease. New England Journal of Medicine, 2017; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1707914

Inflammatory hypothesis confirmed: Landmark randomized clinical trial of high-risk patients finds that a drug targeting inflammation reduced risk of major adverse cardiovascular events. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital today announced results of a clinical trial culminating from 25 years of cardiovascular research work. Paul M...

Credit: Judy Wu / UCLA Division of Cardiology Image of LeXis (pink dots) inside a cell. The larger blue dots marks the nuclei of liver cells.

Scientists from UCLA and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute successfully used a gene that suppresses cholesterol levels as part of a treatment to reduce plaque in mice with a disorder called familial hypercholesterolemia. In a preclinical study, gene LeXis, lowered cholesterol and blockages in the arteries, and the treatment appeared to reduce the build-up of fat in liver cells. Familial hypercholesterolemia is an inherited condition characterized by extremely high levels of LDL and an increased risk of early heart disease.

The LeXis gene belongs to a unique group of genes that until recently were considered “junk DNA” because scientists believed th...

Nacho Vivas, lab manager at the Rey Lab, checks on a group of germ-free mice inside a sterile environment. Credit: Bryce Richter/UW-Madison

If our microbiome overindulges, we might not have access to the nutrients we need. That’s the suggestion from new research that shows mice that harbor high levels of microbes that eat choline are deprived of this essential nutrient. “Gut bacteria get to use a lot of our food before we do,” says Federico Rey, a professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Then we get their leftovers – or their waste. Compared to mice without choline-hungry bacteria, the choline-starved mice had an increased susceptibility to metabolic diseases and gave birth to pups with biochemical alterations in the brain and that exhibited more anxious behaviors...

Possible spectroscopy results from one of Europa’s water plumes. This is an example of the data the Webb telescope could return. Credits: NASA-GSFC/SVS, Hubble Space Telescope, Stefanie Milam, Geronimo Villanueva This spectra was created using NASA’s Planetary Spectrum Generator

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will use its capabilities to study the “ocean worlds” of Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, adding to observations previously made by NASA’s Galileo and Cassini orbiters. The Webb telescope’s observations could also help guide future missions to the icy moons.

Europa and Enceladus are on the Webb telescope’s list of targets chosen by guaranteed time observers, scientists who helped develop the telescope and thus get to be among the first to use it to observe the...