Category Health/Medical

Intestinal cells in a healthy individual in which the non-coding RNA of the Inc13 gene appears in red (the red dots would not be seen in a celiac patient). Credit: Image courtesy of University of the Basque Country

40% of the population carry the main risk factor for celiac disease but only 1% go down with it. A new gene that influences its development has been found in what until recently has been known as ‘junk’ DNA.

It has been known for some time that celiac disease develops in people who have a genetic susceptibility, but despite the fact that 40% of the population carry the most decisive risk factor (the HLA-DQ2 and DQ8 polymorphisms), only 1% go on to develop the disease...

Cornell researchers found that an FDA-approved drug called Lexiscan activates receptors — called adenosine receptors — that are expressed on BBB cells. Credit: Dr. Margaret Bynoe, College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University

Cornell researchers have discovered a way to penetrate the blood brain barrier (BBB) that may soon permit delivery of drugs directly into the brain to treat disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and chemotherapy-resistant cancers. The BBB is a layer of endothelial cells that selectively allow entry of molecules needed for brain function, such as amino acids, oxygen, glucose and water, while keeping others out. An FDA-approved drug, Lexiscan activates adenosine receptors – that are expressed on these BBB cells.

“We can open the BBB for a brief window of time, lo...

The response we’ve seen in flies to low doses of lithium is very encouraging and our next step is to look at targeting GSK-3 in more complex animals with the aim of eventually developing a drug regime to test in humans.

Fruit flies live 16% longer than average when given low doses of the mood stabiliser lithium, according to a UCL-led study. How lithium stabilises mood is poorly understood but when the scientists investigated how it prolongs the lives of flies, they discovered a new drug target that could slow aging – a molecule called glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3).

“To improve our quality and length of life we must delay the onset of age-related diseases by extending the healthiest period of our lives...

All the movies, images, emails and other digital data from more than 600 basic smartphones (10,000 gigabytes) can be stored in the faint pink smear of DNA at the end of this test tube. Credit: Tara Brown Photography/ University of Washington

A new technique developed by Uni of Washington and Microsoft researchers could shrink the space needed to store digital data that today would fill a Walmart supercenter down to the size of a sugar cube. The team of computer scientists and electrical engineers has detailed one of the first complete systems to encode, store and retrieve digital data using DNA molecules, which can store information millions of times more compactly than current archival technologies.

In one experiment the team successfully encoded digital data from 4 image files into the n...