Category Health/Medical

Dr. Turner’s lab team, most of who are shown here, were instrumental in the research relating to the health benefits of dried plums. (Texas A&M AgriLife Research photo)

A diet containing dried plums can positively affect microbiota, also referred to as gut bacteria, throughout the colon, helping reduce the risk of colon cancer, researchers report. According to the American Cancer Society, colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. when men and women are considered separately, and the second-leading cause when the figures are combined. During 2015, colon cancer is expected to cause about 49,700 deaths nationwide.

“Our research explored the potential cancer-protective properties of dried plums using a well-established rat model of colon cancer,” she sai...

“This has dramatic potential to advance genetic engineering,” said Eric Lander, Director of the Broad Institute and one of the principal leaders of the human genome project. “The paper not only reveals the function of a previously uncharacterized CRISPR system, but also shows that Cpf1 can be harnessed for human genome editing and has remarkable and powerful features. The Cpf1 system represents a new generation of genome editing technology.”

In the new study, Zhang et al searched through hundreds of CRISPR systems in different types of bacteria, searching for enzymes with useful properties that could be engineered for use in human cells...

Highlights •The cancer drug Taxol is a fungicide against wood-decaying fungi (WDF) in yew trees •Inside yew, a fungal endophyte produces Taxol and migrates to pathogen entry points •The endophyte sequesters Taxol in hydrophobic bodies (HBs); WDF induce their release •The HBs can coalesce to form extracellular barriers laced with fungicidal Taxol

The researchers found naturally occurring fungi in the yew’s vascular system act like an immune system to swarm a wound site and protect against invading pathogens. Taxol is harvested from yew bark for use as an important cancer-fighting drug, but efforts to make synthetic taxol in the lab have been unsuccessful.

Raizada said the findings might point drug makers to a less expensive synthetic process for making more of the substance...

A breakthrough study shows that fat tissue is innervated and that direct stimulation of neurons in fat is sufficient to induce fat breakdown. These results set up the stage for developing novel anti-obesity therapies. Fat tissue constitutes 20 – 25% of human body weight being an energy store in the form of triglycerides. 20 yrs ago Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified the hormone leptin, which is produced by fat cells in amounts that are proportional to the amount of fat, and informs the brain about how much fat is available in the body. Leptin functions as an “adipostat” neuro-endocrine signal that preserves body’s fat mass in a relatively narrow range of variation...