News & HighlightsNews
Genetically driven gut feelings help female flies choose a mate
Even among flies, mating is a complicated ritual. Their elaborate, and entirely innate, courtship dance combines multiple motor skills with advanced sensory cues. Now, researchers at Rockefeller University have determined that the Abdominal-B (Abd-B) gene, previously known as the gene that sculpt...
Using geometry, researchers coax human embryonic stem cells to organize themselves
About seven days after conception, something remarkable occurs in the clump of cells that will eventually become a new human being. They start to specialize. They take on characteristics that begin to hint at their ultimate fate as part of the skin, brain, muscle or any of the roughly 200 cell ty...
Potential Alzheimer’s drug prevents abnormal blood clots in the brain
Without a steady supply of blood, neurons can’t work. That’s why one of the culprits behind Alzheimer’s disease is believed to be the persistent blood clots that often form in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, contributing to the condition’s hallmark memory loss, confusion and cognitive ...
Sequencing efforts miss DNA crucial to bacteria’s disease causing power
Genomic sequencing is supposed to reveal the entire genetic makeup of an organism. For infectious disease specialists, the technology can be used to analyze a disease-causing bacterium to determine how much harm it is capable of causing and whether or not it will be resistant to antibiotics. But ...
New monkey model for AIDS offers promise for medical research
HIV-1, the virus responsible for most cases of AIDS, is a very selective virus. It does not readily infect species other than its usual hosts — humans and chimpanzees. While this would qualify as good news for most mammals, for humans this fact has made the search for effective treatments and vac...
To recover consciousness, brain activity passes through newly detected states
Anesthesia makes otherwise painful procedures possible by derailing a conscious brain, rendering it incapable of sensing or responding to a surgeon’s knife. But little research exists on what happens when the drugs wear off. “I always found it remarkable that someone can recover from anesthesia...
Research details how developing neurons sense a chemical cue
Symmetry is an inherent part of development. As an embryo, an organism’s brain and spinal cord, like the rest of its body, organize themselves into left and right halves as they grow. But a certain set of nerve cells do something unusual: they cross from one side to the other. New research in mic...
Researchers profile active genes in neurons based on connections
When it comes to the brain, wiring isn’t everything. Although neurobiologists often talk in electrical metaphors, the reality is that the brain is not nearly as simple as a series of wires and circuits. Unlike their copper counterparts, neurons can behave differently depending on the situation. R...
Searching for drugs in dirt, researchers call on citizen scientists
Microbes are not only a rich source of disease, but also a rich source of medicines, and experts think many life-saving compounds produced by as-yet-unnamed bacteria are awaiting discovery. But they don’t always give up their secrets easily. Researchers must know where to look to find promising b...
Stem cell progeny tell their parents when to turn on
Stem cells switch off and on, sometimes dividing to produce progeny cells and sometimes resting. But scientists don’t fully understand what causes the cells to toggle between active and quiet states. New research in Elaine Fuchs’ Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development focused on s...
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