The burning, tingling pain of neuropathy may affect feet and hands before other body parts because the powerhouses of nerve cells that supply the extremities age and become dysfunctional as they complete the long journey to these areas, Johns Hopkin…
An ambitious hunt by Johns Hopkins scientists for actively “jumping genes” in humans has yielded compelling new evidence that the genome, anything but static, contains numerous pesky mobile elements that may help to explain why people have such a var…
In a proof of principal study in mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins and the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) have shown that a set of genetic instructions encased in a nanoparticle can be used as an “ignition switch” to rev up gene activity tha…
Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a previously unrecognized step in the activation of infection-fighting white blood cells, the main immunity troops in the body’s war on bacteria, viruses and foreign proteins.
“It’s as if we knew many of …
By tracking the flow of information in a cell preparing to split, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a protein mechanism that coordinates and regulates the dynamics of shape change necessary for division of a single cell into two daughter cell…
Studying mice, scientists have successfully prevented a molecular event in brain cells that they’ve found is required for storing spatial memories. Unlike regular mice, the engineered rodents quickly forgot where to find a resting place in a pool of water, the researchers report in the March 7 issue of the journal Cell. The experiments are believed to be the first to prove that subtly altering the chemistry of a certain protein can profoundly affect a brain cell’s ability to respond to external stimulation, a process called neuronal plasticity, long thought to underlie learning and memory.
Using the same technology that creates tiny, precisely organized computer chips, a research team has developed beds of thousands of independently moveable silicone “microneedles” to reveal the force exerted by smooth muscle cells. Each needle tip in the gadget, whose development and testing is reported this week in the advance online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, can be painted with proteins cells tend to grab onto. By measuring how far a contracting muscle cell moves each needle, the scientists can calculate the force generated by the cell.
Bilirubin has been a mystery of a molecule, associated with better health if there’s just a little more than normal, but best known for being at the root of the yellow color in jaundice and, at high levels, for causing brain damage in newborns. In the current online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team from Johns Hopkins reports that bilirubin and the enzyme that makes it appear to be the body’s most potent protection against oxidative damage.
The scientists who first discovered that knocking out a particular muscle gene results in “mighty mice” now report that it also softens the effects of a genetic mutation that causes muscular dystrophy. The findings build support for the idea that blocking the activity of that gene, known as myostatin, may one day help treat humans with degenerative muscle diseases.