laboratory mice
Feast or famine: Researchers identify leptin receptor’s sidekick as a target for appetite regulation
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A study by researchers at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Florida and Washington University School of Medicine adds a new twist to the body of evidence suggesting human obesity is due in part to genetic factors. While studying hormon…
New neuronal circuits which control fear have been identified
Fear is an adaptive response, essential to the survival of many species. This behavioural adaptation may be innate but can also be a consequence of conditioning, during the course of which an animal learns that a particular stimulus precedes an unpl…
Trojan Horse ploy to sneak protective drug into brains of stroke patients
Scientists are reporting development of a long-sought method with the potential for getting medication through a biological barrier that surrounds the brain, where it may limit the brain damage caused by stroke. Their approach for sneaking the nerve…
Hard work improves the taste of food, Johns Hopkins study shows
It’s commonly accepted that we appreciate something more if we have to work hard to get it, and a Johns Hopkins University study bears that out, at least when it comes to food.
The study seems to suggest that hard work can even enhance our appreci…
Brain might be key to leptin’s actions against type 1 diabetes, UT Southwestern researchers find
DALLAS — Oct. 20, 2010 — New findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers suggest a novel role for the brain in mediating beneficial actions of the hormone leptin in type 1 diabetes.
“Our findings really pave the way for understand…
UMD neuroscientists discover nicotine could play role in Alzheimer’s disease therapy
A team of neuroscientists has discovered important new information in the search for an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the debilitating neurological disorder that afflicts more than 5.3 million Americans and is the sixth-leading cause …
‘Co-conspirator’ cells could hold key to melanoma prediction, prevention
CORVALLIS, Ore. — New research on how skin cancer begins has identified adjacent cancer cells that scientists are calling “co-conspirators” in the genesis of melanoma, in findings that could someday hold the key to predicting, preventing and stoppi…
New gene therapy boosts immune system to cure cancer in mice
Using a novel gene therapy approach that boosts the body?s immune system, a researcher has cured cancer in laboratory mice. In experiments reported in the Dec. 15 issue of Cancer Research, Chung Lee and colleagues at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University applied the gene therapy technique to render immune cells insensitive to transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta), a powerful, naturally occurring substance in the body called an immunosuppressor that enables cancer cells to evade surveillance by the immune system. The approach boosted the mice?s immune system, which virtually eliminated cancerous tumors in the animals’ lungs and prostate gland.