science wire

AAAS Notebook: Faculty views range across natural world, human health, more
Last week's American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver, BC, included 11 speakers from the University of Washington on topics including marine protected areas, the myth of black progress, women's reproductive health and how undergraduates learn best.

Yale’s Nelson gets $8.4 million grant to study photosynthesis
Timothy Nelson, professor of molecular, cellular & developmental biology, has been awarded an $8.4 million grant by the Plant Genome Research Program of the National Science Foundation to investigate

Surprising diversity at a synapse hints at complex diversity of neural circuitry
A new study reveals a dazzling degree of biological diversity in an unexpected place — a single neural connection in the body wall of flies. The finding raises several interesting questions about the importance of structure in the nervous system and the evolution of neural wiring.

New Book Ponders Ethical Issues of Genetic Testing
A patient who tested positive for the gene that leads to Huntington's disease wrestled with a host of questions.

Researcher wins novel grant to study lupus
Sandra Wolin of Yale School of Medicine, is among 12 investigators to receive a 2012 Novel Research Grant from the Lupus Research Institute (LRI) to conduct innovative work in lupus.

Rare fungus kills endangered rattlesnakes in southern Illinois
CHAMPAIGN, lll. - A small population of rattlesnakes that already is in decline in southern Illinois faces a new and unexpected threat in the form of a fungus rarely seen in the wild, researchers report. The eastern massasauga rattlesnake ( Sistrurus catenatus catenatus ), a candidate for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, suffers from habitat loss and environmental stresses wherever it is found, said University of Illinois comparative biosciences visiting instructor and wildlife veterinarian Matthew Allender, who led the health investigation.

Senior wins 2012 Gates Cambridge Scholarship

Wheat varieties are being developed to resist global threat
Innovative techniques in wheat breeding are necessary to meet the needs of the world's growing population and overcome environmental challenges, said Ravi Singh at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting, Feb.

Honeycomb structure responsible for bacteria’s extraordinary sense
Cornell researchers have peered into the complex molecular network of receptors that give one-celled organisms like bacteria the ability to sense their environment and respond to chemical changes as small as 1 part in 1,000. Just as humans use five senses to navigate through surroundings, bacteria employ an intricate structure of thousands of receptor molecules, associated enzymes and linking proteins straddling their cell membranes that trigger responses to external chemical changes.

New approach could more effectively diagnose personality disorders
Personality disorders could be more effectively diagnosed by identifying and targeting the disrupted neurobiological systems where the disorders originate, report Cornell researchers. The way that these mental illnesses are now classified - based on particular patterns of thought and behavior - is misguided and has little hard evidence to support it, reports Cornell neuroscientist Richard Depue and his colleague in a special issue of the Journal of International Review of Psychiatry (23:3).

Four Penn Researchers Awarded Sloan Fellowships
Four University of Pennsylvania faculty members are among this year's Sloan Fellowship recipients.

U-M Life Sciences Institute lab identifies potential antibiotic alternative to treat infection without resistance
U-M Life Sciences Institute lab identifies potential antibiotic alternative to treat infection without resistance ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a potential alternative to conventional antibiotics that could fight infection with a reduced risk of antibiotic resistance.

Earthducation Expedition 3 heads to Australia
U of M adventure learning team will explore the links between education and sustainability in far-reaching outposts of the driest inhabited continent MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (02/17/2012) —How can education advance sustainability?

The Splice of Life: Proteins Cooperate to Regulate Gene Splicing
RNAs wound in a knot and bound by hnRNP proteins illustrates the intractable problem of RNA regulation addressed by Huelga et al. Understanding how RNA binding proteins control the genetic splicing code is fundamental to human biology and disease - much like editing film can change a movie scene.

UCLA ranks second in nation in number of 2012 Alfred P. Sloan fellows
Six outstanding young profssors from UCLA are among 126 scientists and scholars from 51 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada to receive 2012 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Nanoparticles in food, vitamins could harm human health
Billions of engineered nanoparticles in foods and pharmaceuticals are ingested by humans daily, and new Cornell research warns they may be more harmful to health than previously thought. A research collaboration led by Michael Shuler, the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Chemical Engineering and the James and Marsha McCormick Chair of Biomedical Engineering, studied how large doses of polystyrene nanoparticles - a common, FDA-approved material found in substances from food additives to vitamins - affected how well chickens absorbed iron, an essential nutrient, into their cells.

Two U-M early-career scientists win 2012 Sloan research fellowships
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Two University of Michigan professors are among 126 researchers from across the United States and Canada selected as 2012 Alfred P. Sloan research fellows.

Express Yourself: How Zygotes Sort Out Imprinted Genes
Writing in the February 17, 2012 issue of the journal Cell , researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Toronto Western Research Institute peel away some of the enduring mystery of how zygotes or fertilized eggs determine which copies of parental genes will be used or ignored.

Three UCLA researchers honored for bravery in face of threats from extremists
Three UCLA professors have been recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for their "strong defense of the importance of the use of animals in research and their refusal to remain silent in the face of intimidation" by anti–animal research extremists.

Top researchers to lead U of T’s Institute for Human Development
Professor Stephen Lye will serve as the inaugural executive director and Professor Marla Sokolowski as the inaugural academic director of the University of Toronto's newly established Institute for Human Development.

BREAD grant funds research to tackle plant viral diseases
A team of international researchers is working to tackle the global problem of plant viral diseases that are spread by insects, thanks to close to $1 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

A neuroscientific odyssey into how we ’remember the future’
Shimon Edelman finds happiness when he hikes. He treks the canyons of the American southwest, the hills of the Negev Desert, the gorges of Ithaca.

Scientist Colón-Ramos wins prestigious Early Career Award

Psychiatric diagnoses: Why no one is satisfied
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—As the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is revised for the first time since 1994, controversy about psychiatric diagnosis is reaching a fever pitch.

Scientists report link between traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder
UCLA life scientists and their colleagues have provided the first evidence of a causal link between traumatic brain injury and an increased susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder. Their new study, published Feb. 15 in the in the journal Biological Psychology, also suggests that people who suffer even a mild traumatic brain injury are more likely to develop an anxiety disorder and should take precautions to avoid stressful situations for at least some period of time.

Art and Science Have a Chat in ’ANOMALIA’
In scientific research, an anomalous finding can be cast aside because it falls outside of the typical and does not fit cleanly in a normal distribution curve.

Women leave math-intensive science fields when they decide to have kids
Women with advanced degrees in math-intensive academic fields drop out of fast-track research careers primarily because they want children - not because their performance is devalued or they are shortchanged during ing and hiring, report two Cornell professors.

UCLA brain-imaging technique predicts who will suffer cognitive decline over time
Cognitive loss and brain degeneration currently affect millions of adults, and the number will increase, given the population of aging baby boomers. Today, nearly 20 percent of people age 65 or older suffer from mild cognitive impairment and 10 percent have dementia. UCLA scientists previously developed a brain-imaging tool to help assess the neurological changes associated with these conditions.

Explosive evolution need not follow mass extinctions
In the wake of a mass extinction like the one that occurred 445 million years ago, a common assumption is that surviving species tend to proliferate quickly into new forms, having outlived many of their competitors. But new research shows that tiny marine organisms called graptoloids did not begin to rapidly develop new physical traits until about 2 million years after competing species became extinct.

Could "Love Hormone" Help Treat Depression?
Gazing into your lover's eyes isn't only romantic; it also releases a brain chemical called oxytocin that strengthens social bonds in a variety of species.

Former Haverford President Stephen G. Emerson Appointed Director of the Herbert Irving Cancer Center
Stephen G. Emerson Former President of Haverford College Appointed Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center NEW YORK (Feb.

Distinguished NIH expert on physics of proteins to deliver three Regents lectures

New Molecule Has Potential to Help Treat Genetic Diseases and HIV
AUSTIN, Texas — Chemists at The University of Texas at Austin have created a molecule that's so good at tangling itself inside the double helix of a DNA sequence that it can stay there for up to 16 days before the DNA liberates itself, much longer than any other molecule reported.

Mats Sundin establishes medical fellowships at U of T, Karolinska Institutet
Former Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin announced today he will establish an elite scientific exchange program in the field of developmental health between the University of Toronto and Karolinska Insitutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Four U of’T researchers recognized as rising stars in global health
Losing a limb can be devastating enough, but the high cost of a prosthetic limb makes them unavailable to many in the developing world.

An eye for the tsetse fly
The female Aedes aegypti mosquito "is the lab rat of vector insects," says Attardo, who studied gene signaling in these mosquitoes for his doctoral research.

Possible Link Between Diet Soda and Vascular Risks
— People who drink diet soft drinks on a daily basis may be at increased risk of suffering vascular events such as stroke, heart attack, and vascular death, according to a new study led by Hannah Gardener, Sc.D., epidemiologist in the Miller School's Department of Neurology.

University of Minnesota and startup to develop antidote to cyanide poisoning
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (02/09/2012) —Cyanide poisoning is often fatal and typically affects victims of industrial accidents, terrorist attacks, or structural fires.

Integrated weed management best response to herbicide resistance
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Over-reliance on glyphosate-type herbicides for weed control on U.S. farms has created a dramatic increase in the number of genetically-resistant weeds, according to a team of agricultural researchers, who say the solution lies in an integrated weed management program.

Scientists boost memory by stimulating key site in brain
UCLA neuroscientists have demonstrated that they can strengthen memory in human patients by stimulating a critical junction in the brain. Published in the Feb. 9 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, the finding could lead to a new method for boosting memory in patients with early Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers Develop Gene Therapy to Boost Brain Repair for Demyelinating Diseases
Our bodies are full of tiny superheroes—antibodies that fight foreign invaders, cells that regenerate, and structures that ensure our systems run smoothly.

Eighth grader creates second iPhone app to benefit UCLA pediatric cancer research
When he was 11, Cameron Cohen created the hit drawing app iSketch for the iPhone and donated $20,000 of the proceeds from its sales to the Chase Child Life program at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA.

Seven UChicago faculty members receive named professorships
Seven members of the University faculty—Habibul Ahsan, Pete Angelos, Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer, Young-Kee Kim, Paul Mendes-Flohr, David H. Song, and Jerrold R. Turner—have received named professorships.

Inspiration for New Materials in Piranha-proof Armor
It's a matchup worthy of a late-night cable movie: put a school of starving piranha and a 300-pound fish together, and who comes out the winner? The surprising answer - given the notorious guillotine-like bite of the piranha - is Brazil's massive Arapaima fish.

Calories drive earlier puberty
Environmental pollutants, eating habits, lack of exercise and genetic traits have all been raised as possible causes of earlier puberty onset in girls in recent years.

Biologist Daniel Janzen Honored With BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award

Evolution’s oddities are focus of Darwin Day
The annual celebration of Charles Darwin's birthday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will highlight the evolutionary significance of strange life forms, including the octopus and enormous flowers.

Molecular Path From Internal Clock to Cells Controlling Rest and Activity Revealed in Penn Study
The molecular pathway that carries time-of-day signals from the body's internal clock to ultimately guide daily behavior is like a black box, says Amita Sehgal, PhD , the John Herr Musser Professor of Neuroscience and Co-Director, Comprehensive Neuroscience Center, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania .

Smallest tools could give biggest results in bone repair
When William Murphy works with some of the most powerful tools in biology, he thinks about making tools that can fit together.

It’s not solitaire: Brain activity differs when one plays against others
CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Researchers have found a way to study how our brains assess the behavior - and likely future actions - of others during competitive social interactions. Their study, described in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to use a computational approach to tease out differing patterns of brain activity during these interactions, the researchers report.

Public lectures explore the brain and behavior
Register for the lectures online or call 206-616-5274. See previous years' lectures on UWTV. How do fish hear and communicate with each other?

New device removes stroke-causing blood clots better than standard treatment
An experimental device for removing blood clots in stroke patients dramatically outperformed the standard mechanical treatment, according to research presented by UCLA Stroke Center director Jeffrey

Neurons from stem cells could replace mice in botulinum test
Using lab-grown human neurons, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have devised an effective assay for detecting botulinum neurotoxin, the agent widely used to cosmetically smooth the wrinkles of age and, increasingly, for an array of medical disorders ranging from muscle spasticity to loss of bladder control.

Scientists coax shy microorganisms to stand out in a crowd
“Untangling Genomes from Metagenomes: Revealing an Uncultured Class of Marine Euryarchaeota” Science, Feb. 3, 2012 The communities of marine microorganisms that make up half the biomass in the oceans and are responsible for half the photosynthesis the world over, mostly remain enigmatic.

For cutting-edge biomedical materials, try corn
Winter mini-course explores plant-derived materials for wound closures, drug delivery, and tissue engineering By Mureji Fatunde '12 Students in the undergraduate teaching labs at SEAS are investigating plant-based materials that may help regrow damaged neurons.

Here is what real commitment to your marriage means
What does being committed to your marriage really mean? UCLA psychologists answer this question in a new study based on their analysis of 172 married couples over the first 11 years of marriage.

How does the compassionate brain, measured in the lab, predict what occurs in real life?
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are launching a new series of studies to understand how laboratory measures of virtuous qualities such as compassion relate to their behavior in the real world. Richard J. Davidson , founder of the UW's Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) , at the Waisman Center, has received a three-year, $1.7 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to develop laboratory and real-world measures of virtuous qualities such as altruism and compassion.

Nano-Sized Protein Clusters Address Major Challenge of Drug Delivery
AUSTIN, TX — A new form of proteins discovered by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin could drastically improve treatments for cancer and other diseases, as well as overcome some of the largest challenges in therapeutics: delivering drugs to patients safely, easily and more effectively.

MIT faculty speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos
Talks explore the mind/machine interface and the science of predicting the economy, among other topics.

Scientists decode brain waves to eavesdrop on what we hear
Neuroscientists may one day be able to hear the imagined speech of a patient unable to speak due to stroke or paralysis, according to University of California, Berkeley, researchers. Frequency spectrograms of the actual spoken words (top) and the sounds as reconstructed by two separate models based solely on recorded temporal lobe activity in a volunteer subject.

Qi wins prestigious American Diabetes Association award

Carnegie Mellon University Computer Scientist Wins International Prize for Computational Biology
: Carnegie Mellon University Computer Scientist Wins International Prize for Computational Biology-Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University Ziv Bar-Joseph To Receive Overton Prize, Pr

Watching the Engine of Life, in Real Time, to Understand How Things Go Wrong
Ruben Gonzalez views ribosomes—the minute particles in cells that make proteins—as the “machines” of life. Naturally, the associate professor of chemistry is interested in watching these little protein-producing factories in real time, especially when they malfunction and cause disease.

The Waisman Center: Decades later, what would Harry think?
Last fall, the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison bid successfully for the same National Institutes of Health core grant that the late Harry Waisman first won 45 years ago. Harry Waisman, left, with colleagues C.S. Reiquam and Nathan J. Smith, examine pathology microscope slides in a research lab.

Addicts’ cravings have different roots in men and women
When it comes to addiction, sex matters. A new brain imaging study by Yale School of Medicine researchers suggests stress robustly activates areas of the brain associated with craving in cocaine-dependent women, while drug cues activate similar brain regions in cocaine-dependent men. The study, expected to be published online Jan.

Yale lectures focus on music and human evolution
The 2012 Shulman Lectures in Science and the Humanities will explore the human capacity for music-making and music perception in light of new developments in evolutionary science and theory.

Physics at 2,500 feet
Sharing his lifelong passion for flight, CNS manager T. Fettah Kosar teaches aerodynamics from the cockpit Ismail Türsan, at right, stands in front of the Kleopatra, a glider he built with his friends and flew in 1934, in Turkey.

Give undergraduates the ’gift’ of adaptive learning, committee tells senate
The first senate meeting of winter quarter focused on The Study of Undergraduate Education at Stanford.

Scientists Link Evolved, Mutated Gene Module to Syndromic Autism
A team led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports that newly discovered mutations in an evolved assembly of genes cause Joubert syndrome, a form of syndromic autism. The findings are published in the January 26 online issue of Science Express . Joubert syndrome is a rare, recessive brain condition characterized by malformation or underdevelopment of the cerebellum and brainstem.

McGill University’s Life Sciences Complex earns LEED Gold certification
Life Sciences video: http://www.youtube.com/watch'v=gV2MFmckUXw McGill University's Life Sciences Complex has been awarded LEED gold certification for new construction from the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), a significant upgrade from the silver rating that was first sought.

Faculty Senate to hear report on reimagining undergraduate education

Penn Anthropologists Clarify Link Between Asians and Early Native Americans
A tiny mountainous region in southern Siberia may have been the genetic source of the earliest Native Americans, according to new research by a University of Pennsylvania-led team of anthropologists. Lying at the intersection of what is today Russia, Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan, the region known as the Altai "is a key area because it's a place that people have been coming and going for thousands and thousands of years," said Theodore Schurr , an associate professor in Penn's Department of Anthropology.

Rotational Motion of Cells that Plays a Critical Role in Their Normal Development
Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered a rotational motion in human breast cells that continues through mitosis and enables the cells and their progeny to form sphere-shaped acini. In a study that holds major implications for breast cancer research as well as basic cell biology, scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a rotational motion that plays a critical role in the ability of breast cells to form the spherical structures in the mammary gland known as acini.

New Fluorescent Dyes Highlight Neuronal Activity
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have created a new generation of fast-acting fluorescent dyes that optically highlight electrical activity in neuronal membranes. The work is published in this week's online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

Janet Rowley to receive Japan Prize for role in development of targeted cancer therapy
Janet Davison Rowley, the Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago, will receive the 2012 Japan Prize for Healthcare and Medical Technology.

Attack or retreat? Circuit links hunger and pursuit in sea slug brain
CHAMPAIGN, lll. - If you were a blind, cannibalistic sea slug, living among others just like you, nearly every encounter with another creature would require a simple cost/benefit calculation: Should I eat that, do nothing or flee? In a new study, researchers report that these responses are linked to a simple circuit in the brain of the sea slug Pleurobranchaea .

Envelope for an Artificial Cell
Neal Davaraj watches as undergraduate student Weilong Li works on a next step in their quest to create an entirely artificial cell.

Under the Electron Microscope - A 3-D Image of an Individual Protein
When Gang Ren whirls the controls of his cryo-electron microscope, he compares it to fine-tuning the gearshift and brakes of a racing bicycle. But this machine at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is a bit more complex. It costs nearly $1.5 million, operates at the frigid temperature of liquid nitrogen, and it is allowing scientists to see what no one has seen before.

Making Sense of Sensory Connections
A key feature of human and animal brains is that they are adaptive; they are able to change their structure and function based on input from the environment and on the potential associations, or consequences, of that input. For example, if a person puts his hand in a fire and gets burned, he learns to avoid flames; the simple sight of a flame has acquired a predictive value, which in this case, is repulsive.

Restored wetlands rarely equal condition of original wetlands
Restored wetlands like this pond converted from agricultural use in Aragon, Spain, may look natural, but a new study shows that it can take hundreds of years for restored wetlands to accumulate the plant assemblages and carbon resources of a natural, undamaged wetland. Credit: David Moreno-Mateos/UC Berkeley Wetland restoration is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States that aims to create ecosystems similar to those that disappeared over the past century.

Ancient dinosaur nursery oldest nesting site yet found
An excavation at a site in South Africa has unearthed the 190-million-year-old dinosaur nesting site of the prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus-revealing significant clues about the evolution of complex reproductive behaviour in early dinosaurs. The newly unearthed dinosaur nesting ground predates previously known nesting sites by 100 million years, according to study authors.

Among disadvantaged, college reduces odds for marriage
For those with few social advantages, college is a prime pathway to financial stability, but it also unexpectedly lowers their odds of ever marrying, according to an analysis by Cornell sociologist Kelly Musick in the February issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family (74:1).

Gene Therapy Research team from Penn Vet and Scheie Eye Institute Cures Retinitis Pigmentosa in Dogs
Members of a University of Pennsylvania research team have shown that they can prevent, or even reverse, a blinding retinal disease, X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa, or XLRP, in dogs. The disease in humans and dogs is caused by defects in the RPGR gene and results in early, severe and progressive vision loss.

Elliott Levinthal, Stanford professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, dead at 89
In a career that ranged from radar to medicine to outer space, Elliott Levinthal played an instrumental role in the schools of Engineering and Medicine, and in the rise of Silicon Valley.

Seeking the neurological roots of conflict
MIT neuroscientists explore how longstanding conflict influences empathy for others. MIT postdoc Emile Bruneau has long been drawn to conflict - not as a participant, but an observer. In 1994, while doing volunteer work in South Africa, he witnessed firsthand the turmoil surrounding the fall of apartheid; during a 2001 trip to visit friends in Sri Lanka, he found himself in the midst of the violent conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan military.

UCLA joins forces with White House to meet unique needs of veterans, families
As part of a White House effort to ensure that America's military heroes receive care worthy of their service, the UCLA Health System and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have pledged to m

Sustainable seaweed: Researchers explore algae-based animal feed
The pigs and poultry in Professor Xingen Lei's lab have been consuming feed one wouldn't expect in Ithaca: marine algae.

Interdisciplinary science building opens doors to researchers
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - When Penn State's Millennium Science Complex opened its doors to researchers this fall, it inaugurated a new era of scientific discovery at the intersection of materials science, engineering, nanoscience and the life sciences at Penn State.

Origins of Esophageal Cancer
VIDEO: Richard Mayeux discusses ongoing Alzheimer's Disease research.

Researchers Help Solve Questions About Ethiopians’ High-Altitude Adaptations
Over many generations, people living in the high-altitude regions of the Andes or on the Tibetan Plateau have adapted to life in low-oxygen conditions. Living with such a distinct and powerful selective pressure has made these populations a textbook example of evolution in action, but exactly how their genes convey a survival advantage remains an open question.

New collaboration to benefit women faculty in STEM
Northwestern University and the University of Chicago have launched the Chicago Collaboration for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics , a three-year effort to enhance the recruitment and advancement of women faculty members in those fields.

Biologists replicate key evolutionary step
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (01/17/2012) —More than 500 million years ago, single-celled organisms on the Earth's surface began forming multicellular clusters that ultimately became plants and animals. Just how that happened is a question that has eluded evolutionary biologists. But scientists in the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences have replicated that key step in the laboratory using natural selection and common brewer's yeast, which are single-celled organisms.

From field to biorefinery: Computer model optimizes biofuel operations
CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Research into biofuel crops such as switchgrass and Miscanthus has focused mainly on how to grow these crops and convert them into fuels. But many steps lead from the farm to the biorefinery, and each could help or hinder the growth of this new industry. A new computer model developed at the University of Illinois can simplify this transition, researchers say.

Guilt, gender play major roles in human-animal relations
Until recently, most archaeologists viewed human-animal relationships primarily in terms of their dietary role.

Researchers put the squeeze on citrus disease by developing trees that taste bad to bugs
With Florida's $9 billion citrus industry threatened by a deadly bacterial disease, Rick Kress '73 asked scientists at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva for help.

Probing Question: Are invasive plants always a threat?
Board chair and vice chair issue statement on questions about Paterno Alumni Town Hall meetings begin in Pittsburgh Panel discussion 'Responding to Child Sexual Abuse' set for Jan.

Hongyu Zhao is appointed to the Hiscock Professorship
Hongyu Zhao , who was designated as the Ira V. Hiscock Professor of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health, develops in his laboratory mathematical, statistical, computational, and visualization tools needed to address scientific problems in molecular biology and genetics.

English literature influenced prize-winning paleontologist
For a short time in grade school, Kevin Boyce lived within two blocks of the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, a place where ice age mammal fossils had been discovered.

Class snapshot: 'Disease Ecology, Economics and Policy'
  The course "Disease Ecology, Economics and Policy" focuses on global health, combining insights from epidemiology, biology and economics to explore how these influence policy.

Diet counts: Iron intake in teen years can impact brain in later life
Iron is a popular topic in health news. Doctors prescribe it for medical reasons, and it's available over the counter as a dietary supplement. And while it's known that too little iron can result in cognitive problems, it's also known that too much promotes neurodegenerative diseases. Now, researchers at UCLA have found that in addition to causing cognitive problems, a lack of iron early in life can affect the brain's physical structure as well.

New Information on the Waste-Disposal Units of Living Cells
Important new information on one of the most critical protein machines in living cells has been reported by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. The researchers have provided the most detailed look ever at the "regulatory particle" used by the protein machines known as proteasomes to identify and degrade proteins that have been marked for destruction.

Innovative research rewarded
Research excellence in projects as varied as plastic solar cells, “extreme” astronomical devices to detect earth-like planets outside our solar system and the potential of music to promot

Howard Bern, expert on effects of hormones, has died at 91
Howard A. Bern, professor emeritus of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a pioneer in understanding how hormones affect development, including that of the human fetus, died Jan.

Carnegie Mellon Will Tap Advanced Computer Methods To Help Doctors Make Sense of Their Patients’ DNA
: Carnegie Mellon Will Tap Advanced Computer Methods To Help Doctors Make Sense of Their Patients' DNA-Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University Ion Torrent Systems Sponsors Multi-Univ

Yale one of first institutions to get powerful new DNA sequencing technology
Yale University is one of three institutions to acquire new DNA sequencing technology that its creator says will allow researchers to sequence the entire human genome within 24 hours at a cost of just $1,000. The benchtop DNA sequencers, developed by Yale alumnus Jonathan M. Rothberg, represent a dramatic improvement over existing technology that can take months and up to $10,000 to sequence the three billion letters of the human genome.

Protein changes identified in early-onset Alzheimer’s
With a lack of effective treatments for Alzheimer's, most of us would think long and hard about whether we wanted to know years in advance if we were genetically predisposed to develop the disease. For researchers, however, such knowledge is a window into Alzheimer's disease's evolution. Understanding the biological changes that occur during the clinically "silent" stage — the years before symptoms appear — provides clues about the causes of the disease and may offer potential targets for drugs that will stop it from progressing.

Intimate Science" Exhibition Opens at Carnegie Mellon’s Miller Gallery, Jan. 20 - March 4
: "Intimate Science" Exhibition Opens at Carnegie Mellon's Miller Gallery, Jan.

Strep-resistant fire blight found in New York orchards
Cornell plant pathologists have issued a warning to New York apple and pear growers after discovering a strain of fire blight that is resistant to such traditional treatments as the antibiotic streptomycin.

Revolutionary tool will methodically track fish populations in the ocean
Oceanographer Chuck Greene envisions a day when he will be able to observe the ocean the way a meteorologist observes the weather - with continuous streams of data that allow him to see changes as they happen and predict future impacts on marine animal populations and ecosystems. That day may be coming soon, thanks to a revolutionary ocean-observing tool he is helping to optimize, one capable of collecting and transmitting ecosystem data to his desktop in real time.

New Chair Named for UC San Diego Department of Medicine
Wolfgang H. Dillmann, MD, has been selected as chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

’Smart’ bird feeders can track who eats when
To study bird feeding and breeding behavior, ornithologists used to tag birds with colored bands and then painstakingly track the birds' activity.

Free and Public Lectures Series at UC San Diego Explores What it Means To Be Human
What does it mean to be human? Are there essential human qualities and characteristics? How do we know what they are? And how did we acquire them? These questions will be explored in "Making of the M

Four Penn Professors Named AAAS Fellows

Professor’s cell phone microscope honored as best innovation of 2011
A groundbreaking imaging technology developed by UCLA Engineering professor Aydogan Ozcan that can turn a simple cell phone into a powerful microscope has been named the top innovation of 2011 by The Scientist , a magazine focusing on the life sciences, research and technology.

Study pinpoints Ritalin’s influence
MADISON -Millions of individuals diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are helped by methylphenidate, the stimulant better known as Ritalin. Now researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have pinpointed the area of the brain in which Ritalin does its work. "These drugs are highly effective at controlling the symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder for the great majority of patients," says Craig Berridge , a UW psychology professor.

’Back talk’ from blood cells to their progenitors is critical to balancing blood supply
When it comes to the body's blood supply, maintaining the right balance is crucial. UCLA stem cell scientists have now discovered that in the common fruit fly, this balancing act requires a complex "conversation" involving more parties than originally thought. In a new study, they show that two-way signaling from two different sets of cells is necessary for bloody-supply balance, both to ensure that enough blood cells are produced to respond to injury and infection and that blood progenitor cells remain available for future needs.

Leaping lizards and dinosaurs inspire robot design
An African Agama lizard swings its tail upward to prevent pitching forward after a slip during take-off.

Compound that controls Listeria
In a year when cantaloupe tainted with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes killed 30 people, the discovery of a compound that controls this deadly bacteria - and possibly others - is great news. Cornell researchers have identified a compound called fluoro-phenyl-styrene-sulfonamide (FPSS) that is safe for mammals but stops Listeria in its tracks.

CAD for RNA
The computer assisted design (CAD) tools that made it possible to fabricate integrated circuits with millions of transistors may soon be coming to the biological sciences. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have developed CAD-type models and simulations for RNA molecules that make it possible to engineer biological components or "RNA devices" for controlling genetic expression  in microbes.

University of Texas Chemist Receives Major Grant to Improve Detection of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
AUSTIN, Texas — Developing a simple, paper-based test for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is the goal of a University of Texas at Austin chemist, whose project just received a $1.6 million point-of-care diagnostics grant through Grand Challenges in Global Health , an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

How the Brain Cell Works: A Dive Into Its Inner Network
— University of Miami (UM) biology professor Akira Chiba is leading a multidisciplinary team to develop the first systematic survey of protein interactions within brain cells.

Study details how dengue infection hits harder second time around
http://www.berkeley.edu/news2/2011/12/dengue.flv As part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's (HHMI) 2010 Holiday Lectures on Science, UC Berkeley's Eva Harris talked about her work with scientists and clinicians in Nicaragua on dengue over the past two decades. Here, several partners in Nicaragua talk about the impact of this collaboration.

Rare Genetic Mutations Linked To Bipolar Disorder
An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, reports that abnormal sequences of DNA known as rare copy number variants, or CNVs, appear to play a significant role in the risk for early onset bipolar disorder. The findings will be published in the December 22 issue of the journal Neuron .

How do we split our attention?
McGill's Cognitive Neurophysiology Lab team finds that we are natural-born multi-taskers Imagine you're a hockey goalie, and two opposing players are breaking in alone on you, passing the puck back and forth. You're aware of the linesman skating in on your left, but pay him no mind. Your focus is on the puck and the two approaching players.

Sensor that may explain working memory
In many cases, a delay occurs between the time you are presented information and the time you respond with an action or decision. Most of us call it a thought, while some scientists call it working memory. University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers believe they now understand on the cellular level how working memory holds a piece of information - or thoughts linger.

New Take on Impacts of Low Dose Radiation:
Imaging of a cell's DNA damage response to radiation shows that 1.5 minutes after irradiation, the sizes and intensities of radiation induced foci (RIF) are small and weak, but 30 minutes later damage sites have clustered into larger and brighter RIF, probably reflecting DNA repair centers.

Stopping influenza evolution before it starts
Model of flu proteins suggests new way to design vaccines that slow mutations. If you get vaccinated against the flu and then become infected with the virus, your body mounts an immune response that prevents you from getting sick. However, that pressure from the immune system can provoke the virus to mutate into a slightly different form - one that could be more infectious.

Snipping key nerves may help life-threatening heart rhythms
What do sweaty palms and abnormal heart rhythms have in common? Both can be initiated by the nervous system during an adrenaline-driven "flight-or-fight" stress reaction, when the body senses danger.

To turn up the heat in chilies, just add water
Biologists have learned in recent years that wild chilies develop their trademark pungency, or heat, as a defense against a fungus that could destroy their seeds. But that doesn't explain why some chilies are hot and others are not. New research provides an answer: Hot chilies growing in dry areas need more water to produce as many seeds as non-pungent plants, but the Fusarium fungus is less of a threat in dryer environments so chilies in those areas are less likely to turn up the heat.

Antimicrobials, perfumes, drugs pose challenges for sewage treatment
CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Think of it like sourdough. Or beer. Or yogurt. These popular products are all created through a process that involves using bacteria to systematically break down organic matter.

Penn Receives $16 Million Gift to Launch New Initiative Focusing on the Neuroscience of Behavior
The Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania announces the establishment of the Neuroscience of Behavior Initiative .

Secrets of Sharks Revealed
— Coral Gables — A new study examining the complex and dynamic interactions between white sharks and Cape fur seals in False Bay, South Africa, offers new insights on the physical conditions and biological factors underlying predator-prey interactions in the marine environment. Neil Hammerschlag, an assistant professor at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and a colleague from the University of British Columbia describe how sharks are camouflaged as they stalk their prey from below.

Scientist Receives Senior Scholar Award from Ellison Medical Foundation for Aging Research
James Eberwine, PhD , professor of Pharmacology, at the Perleman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania , has received a Senior Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation.

Understanding the Mechanical Biology of Life’s Bonds
Julio Fernandez talks about creating a new field, mechanical biology, to further study protein dynamics.

UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts announces events for winter 2012
Media Arts (DMA) is offering a variety of events for the public's enjoyment this winter, including exhibitions, seminars, symposia and lectures.

Tool detects patterns hidden in vast data sets
Relationships uncovered in data from biology, baseball, and more Researchers from the Broad Institute and Harvard University have developed a tool that can tackle large data sets in a way that no other software program can. Part of a suite of statistical tools called MINE, it can tease out multiple patterns hidden in health information from around the globe, statistics amassed from a season of major league baseball, data on the changing bacterial landscape of the gut, and much more.

New book on teen brains can help improve reasoning, decision making
Teenage brains undergo big changes, and they won't look or function like adult brains until well into one's 20s.

Let’s do the twist: Spiral proteins are efficient gene delivery agents
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Clinical gene therapy may be one step closer, thanks to a new twist on an old class of molecules. A group of University of Illinois researchers, led by professors Jianjun Cheng and Fei Wang, have demonstrated that short spiral-shaped proteins can efficiently deliver DNA segments to cells.

Acid rain poses a previously unrecognized threat to Great Lakes sugar maples
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The number of sugar maples in Upper Great Lakes forests is likely to decline in coming decades, according to University of Michigan ecologists and their colleagues, due to a previously unrecognized threat from a familiar enemy: acid rain. Over the past four decades, sugar maple abundance has declined in some regions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, due largely to acidification of calcium-poor granitic soils in response to acid rain.

Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos donate $15 million to create center in Princeton Neuroscience Institute
  Jeff Bezos, shown speaking at the University's 2010 Baccalaureate ceremony, and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, both alumni, are donating $15 million to establish the Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute.   Photo by Denise Applewhite   by Ruth Stevens Princeton University alumnus Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, and alumna MacKenzie Bezos, are donating $15 million to the University to create a center in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute.

Obituary Notice: Renowned Research Physiologist Jeffrey B. Graham
Jeffrey B. Graham, a research physiologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, died of cancer at his home in San Diego, Calif., on Dec.

Donoghue wins international botany prize

Study debunks myths about gender and math performance
A major study of recent international data on school mathematics performance casts doubt on some common assumptions about gender and math achievement — in particular, the idea that girls and women have less ability due to a difference in biology. "We tested some recently proposed hypotheses that try to explain a supposed gender gap in math performance and found they were not supported by the data," says Janet Mertz , senior author of the study and a professor of oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Stanford offers its own take on the Occupy movement
On Friday afternoon, students and faculty held Occupy the Future, an event that included teach-ins and a rally on White Plaza.

Fisheries lands a Ray Troll - with slideshow
To go: Fisheries Sciences Building 1122 NE Boat Street Building hours: Weekdays, 7am-5:30pm.

Bold ideas win 1,000 Pitches entrepreneurship contest
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - What if your car radio could let you know an ambulance or fire engine was approaching?

What do animals ’know’? More than you may think
"Rats often make judgments and behave as if they're rational creatures," said UCLA associate professor of psychology Aaron Blaisdell, a member of UCLA's Brain Research Institute and senior author of a new study published in the December issue of the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

Artificial intestine could treat children’s bowel condition
A tiny 3-D collagen "scaffold" developed in a Cornell lab could prove a lifesaver for those who have lost parts of their intestine.

Sound and vision work hand in hand, UCLA psychologists report
"If we think of the perceptual system as a democracy where each sense is like a person casting a vote and all votes are counted to reach a decision — although not all votes are counted equally — what our study shows is that the voters talk to one another and influence one another even before each casts a vote," said Ladan Shams, a UCLA associate professor of psychology and the senior author of the new study.

Researchers Receive $300,000 Award to Advance Technology With Potential to Predict Heart Attacks
AUSTIN, TX — A University of Texas at Austin engineering professor and a cardiologist from UT Medicine San Antonio have received a $300,000 award to develop a new imaging technique with the potential to predict, or even prevent, heart attacks. Biomedical engineering Professor Thomas E. Milner of the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, and his longstanding collaborator Marc D. Feldman will serve as investigators for the Houston-based Clayton Foundation for Research and receive its ongoing support.

How Salmonella forms evil twins to evade the body’s defenses
An unusual regulatory mechanism that controls the swimmer/non-swimmer option in genetically identical Salmonella also impacts the bacteria's ability to cause infection.

5 UCLA professors named fellows by American Association for the Advancement of Science
Five UCLA scholars have been selected as fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science.

Research on sand dunes wins award
A Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q)/Cornell research project to better understand microbes in sand dunes and engineer microbiological methods to prevent mobile sand dunes from encroaching onto infrastructure won the "Best Environment Research Program of the Year" at the Annual Research Forum of the Qatar Foundation in Doha, Nov.

Study may lead to drug therapies to prevent atherosclerosis
As inevitable as the wrinkling of skin with age is the hardening of the blood vessels - a condition called atherosclerosis that is often blamed for heart disease. New Cornell research offers a clue into the underlying causes of atherosclerosis in terms of how the cells that line the blood vessels, called endothelial cells, behave as the vessels stiffen with age.

UW scientist gets major boost in search for HIV vaccine
Dr. Shiu-Lok Hu, Gibaldi Endowed Professor of Pharmaceutics at the UW School of Pharmacy, created the “prime-boost” immunization method in the late 1980s while working at Oncogen. This method uses two vaccine components — a relatively harmless virus that delivers HIV proteins and primes the immune system, followed by booster shots of the HIV proteins themselves.

Research could help people with declining sense of smell
University of California, Berkeley, neuroscientists have discovered a genetic trigger that makes the nose renew its smell sensors, providing hope for new therapies for people who have lost their sense of smell due to trauma or old age.

Novel nanoparticle mimicking virus offers new route to gene therapy
Researchers at Yale University have developed a novel nanoparticle with promising applications in gene therapy, a type of medical treatment that addresses the root causes of diseases now typically treated for symptoms. The advance could lead to new therapies for many forms of cancer, including brain tumors, as well as for cystic fibrosis and Huntington's Disease.

Researchers suggest unconventional approach to control HIV epidemics
A new weapon has emerged to prevent HIV infection. Called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, it is a strategy of providing medications to at-risk people before they are exposed to the virus. Having shown great promise in recent phase 3 clinical trials, PrEP may soon be rolled out for public use. Because PrEP is based on the same drugs used to treat HIV-infected individuals, the big public health fear is that the dual use of these drugs will lead to skyrocketing levels of drug resistance.

Five Penn Researchers Named American Physical Society Fellows
PHILADELPHIA - The American Physical Society has elected five University of Pennsylvania faculty members to its 2011 APS Fellowship class.

Video game players advancing genetic research
Users of game designed by McGill researchers contributing to analysis of DNA sequences Thousands of video game players have helped significantly advance our understanding of the genetic basis of diseases such as Alzheimer's, diabetes and cancer over the past year. They are the users of a web-based video game developed by Jérôme Waldispuhl of the McGill School of Computer Science and collaborator Mathieu Blanchette.

$11 Million grant makes Yale a national center for study of rare diseases
Yale University will be home to one of three national centers created to study the genetics of rare inherited diseases, thanks to a $48 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, federal officials announced Dec.

UW funded to realize medical applications of genome sequencing
To accelerate genome sequencing applications for patient care, the National Human Genome Research Institute today, Tuesday, Dec. 6, announced the establishment of two major programs at the University of Washington. Center for Mendelian Genomics: The UW will be home to one of three new centers nationwide that will search for the genes underlying Mendelian disorders.

New Round of Cancer Research Grants Attracts Rising Young Researcher to The University of Texas at Austin Faculty
AUSTIN, Texas — With a $2 million startup grant from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), biologist Jason Upton will join the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in January to continue his efforts to improve existing cancer therapies and develop new ones.

Acquired Traits Can Be Inherited via Small RNAs
VIDEO: Richard Mayeux discusses ongoing Alzheimer's Disease research. MEDIA INQUIRIES Main number: (212) 305-3900 cumcnews [a] columbia (p) edu Acquired Traits Can Be Inherited via Small RNAs Published: December 5, 2011 New York, NY (December 2, 2011) - Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have found the first direct evidence that an acquired trait can be inherited without any DNA involvement.

Stem Cell ’Collaboratory’ Opens on UC San Diego Campus
Stem cells are tiny things, microscopic in fact. It's the power of their pluripotency, their ability to become any kind of cell in the human body (and thus potentially fix almost any kind of human ailment) that makes them huge in the future of medicine.

SDSC’s Triton Resource Helps "Track" How Kinesin Molecules Move
(A) Electrostatic properties of the kinesin family. Electrostatic properties of different kinesin representatives are expressed as a color spectrum ranging from positive (blue) to negative (red). (B) A consensus electrostatic potential map of the kinesin family illustrating conserved charged regions.

Campus Leaders Describe Plans to “Flash Forward from 50” in Research and Discovery
As the campus looks beyond last year's 50th anniversary celebrations, university leaders are developing a new long-term vision for the decades ahead. The central idea behind that vision is a familiar one: "We will build on faculty collaboration across disciplines to produce transformative research with societal impact." The Founders' Symposium, held on Nov.

Eight Illinois faculty members elected fellows of AAAS

Two faculty delegations visit Swedish universities to strengthen ties
Two delegations of Cornell faculty members traveled to Swedish universities this fall to plant seeds for future collaborations.

Boyce Thompson joins forces with other plant nonprofits to benefit humanity
Boyce Thompson joins forces with other plant nonprofits to benefit humanity The Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI) at Cornell has joined forces with three other U.S. nonprofit plant science research institutions to form the Association of Independent Plant Research Institutes (AIPI) in an effort to target research to meet the profound challenges facing society in a more coordinated and rapid fashion.

Orphan experiences lead to changes in children’s genome functioning
Children who experience the stress of separation at birth from biological parents and are brought up in orphanages undergo biological consequences such as changes in their genome functioning, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study. Published online in the current issue of Development and Psychopathology, the study reports differences in DNA methylation, one of the main regulatory mechanisms of gene expression, or genome functioning.

Penn Geneticists Help Show Bitter Taste Perception Is Not Just About Flavors
PHILADELPHIA - Long the bane of picky eaters everywhere, broccoli's taste is not just a matter of having a cultured palate; some people can easily taste a bitter compound in the vegetable that others have difficulty detecting. Now a team of Penn researchers has helped uncover the evolutionary history of one of the genes responsible for this trait.

Pioneering molecular biologist, formerly at UW-Madison, passes away
Masayasu Nomura, a molecular biologist who studied the structure that forms proteins inside cells at University of Wisconsin-Madison between 1963 and 1984, passed away on Nov.

Orphaned children exhibit genetic changes that require nurturing parents
Children who experience the stress of separation at birth from biological parents and are brought up in orphanages undergo biological consequences such as changes in their genome functioning, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study. Published online in the current issue of Development and Psychopathology, the study reports differences in DNA methylation, one of the main regulatory mechanisms of gene expression, or genome functioning.

Older may not mean better when it comes to human embryonic stem cell lines
Older, established human embryonic stem cell lines, including those approved for federal research funding under former President George W. Bush, differ from newly derived human embryonic stem cell lines, according to a study by UCLA stem cell researchers.

Powerful mathematical model greatly improves predictions for species facing climate change
UCLA life scientists and colleagues have produced the most comprehensive mathematical model ever devised to track the health of populations exposed to environmental change.

SEAS heats up for winter 2012