Genomic engineering is a staple of modern translational research; the ability to create alterations at the DNA level and explore their effects in various organisms has deepened our understanding of basic biologic function and of many human health disorders. About a year ago, scientists developed a new approach to genomic engineering called the CRISPR/Cas9 systemContinueContinue reading “Genome editing takes off”
Category Archives: research news
Flight of the bumblebee
During flight, insects beat their wings hundreds of times per second, faster than would be possible if their flight muscles worked by contraction, like vertebrate muscles do. How they do this is a matter of some debate, but new data from an x-ray scattering study suggest that insect flight muscle activation relies on a mechanismContinueContinue reading “Flight of the bumblebee”
EETs encourage growth
Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) are lipid mediators that facilitate the growth of new blood vessels. Such angiogenic factors are involved in responses to tissue injury and are required for normal organ and tissue regeneration, but a specific role for EETs in regeneration has not been established. To explore this possibility, Dipak Panigrahy (Harvard Medical School, Boston,ContinueContinue reading “EETs encourage growth”
Alternative splicing and muscle atrophy
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 is the second most common form of muscular dystrophy and the form most likely to occur in adults. The disorder is characterized by weakness and atrophy of type 1 (or slow) muscle fibers through mechanisms that, until recently, were not understood. Now, Zhihua Gao and Thomas A. Cooper (Baylor College ofContinueContinue reading “Alternative splicing and muscle atrophy”
Taking the bite out of TMJD pain
Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) is characterized by severe jaw pain associated with chewing or biting down. There is no effective treatment for the disorder, which affects more than 10 million Americans. TMJD can arise from trauma, but for many cases, the underlying cause is not known, hindering attempts to develop therapeutic strategies. A study byContinueContinue reading “Taking the bite out of TMJD pain”
New models for studying hepatitis C
For decades, chimpanzees have been the primary animal model for studying hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Efforts to develop other animal models have so far failed because chimps are the only species other than humans that are naturally susceptible to HCV. But as regulations surrounding chimpanzee research in the US have become more restrictive, theContinueContinue reading “New models for studying hepatitis C”
A synthetic treatment for tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a serious public health concern, especially as emerging forms of the disease are increasingly resistant to existing drugs. Thus, the discovery of a synthetic compound with anti-tuberculosis activity in mice brings new hope that effective treatment of the disease is possible. Lab Anim. (NY) 42, 310 (2013). view full text (login required)
Traversing the retina without damage
Hereditary retinal degeneration, in which mutations in photoreceptors and other delicate cells of the eye’s outermost retinal layer lead to deterioration and visual impairment, affects roughly 1 in 3,000 people worldwide. Gene therapy can successfully deliver normal copies of the mutated genes to the affected cells using adeno-associated virus (AAV) but requires that the virusContinueContinue reading “Traversing the retina without damage”
A spoonful of sugar
Mary Poppins may not be medically trained, but she was right about at least one thing: a spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down. Mannitol is a sugar alcohol used commercially as an artificial sweetener and medically to facilitate the delivery of drugs into the brain by disrupting the blood–brain barrier. Now,ContinueContinue reading “A spoonful of sugar”
It’s all in the ‘gloop’
In the naked mole-rat colony maintained by Vera Gorbunova and Andrei Seluanov at the University of Rochester (NY), rodents live for roughly 30 years but do not develop cancer, even in their old age. Gorbunova and Seluanov study the mole-rats’ unusual resistance to cancer in hopes that it will yield a better understanding—and possibly betterContinueContinue reading “It’s all in the ‘gloop’”
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