The Scientist

Aug

2010

Nanosensor peers inside cell

The Scientist blog August 12th, 2010.

A new virus-sized probe can look deeper into cells than ever before, and finally allows scientists to monitor intracellular activities without disrupting the cells’ external membranes, according to a study published today in Science.

“This is a paper that can bring breakthrough and revolutionary insight into our understanding of intracellular structures,” said Zhong Lin Wang, who develops nanotechnologies at the Georgia Institute of Technology but was not involved in the work. The new device is a type of sensor known as a transistor, which detects changes in electrical activity when touching or inserted into a cell. Read More >

Aug

2010

How huntingtin kills neurons?

The Scientist blog, August 11th, 2010.

Researchers have revealed new clues to how a defective form of the huntingtin protein may cause the deadly changes that lead to Huntington’s disease — by potentially disrupting the process of neurogenesis, thereby decreasing neural progenitor cells.

“[This is] the first study to demonstrate that normal huntingtin has fundamental developmental roles in mitotic spindle function during development and in the process of neurogenesis,” said Mark Mehler, a neurologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine who was not involved in the study. Mehler previously found that in Huntington’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases, this kind of defect can lead to neuronal death later in life. In Huntington’s disease, mutations in the huntingtin protein lead to progressively severe psychiatric, cognitive, and motor dysfunction through the death of brain cells. Read More >

Jul

2010

Tasty transgenics

The Scientist blog, July 27, 2010.

AquaBounty Technologies made big news when they announced they were getting close to approval for their fast-growing transgenic salmon, but this isn’t the only transgenic project with its eyes on our food supply. Several other projects are underway to develop transgenic animals that may eventually make their way into agriculture’s mainstream and end up in your grocery aisle. And scientists aren’t just interested in bigger animals — they’re also looking at making meat that’s more environmentally friendly, and healthier. Read More >

Jul

2010

Q&A: Do we need a stem cell bank?

The Scientist, July 26, 2010.

Among stem cell policy changes instituted since U.S. President Barack Obama took office, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) made a controversial move to not renew funding of a key stem cell bank established at the WiCell Institute in Wisconsin. Many scientists worry that without a national center to distribute human embryonic stem cell lines to researchers, the availability, cost and quality of cell lines will suffer as a result. But not all feel this way.

The Scientist spoke with Evan Snyder, a stem cell biologist from the Burnham Institute for Regenerative Medicine in San Diego, who says he doesn’t believe the community needs a nationally-funded bank.

Snyder, whose research focuses on the basic biology of stem cells and their potential applications, believes that in these tough financial times, researchers should do their academic duty and provide their stem cell lines to others at little or no cost, other than that of supplies and shipping. Read More >

Jul

2010

Meet 100-year-old salamander

The Scientist, July 20, 2010.

A blind, cave-dwelling amphibian appears to live for more than 100 years, an inexplicable feat that may eventually (when explained) provide insights into aging in other species.

But first, scientists have to unravel the mystery of how the species — known as “human fish” — achieves such longevity. “We cannot, at this time, say how this animal manages to survive such a long time,” said eco-physiologist Yann Voituron, from the Université Claude Bernard – Lyon, first author of the study published online today (July 21) in Biology Letters. Read More >

Jul

2010

The beauty of fish bones

The Scientist, July 14, 2010.

Sandwiched between two floors of dead fish at Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences, Kyle Luckenbill is creating art.

As the Academy’s curatorial assistant resident dead fish paparazzo he photographs and x-rays the institution’s 3,000 species-defining specimens as part of a National Science Foundation grant. “We didn’t really plan an exhibit with the project, but it was one of those things where it was sort of a no-brainer,” Luckenbill says. Read More >

Jul

2010

Longevity debate: Chips to blame?

The Scientist, July 13, 2010.

At the heart of a feverish debate over the validity of a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) of centenarians is the authors’ possible misuse of gene chips in different testing groups, part of an ongoing issue affecting other GWAS research. How this variation might impact the validity of the longevity findings, however, including the 150 SNPs associated with extreme longevity, is unclear.

The initially heralded study, published in Science Express July 2, examined the genomes of about 1,000 centenarians, those rare humans that have reached the age of 100, and compared them to those of controls. However, the authors used two different gene chips to analyze their centenarian population, with one gathering about 10 percent of the data. Read More >

Jun

2010

Longevity’s secret code revealed

The Scientist (blog), June 30, 2010.

Extreme longevity is associated with a select group of genetic markers, according to a new study of centenarians, people living at least 100 years. Using these markers, researchers can predict a person’s ability to become a centenarian with 77 percent accuracy.

“Exceptional longevity is not this vacuous entity that no one can figure out,” said lead author Thomas Perls, the director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston Medical Center. “I think we’ve made quite some inroads here in terms of demonstrating a pretty important genetic component to this wonderful trait.”

“This paper is an important breakthrough in the field,” agreed Jan Vijg, a gerontological geneticist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who did not participate in the study. Read More >

Jun

2010

Immunology 2.0: brain, gut?

The Scientist (blog), June 17, 2010.

In order to progress, should the field of immunology look to other organ systems such as the brain and gut, or should it focus its efforts on all that remains unknown about the immune system itself?

“The major advancements in any field come when branches of science collide,” said Kevin Tracey, an immunologist at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, one of the researchers asked to write their opinion about the future of immunology for the tenth-anniversary issue of Nature Immunology.

Tracey’s interests lie in the intersection of neurophysiology and immunology, which took the spotlight after the discovery that action potentials of the vagus nerve regulate the release of cytokines from the spleen and other organs. “That’s just the beginning. I think there is going to be a lot of nerves and a lot of circuits that control the immune system,” Tracey told The Scientist. Read More >