Researchers in Egypt have developed a technique to compress DNA sequences of the kind used in medical research so that they take up a lot less space in a computer database but without loss of information. The approach is described in detail in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications. Molecular sequence databases, such as those at EMBL, GenBank, ...

A compound in coffee has been found to be estrogenic in studies by Texas AgriLife Research scientists. Though the studies have not been conducted to determine recommended consumption amounts, scientists say the compound, called trigonelline or "trig," may be a factor in estrogen-dependent breast cancer but beneficial against colon cancer development. ...

A study appearing in Science Translational Medicine puts scientists one step closer to clinical trials to test a gene delivery strategy to improve muscle mass and function in patients with certain degenerative muscle disorders. Severe weakness of the quadriceps is a defining feature of several neuromuscular disorders. Researchers at Nationwide Children`s Hospital have shown that a gene delivery st...

The long-held theory that our brains use different mechanisms for forming long-term and short-term memories has been challenged by new research from UCL, published in PNAS. Neuroscientists formed this theory based on observation of patients with amnesia, a condition that severely disrupts the ability to form long-lasting memories. Typically, amnesia is caused by injury to the hippocampi, a pair of...

Carotenoids — fat-soluble plant compounds found in some vegetables — are essential to the human diet and reportedly offer important health benefits to consumers. Plant carotenoids are the most important source of vitamin A in the human diet; the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, found in corn and leafy greens vegetable such as kale, broccoli, and spinach, are widely considered to be v...

In this week`s Nature, Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) scientists report a technological advance in the study of gene expression and regulation in the genome`s three-dimensional folding and looping state through the development of a novel technology. The technology is ChIA-PET (Chromatin Interaction Analysis using Paired End Tag sequencing). Chromatin is a complex combination of DNA and protei...

Most biopsies following mammograms reveal benign abnormalities, not cancer. But women may not have to endure the medical costs, stress and potential complications that accompany such invasive biopsies forever. A University of Florida biomedical engineering researcher is making progress on an "optical biopsy" that has the potential to determine whether growths are cancerous without ever p...

"There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel," says Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa following an encompassing geo-archaeological study at the port of Caesarea. "Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of r...

The underlying similarities between teaching, research and music can be a powerful metaphor for education and qualitative inquiry, according to a University of Illinois professor of education. Liora Bresler, a professor of curriculum and instruction in the U. of I. College of Education, says that the inherently performative and improvisatory aspects of teaching, along with the temporal, polyphonic...

People suffering from fibromyalgia have reduced activity in the parts of the brain that inhibit the experience of pain. Drugs that affect the CNS can be effective against the disease, and are thought to be even more so if administered early in its course, according to a new thesis from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet. "It`s a common misconception that fibromyalgia is a ma...