Discovery of Agile Molecular Motors Could Aid in Treating Motor Neuron Diseases

Over the last several months, the labs of Yale Goldman, MD, PhD, Director of the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Erika Holzbaur, PhD, Professor of Physiology, have published a group of papers that, taken together, show proteins that function as molecular motors are surprisingly flexible and agile, able to navigate obstacles within the cell. These observations could lead to better ways to treat motor neuron diseases..More...

MIT scientists create fiber webs that see

In a radical departure from conventional lens-based optics, MIT scientists have developed a sophisticated optical system made of mesh-like webs of light-detecting fibers. The fiber constructs, which have a number of advantages over their lens-based predecessors More...

UF scientists reverse muscle contractions in mouse model of muscular dystrophy

University of Florida scientists have used gene therapy to eliminate disabling muscle contractions in a mouse model of the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy.

The inherited disorder, known as myotonic dystrophy, is found in one of every 8,000 people and causes skeletal muscles to lose the ability to relax once they contract. More...

Gatekeeping: Penn Researchers Find New Way to Open Ion Channels in Cell Membranes

Using an enzyme found in the venom of the brown recluse spider, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a new way to open molecular pores, called ion channels, in the membrane of cells. The research team - Zhe Lu, MD, PhD, Yajamana Ramu, PhD, and Yanping Xu, MD, PhD of the Department of Physiology at Penn - screened venoms from over 100 poisonous invertebrate species to make this discovery. More...

Long-Term Ibuprofen Treatment After Brain Injury Worsens Cognitive Outcome In An Animal Model

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that chronic ibuprofen therapy given after brain injury worsens cognitive abilities. These findings - in a preliminary, animal-model study - have important implications for traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients who are often prescribed such nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) as ibuprofen for chronic pain. The findings appear online this month in Experimental Neurology.

Because several studies in animals and humans have shown that long-term More...

Disscusion board

Sri Lanka Water Supply Still Suffers Effects of 2004 Tsunami

Sri Lanka's coastal drinking water supply continues to suffer the effects of the December 2004 tsunami, which caused major death and destruction in the region. Much of the island nation's coastal area More...

PHYSICIANS AND ENGINEERS POOL RESOURCES TO PREVENT STROKE

A professor at the University of Houston and his research students are working with physicians and scientists at the Methodist Neurological Institute (NI) on new technology to help identify which brain aneurysms More...