Mayo Clinic news from FierceBioResearcher

Stem Cell Research Shinya Yamanaka, the Japanese scientist who made a breakthrough in transforming the skin cells of mice into embryonic stem cells, has joined the Read more...

Cynthia T. McMurray, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic, led a research team which has shed new light on the way Huntington's disease develops and how it might eventually be treated or cured. The neurodegenerative disease is triggered by an extra segment of the huntingtin gene that expands and produces a destructive protein that afflicts the brain when it grows too large. The researchers determined that the segment grows when cells try to eliminate oxidative lesions. …

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Stem Cells

Acclaimed scientist Ian Wilmut told an audience in Connecticut that efforts on embryo cloning--often thwarted by government regulators--may be overtaken by research on reprogramming DNA so that adult stem cells can be used to create new stem cells. Report

NPR reports on state funding for stem cell research, and the …

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Stem Cell Research

Researchers at Heinrich-Heine-University in Dusseldorf, Germany, used adult bone marrow stem cells to help quickly regenerate healthy liver tissue, enabling patients to eventually undergo a surgical resection. Release

The Los Angeles Times reports that California's stem cell institute gave a …

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Taking a page from the California playbook on biomedical research, Texas has announced plans to invest $3 billion in cancer research over the next 10 years. Not surprisingly, the project draws on some of the state's highest-profile research organizations. The state is already home to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, named after testicular cancer survivor and high-profile athlete …

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More Research

New research for UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine indicates that breast cancer stem cells are not only resistant to radiation, they may actually thrive when exposed to radiation. New drugs are needed to overcome the stem cells' resistance to radiation. Report

The influence of genes on blood pressure may vary …

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Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have found a protein that acts as the body's quality control inspector for cells. In the normal process of cell division, there's a pause to allow for the detection of an incorrect genetic code in the DNA. When the wrong code is detected, a correction is made if possible or cyclin-dependent kinase 2 modifies another protein that orders the death of the damaged cell. The researchers say their work identifies a clear target for anti-tumor …

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The National Institutes of Health is injecting $100 million into a new project to create a consortium of universities that will cooperate on research projects. By 2012, the government plans to bring funding up to $500 million a year and expects to have 60 academic research centers involved, working cooperatively on advancing medical research. The goal is to push cooperation as medicine gets increasingly specialized and new genomic data is gathered. The NIH wants to end the days when lone …

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More Research

The protein p120 catenin plays a key role not only as in the "glue" that holds cells together but as a catalyst in breaking them up as tumors metastasize, say researchers at the Mayo Clinic. And they believe that their discovery maps the way to a new designer drug that can help prevent cancer. The team focused on the early stages of metastasis. Researchers have noted that the p120 catenin protein seems mysteriously …

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Research Notes

PowderMed is pushing ahead with plans to begin human testing of a new H5N1 vaccine, blasting tiny particles of DNA that make up the H5 in the virus. Researchers will use helium to impregnate the skin with the experimental vaccine. The Oxford, UK company believes the new approach to needle-free vaccines can be used in a wide variety of therapies and can also cut the manufacturing time on vaccines to a fraction of what it currently requires using hen's eggs. …

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