Bioscience

The principal investigator and manager of the $200 million biomedical initiative involving the government of Luxembourg and US research institutes offered an update this week on two of the projects that comprise the partnership.

David Galas, senior vice president for strategic partnerships with the Institute for Systems Biology, told GenomeWeb Daily News this week the initiative has already sequenced 50 blood proteins from the liver alone.

Bioscience

Ants are usually regarded as the unwanted guests at a picnic. But a recent study of California seed harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex californicus) examining their metabolic rate in relation to colony size may lead to a better appreciation for the social, six-legged insects, whose colonies researchers say provide a theoretical framework for understanding cellular networks.

Bioscience

By comparing two species of ants, Shelley Berger, PhD, the Daniel S. Och University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues Danny Reinberg, PhD, New York University, and Juergen Liebig, PhD, Arizona State University, have established an important new avenue of research for epigenetics -- the study of how the expression or suppression of particular genes affects an organism's characteristics, development, and even behavior.

Ants, the new model system used in this study, organize themselves into caste-based societies in which most of the individuals are sterile females, limited to highly specialized roles such as workers and soldiers. Only one queen and the relatively small contingent of male ants are fertile and able to reproduce. Yet despite such extreme differences in behavior and physical form, all females within the colony appear to be genetically identical.

Bioscience

Today the video production department at the IAQ Video Network released a new corporate video for one of North America’s leading commercial DNA testing laboratories.  Located in Phoenix, Arizona, Chromosomal Laboratories is one of North America’s premier testing facilities specializing in forensics, paternity and immigration testing services.

Bioscience

Of everything we've suggested so far, we think you'll happily try this next challenge: Get some sleep.

No, really. No catnap nonsense. Not 15 minutes of shuteye.

We're talking deep REM action - snoring, drooling, the whole messy affair.

It just might be the best thing you do for your health all day.

Bioscience

Lisa Stone's 7-year-old greyhound was bred for the racetrack, but it was another facet of Tex's breed that determined his fate.

Greyhounds are more likely than most dogs to die of osteosarcoma, a bone cancer. The disease robbed Tex of his right front leg. It also took the lives of Stone's other greyhounds, causing her to ask why certain breeds are more susceptible to the disease.
 
Researchers may soon have answers, thanks to a study that may well have implications for human sufferers as well.

Phoenix-based Translational Genomics Research Institute recently launched a $5.3 million canine-cancer project to study the genetic link between cancers and specific breeds of dogs, including greyhounds and osteosarcoma.

Bioscience

Cash-strapped Arizona missed out in its bid to capture a share of the $3.4 billion Race to the Top grant, the largest federal education grant ever awarded.

The winners, announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education, were nine other states and the District of Columbia. None of the states is in the West.
 
A win for Arizona would have meant $250 million to fund school reforms. The loss will likely slow plans to turn around failing schools and to provide rural schools with the same experienced teachers and technology available in urban and suburban schools.

Bioscience

College students are less likely to let their female friends engage in risky sexual behavior after a night of drinking alcohol. Recent findings in the journal Communication Education examine how and why college students protect their friends who have been heavily drinking.

Bioscience

On behalf of the White House, ASU Regents Professor and Biodesign Institute researcher Stuart Lindsay, PhD, was honored for his innovative efforts to bring low-cost DNA sequencing to the masses.

Lindsay was one of many outstanding scientists who joined Vice President Joe Biden in a Washington gathering to coincide with the release of the Recovery Act Innovation Report. The report highlights contributions in new fields of investigation with a high likelihood of enabling growth and investment in biomedical research and development.

As part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009, the National Institutes of Health established a new program entitled Research and Research Infrastructure “Grand Opportunities,” or the “GO” grants program. Lindsay’s two-year, $1.7 million project, funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), supported work at ASU’s Biodesign Institute to boost research on rapid DNA sequencing technology.

Bioscience

ImmuneRegen BioSciences(R), a wholly owned subsidiary of IR Biosciences Holdings Inc., today announced that the National Institute of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, has awarded its research partner, the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), a $15 million five-year, continuation grant for studies that will utilize ImmuneRegen's Homspera.