Cancer Research
The Ikerlan-IK4 and Gaiker-IK4 Technological Centre have patented a device which is capable of the rapid and effective diagnosis of infectious diseases caused by various bacteria, notable amongst which are Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria, the causal agents of most gastroenteritis cases due to food poisoning, as well as of other symptomatologies associated with this condition. With the aim of extending the uses of the device in the field of health, experts at these technological centres are currently researching their application for the detection and treatment of colorectal cancer.
The…
A team led by biochemists at the University of California, San Diego has found what could be a long-elusive mechanism through which inflammation can promote cancer. The findings may provide a new approach for developing cancer therapies.
The study, published in the January 26 issue of the journal Cell, shows that what scientists thought were two distinct processes in cells—the cells’ normal development and the cells’ response to dangers such as invading organisms—are actually linked. The researchers, who were also from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the La Jolla Institute for…
Estrogen is known to enhance the growth and migration of breast cancer cells. Now researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found that estrogen also can shield breast cancer cells from immune cells.
In a study published online this week in Oncogene, the researchers report that estrogen induces the expression of an inhibitor that blocks immune cells' ability to kill tumor cells. This is the first study to identify estrogen's role in shielding breast cancer cells from the action of immune cells.
The researchers analyzed estrogen's role in the cascade of events that…
Pierre |
A provocative new model proposed by molecular biologist John Tower of the University of Southern California may help answer an enduring scientific question: Why do women tend to live longer than men?
That tendency holds true in humans and many other mammals as well as in the much-studied fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
In genetic studies of Drosophila, Tower and his team have shown that genes known to increase longevity always affect male and female flies differently.
"For a long time, we only did experiments in one sex or the other, depending on what was convenient," said Tower, an…