Doc Blog

MIT researchers have shown how a cell motor protein exerts the force to move, enabling functions such as cell division. Kinesin, a motor protein that also carries neurotransmitters, “walks” along cellular beams known as microtubules. For the first time, the MIT team has shown at a molecular level how kinesin generates the force needed to [...]

From a quantitative standpoint, mineral oil is probably the largest contaminant of our body. That this contaminant can be tolerated without health concerns in humans has not been proven convincingly. The current Editorial of the European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology reflects on this and concludes that this proof either has to be [...]

Medarex, Inc. has announced it has initiated a Phase 1b clinical trial for MDX-1106 (ONO-4538: development code of Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.), a fully human anti-PD-1 antibody for the treatment of cancer. Studies suggest that the PD-1 signaling pathway may play an important role in tumor evasion and escape from host immune responses and may [...]

A new study by Narendra et al. suggests that Parkin, the product of the Parkinson’s disease-related gene Park2, prompts neuronal survival by clearing the cell of its damaged mitochondria. “[This is] an exciting new discovery that links the fields of mitochondrial quality control and the genetics of Parkinson’s disease (PD),” writes Heidi McBride of the [...]

A species of fruit fly from the Seychelles Islands often lays larvae instead of eggs, UC San Diego biologists have discovered. Clues to how animals switch from laying eggs to live birth may be found in the well-studied species’ ecology and genes. The fly is one of a dozen species of Drosophila to have recently [...]

Older adults who take the diabetes medication rosiglitazone appear to have a higher risk of death and heart failure than those taking the related medication pioglitazone, according to a report in the November 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. In 1997, a new class of oral medications known as thiazolidinediones expanded the available options [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released the first-ever inventory of quality measures that are used for reporting, payment, or quality improvement by its agencies and operating divisions. The HHS measure inventory, which is available on the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse, a Web site of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [...]

Janssen-Cilag announced today that ustekinumab, the first in a new class of biologics, has received a positive opinion for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis from the European Committee for Medical Products for Human Use (CHMP). This positive opinion takes patients living with the physical and mental burdens of psoriasis a step closer [...]

Overturning a century of prevailing thought, scientists are finding that neurons in the adult brain can remodel their connections. In work reported in the Nov. 24 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) , Elly Nedivi, associate professor of neurobiology at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and colleagues [...]

A study performed by the team of Dr. Nabil G. Seidah, Director of the Biochemical Neuroendocrinology Research Unit at the IRCM, shows for the very first time that the degradation by PCSK9 of the LDLR receptor, which is responsible for removing the bad cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol) from the bloodstream, may be inhibited by a third protein, [...]