A once-a-month electronic newsletter for basic, preclinical and translational
research news from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Please forward
freely. Browse back issues of the e-Newsletter in the archive.
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:
- African Sleeping Sickness Parasite Reveals Unknown Fatty Acid Pathway
- A Clearer Picture of Loeys-Dietz Syndrome Helps Diagnosis
- New Cilia Proteome Database May Help Find Homes for Orphan Diseases
NEWS BRIEFS:
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Do you have a manuscript in press? Fax your manuscript or galley proofs to
Media Relations and Public Affairs at 410-614-8951, or e-mail the appropriate
media relations person.
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:
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8/24/06
African Sleeping Sickness Parasite Reveals Unknown Fatty Acid Pathway
Who knew that a tiny little blood parasite would use an entirely different mechanism for making fatty acids? To evade the human immune system, the trypanosome undergoes antigenic variation upon entry into the bloodstream and replaces each of its 10 million surface proteins, which are anchored to the cell membrane via a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor consisting entirely of myristate, a 14-carbon fatty acid. For years it was assumed that the parasite salvaged myristate from the host because knocking out a gene known to make fatty acids in other organisms did not alter myristate synthesis. Now, Paul Englund and colleagues in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences have shown that trypanosomes, unlike any other organism studied to date, use enzymes called elongases to make myristate.
Read the news release here.
Read the paper here.
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8/24/06
A Clearer Picture of Loeys-Dietz Syndrome Helps Diagnosis
Misdiagnosis often can lead to fatal outcomes. Loeys-Dietz syndrome, a recently described genetic condition that causes weakened and warped blood vessels, can fatally rupture the aorta if misdiagnosed as either of two clinically similar diseases, Marfan or Ehlers-Danlos syndromes. To prevent misdiagnosis, Harry Dietz and colleagues at the William S. Smilow Center for Marfan Syndrome Research, the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine and other institutions now have conducted the largest ever study of Loeys-Dietz patients and stress that accurate diagnosis can be made both clinically and molecularly, and early surgical intervention to prevent aortic rupture can save lives.
Read the news release here.
Read the paper here.
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8/29/06
New Cilia Proteome Database May Help Find Homes for Orphan Diseases
Cilia, the tiny hair-like structures found on nearly all human cells once were thought as vestigial and evolutionary relics, useful only in helping single-celled organisms propel themselves around. Growing evidence suggests, however, that aberrant cilia are the common link behind many orphan diseases such as Bardet-Biedl, Alstrom and Meckel-Gruber syndromes. To speed the search for causes and treatments of such cilia-related conditions, Nicholas Katsatnis and colleagues at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine now have compiled and made available on the Web a database of more than 1,000 genes known to contribute to cilia operations in the body.
Read the news release here.
Read the paper here.
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NEWS BRIEFS:
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Institute of Genetic Medicine seminar series presents Janet Rossant Sept. 14
Janet Rossant, Senior Scientist and Chief of Research, Lombard Chair in Paediatric Research at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto will present the first McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine seminar of the 2006-07 academic year. Rossant and her colleagues are leading an initiative to use genome-wide mutagenesis in the mouse to develop new models relevant to complex human disease (www.cmhd.ca). As a world authority on early embryonic mouse development, Rossant now is focused on understanding human embryonic development and stem cell origins. Faculty members who would like to meet with Dr. Rossant during her visit should contact Andy McCallion.
Stem Cells and Lineage Development in the Early Mammalian Embryo
September 14th, 2006 at 1pm
Mountcastle Auditorium
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2nd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Nanomedicine will be Sept. 9-10 in Washington, DC
More than 600 basic and clinical investigators working in fields including molecular biology, cell biology, immunology, chemistry, mathematics, from more than 25 countries are expected to attend this year’s meeting. Conference organizers hope to provide a forum to facilitate discussion of new ideas and establish collaborations in nanomedicine research. Nanomedicine is the medical diagnosis, monitoring and treatment human disease at the level of single molecules or molecular assemblies that provide structure, control, signaling, homeostasis, and motility in cells.
Highlights from Hopkins Medicine:
Nanomedicines for Targeted and Controlled Drug Delivery: Getting drugs to the right place and right time and at lower doses can improve effectiveness and reduce side effects. Justin Hanes and colleagues in biomedical engineering have developed a new family of polymers that are designed to be selectively adhesive to specific cell types and non-adhesive to obstacles like blood proteins or mucus layers that might prevent drug delivery. Designing therapeutic particles for drug delivery also relies on having a clear understanding of how these tiny molecules behave in cellular environments. Kathleen Stebe and colleagues in biomedical engineering are studying the behavior of particles as small as a few tens to hundreds of nanometers. Interactions between such small particles are dominated by forces dubbed “interfacial forces.” Interfacial forces can be changed by manipulating the structure and composition of the particle by adding, removing or changing the positions of different chemical groups.
How Safe are Nanoparticles for Gene Therapy in the Eye? The most carefully planned and designed nanoparticle may behave perfectly in a test tube, but its behavior in a living organism may be altogether different and unpredictable. Moving closer to viable therapies requires careful toxicity analysis of newly developed nanomedicines. Gerard Lutty and colleagues at the Wilmer Eye Institute have evaluated the toxicity of several kinds of nanoparticles for delivery of genes in the rabbit eye. Each of the nanoparticles tested were nontoxic in vitro but showed varying levels of toxicity in vivo.
For more information, visit the conference site.
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Find Change and Basics online from a Hopkins computer.
Visit Research WebNotes online.
Read Hopkins press releases online.
Upcoming lectures and seminars are listed on the Science Calendar.
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-- JHM --
