Coco Ballantyne

Yale scientists have discovered that physical exercise enhances the activity of a gene called VGF, which has an antidepressant effect in mice.

Depression afflicts 16 percent of the U.S. population and carries an annual price tag of $83 billion. Pharmaceutical products currently used to treat depression help about 65 percent of patients but require anywhere from weeks to months to kick in.

Unlike common antidepressant drugs, VGF is already present in the brain, making it an attractive target for therapy, says senior author Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale School of Medicine.

Continue reading 'Feeling sad? Get moving!' >

Photo by David Baker, BakerDavid@gmail.com cc DavidBaker

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the most traveled day of the year. Accident fatalities spike during the days around Thanksgiving—and a disproportionate number happen on rural roads.

Continue reading 'This Thanksgiving beware of rural roads' >

Yurelia and Fiorella Rocha-Arias had a 50 percent chance of surviving their separation surgery, said lead surgeon Gary Hartman of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, Calif.

Continue reading 'Conjoined twins from Costa Rica split in half by Cali surgeons' >

Cranberries contain compounds that hamper the activity of E.coli, the micro-culprit behind tooth decay and infections of the digestive system (think vomit and diarrhea) and urinary tract (think very painful bee sting sensation in the place you would least want it). And by the way, urinary tract infections can spread to the kidneys, creating a life-threatening situation.

Continue reading 'On Thanksgiving, say YES to cranberries and NO to bacteria' >

As if superbugs aren’t scary enough, a study published online today in Nature Medicine describes how the most sinister of them all—MRSA—has evolved special ammunition to disable human immune cells.

Continue reading 'Super-Superbugs Everywhere!' >

Scientists at P&G Beauty have sequenced the genome for the dandruff-causing fungus Malassezia globosa (M. globosa). Why do you care? There is a good chance that M. globosa lives on your scalp or some other oily zone of your epidermis and is ready to cause a shower of yellowish-white flakes.

Continue reading 'Dandruff Demystified' >

Undergraduates from 59 countries are gathering at MIT for the 2007 International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, or iGEM Jamboree, to showcase the designer biological systems they have spent all summer building.

These are the up-and-coming practitioners of the hot new field of synthetic biology displaying their finest work.

Continue reading 'World’s largest synthetic biology competition this weekend' >

Illinois Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill) has announced his plan to introduce legislation aimed at reigning in superbugs causing hospital infections, including the infamous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Durbin's legislation would require hospitals to follow federal infection control guidelines and report their infection rates to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a a report released last night by the Chicago Tribune online.

Continue reading 'Congress takes on superbugs' >

There is a new glimmer of hope for the world's most endangered cat species, the Iberian Lynx.

Until recently, authorities believed there were only about 100 Spanish lynx left in on the planet, divided among two populations in Spain's Andalusia region.

But a new population has been found in Castilla-La Mancha (Central Spain), says the World Wildlife Fund. The exact numbers and location of the newly found group has not been disclosed, but researchers say the lynx is still in big trouble.

Continue reading 'Iberian Lynx Not Extinct ...Yet' >

About 30 years ago, scientists, physicians, lawyers and journalists attended the historic Asilomar Conference in Pacific Grove, California, which was organized to address the safety issues raised by genetic engineering. The newfound ability to cut, paste and recombine genes brought exciting experimental possibilities but also the potential for misuse. Recombinant DNA technology offered hope for curing and treating genetic disorders, creating useful industrial products, and making hearty crop strains, but it also engendered fears of Frankenstein-like organisms that could cause plagues or escape into the environment to disrupt ecological webs and derail evolution.

Three decades later, synthetic biologists, a new breed of scientists who design and construct novel biological systems using engineering principles, are wrestling with some of the same issues raised at Asilomar.

Continue reading 'Scientific Cowboys (Synthetic Biologists) Want to be Regulated' >