The USA300 strain of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, colorized in gold, shown outside a white blood cell.

Bethesda, MD (Scicasts) - Scientists from the National Institutes of Health and University of Chicago have reported finding a promising treatment method that in laboratory mice reduces the severity of skin and soft-tissue damage caused by USA300, the leading cause of community-associated Staphylococcus aureus infections in the United States. According to the report, by neutralizing a key toxin associated with the bacteria, they found they could greatly reduce the damaging effects of the infection on skin and soft tissue. Community strains of S. aureus cause infection in otherwise healthy people and are considered extremely virulent, as opposed to hospital strains that infect people who already are weakened by illness or surgery.

Baltimore, MD (Scicasts) - A hunt throughout the human genome for variants associated with common, late-onset Parkinson's disease has revealed a new genetic link that implicates the immune system and offers new targets for drug development.

Cold Spring Harbor, NY (Scicasts)  – Vitamin D insufficiency is a risk factor for a number of diseases and thus, is a growing concern worldwide, as approximately one billion people may be vitamin D deficient. However, the biological basis for vitamin D deficiency predisposing to disease is poorly understood. In a report published online this week in Genome Research (www.genome.org), scientists have mapped the molecular interactions of the vitamin D receptor genome-wide, finding novel connections of vitamin D with genes related to autoimmune disease and cancer.

This cross-section of skin shows rat thymic epithelial cells (green) contributing to hair follicles and sebaceous glands. Image by EPFL.

Lausanne, Switzerland (Scicasts) - Researchers have reported today that taking one type of cell and transforming it into another type is now possible, which may have vital ramifications for the field of organ regeneration. The research involved taking cells from the thymus and transforming them into skin cells.

Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine have uncovered a role for an essential cell protein in shuttling RNA into the mitochondria, the energy-producing 'power plant' of the cell. Image by: Maureen Heaster

Los Angeles, CA (Scicasts) – According to a report from The University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), researchers at the Institute's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine have uncovered a role for an essential cell protein in shuttling RNA into the mitochondria, the energy-producing "power plant" of the cell.

London, UK (Scicasts) - Genetic differences that make some people susceptible to developing meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia, and others naturally immune, are revealed in a new study of over 6,000 people, published August 8, 2010 in Nature Genetics.

A retina with the degenerative vision disease, retinitis pigmentosa.

Arlington, VA (Scicasts) – According to a report from the Office of Naval Research (ONR),  neurobiologists funded by the ONR have discovered a potential cure for degenerative vision diseases leading to terminal blindness. The solution, however, may be rooted in an unconventional therapeutic approach.

Scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland, are manipulating the proteins that cause blindness in mice. The scientists have successfully restored vision in the light-sensing cells of the retina.

Jupiter, FL (Scicasts) – In a new study carried out by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute in Florida and the University College London (UCL) Institute of Neurology in England have discovered that abnormal prions, bits of infectious protein devoid of DNA or RNA that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease, can suddenly erupt from healthy brain tissue.

When the nucleolinus is damaged with an infrared laser, a fertilized Spisula egg cell (bottom right) does not proceed through cell division, and its cell division apparatus (blue and yellow) is malformed. The top left cell shows proper cell division in a fertilized egg with an undamaged nucleolinus. By Mary Anne Alliegro, Marine Biological Laboratory

Woods Hole, MA (Scicasts) - When searching for long-lost treasure, sometimes all you need is a good flashlight. Such a "flashlight," developed at the Marine Biological Laboratory's (MBL) Josephine Bay Paul Center, has been used to illuminate a long-neglected cellular component – the nucleolinus – and confirm its role in cell division. MBL scientists Mark Alliegro and Mary Anne Alliegro, and MBL visiting investigator Jonathan Henry of University of Illinois, Urbana, present their discoveries regarding the nucleolinus this week in a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Blacksburg, VA (Scicasts) - Scientists at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech have constructed a mathematical and computational model of inflammatory bowel disease that allows researchers to simulate the cellular and molecular changes underlying chronic inflammation in humans. The model allows scientists to explore different interactions of cells in the immune system, check how these cells are linked to inflammation in the colon, and identify intervention points to perhaps stop the disease in its tracks. The work appears in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

This microscope image shows dissolving microneedles encapsulating a pink dye used to simulate how a vaccine would be incorporated into the needles.

Atlanta, GA (Scicasts) - A new vaccine-delivery patch based on hundreds of microscopic needles that dissolve into the skin could allow persons without medical training to painlessly administer vaccines – while providing improved immunization against diseases such as influenza, according to a recent report from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Nottingham, UK (Scicasts) - New research being presented July 12, 2010 at the UK National Stem Cell Network Annual Science Meeting in Nottingham shows that adding fat to mouse stem cells grown in the lab affects their response to the signals that push them to develop into one or other of the main types of fat storage cells – subcutaneous (under the skin) or visceral (around the organs).

Cincinnati, OH (Scicasts) - Scientists have used a genetically reprogrammed herpes virus and an anti-vascular drug to shrink spreading distant sarcomas designed to model metastatic disease in mice – still an elusive goal when treating humans with cancer, according to a study in the July 8 Gene Therapy.

Quebec, Canada (Scicasts) - According to a report from McGill University, a research team led by Dr. Nada Jabado at the MUHC and Dr. Jacek Majewski at the Institute has proven that it is possible to identify any genetic disease in record time thanks to a powerful and reliable exome sequencing method. The exome, a small part of the genome (< 2%), is of crucial interest with regard to research on genetic diseases as it accounts for 85% of mutations. The results of the team's research have just been published in the journal Human Mutation.

New York, NY (Scicasts) - Stem cell research holds promise for improving the quality of human life ― especially embryonic stem cells, which can potentially develop into any tissue in the human body. However, basic scientific problems still remain unresolved –– but Tel Aviv University researchers are leading the way to inventive solutions, according to a report from the Institute.

Salt Lake City, Utah (Scicasts) - An international consortium of researchers from more than 70 universities, including the University of Utah, has reported that a study of nearly 2,300 people supports the growing consensus that autism is caused in part by rare genetic changes called copy number variants (CNVs).

Pittsburgh, PA (Scicasts) - The liver scarring of α1-antitrypsin (AT) deficiency, the most common genetic cause for which children undergo liver transplantation, might be reversed or prevented with a medication that has long been used to treat seizures, according to findings from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine that will published in Science and are available now online through the Science Express website.

London, UK (Scicasts) - Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and National University Health System (NUHS) have identified new genetic variants that increase susceptibility to several infectious diseases including tuberculosis and malaria.

Berkeley , CA (Scicasts) - Many standard antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs block the enzymes that snip the kinks and knots out of DNA – DNA tangles are lethal to cells – but the drugs are increasingly encountering resistant bacteria and tumours.

Microscopy image of a mature fat cell.

Philadelphia, PA (Scicasts) – Getting from point A to B may sound simple, but not so in the formation of fat cells. In a finding with potential drug-development implications, Dr. Mitchell A. Lazar, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and colleagues report in the current issue of Genes & Development the discovery of an intermediate state between early-stage fat cells and fully mature ones that is only present transiently during the fat-cell formation process.