Tag Archives: lou gehrig

How a Silly Putty ingredient could advance stem cell therapies

By Guest PostApril 23, 2014Scienceals, alzheimer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, canadian ploye, disease, embryonic stem cells, farish jenkins, human, ingredient, jianping fu, lou gehrig, malaysian lempeng kelapa, rob eagle, silly putty, stem cell therapies, university of michigan, wie, yann bouremel

ANN ARBOR — The sponginess of the environment where human embryonic stem cells are growing affects the type of specialized cells they eventually become, a University of Michigan study shows.

The researchers coaxed human embryonic stem cells to turn into working spinal cord cells more efficiently by growing the cells on a soft, utrafine carpet made of a key ingredient in Silly Putty. Their study is published online at Nature Materials on April 13. (more…)

Breaking the Chain: ‘Molecular cap’ Blocks Processes that Lead to Alzheimer’s, HIV

By Guest PostJune 24, 2011Health, Sciencealzheimer disease, amino acids, amyloid diseases, amyloid fibers, biochemists, brain cells, california nanosystems institute, david baker, david eisenberg, disease, enzymes, fatal diseases, Germany, hiv infection, jan münch, jie liu, jorge barrio, lin jiang, lou gehrig, mad cow disease, meytal landau, microcrystallography, molecular inhibitors, onofrio zirafi, orange g, parkinson disease, proteins, semen derived enhancer of viral infection, sevi, sexual transmission of hiv, steric zippers, stuart sievers, synthetic amino acids, tau protein, treatments, united states, university of ulm, vqivyk

A new advance by UCLA biochemists has brought scientists one step closer to developing treatments that could delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and prevent the sexual transmission of HIV.

The researchers report that they have designed molecular inhibitors that target specific proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease and HIV to prevent them from forming amyloid fibers, the elongated chains of interlocking proteins that play a key role in more than two dozen degenerative and often fatal diseases. (more…)