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Mercury levels in Pacific fish likely to rise in coming decades

By Guest PostSeptember 4, 2013Environmentatmospheric problem, bacteria, bioaccumulation, China, coal burning, fish, India, isotopic fractionation, isotopic measurement technique, joel blum, lantern fish, mercury, mercury emission reductions, mercury pollution, methylmercury, moonfish, north pacific ocean, ocean surface, opah, open ocean fish, organic matter, pacific ocean, photochemical degradation, power plants, rainfall, source, toxic form, toxin, university of hawaii, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — University of Michigan researchers and their University of Hawaii colleagues say they’ve solved the longstanding mystery of how mercury gets into open-ocean fish, and their findings suggest that levels of the toxin in Pacific Ocean fish will likely rise in coming decades.

Using isotopic measurement techniques developed at U-M, the researchers determined that up to 80 percent of the toxic form of mercury, called methylmercury, found in the tissues of deep-feeding North Pacific Ocean fish is produced deep in the ocean, most likely by bacteria clinging to sinking bits of organic matter. (more…)

Right Target, but Missing the Bulls-Eye for Alzheimer’s

By Guest PostFebruary 3, 2013Health, Scienceabeta, abeta40, abeta42, abeta42 protein, aleksey lomakin, alzheimer's disease, america, amino acids, amyloid beta, atul deshpande, brain, bulls eye, causes of death, chemical synthesis, computer simulations, david teplow, destroy neurons, disorder, george b benedek, gregory cole, hairpin like structure, late life dementia, mingfeng yang, molecular biology, mutant abeta peptides, pearl necklace, plaques, protein, robin roychaudhuri, sally frautschy, sequence, toxic actions, toxic form, ucla

UCLA researchers discover new point of attack for drug therapy

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of late-life dementia. The disorder is thought to be caused by a protein known as amyloid-beta, or Abeta, which clumps together in the brain, forming plaques that are thought to destroy neurons. This destruction starts early, too, and can presage clinical signs of the disease by up to 20 years.

For decades now, researchers have been trying, with limited success, to develop drugs that prevent this clumping. Such drugs require a “target” — a structure they can bind to, thereby preventing the toxic actions of Abeta. (more…)

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Mercury levels in Pacific fish likely to rise in coming decades

Right Target, but Missing the Bulls-Eye for Alzheimer’s