Author: jplucas

Scientific inspiration can come from anywhere â?? a person, an event, even an experiment gone awry. But perhaps nothing can drive innovation more powerfully than the passion born of tragedy. Or, in Douglas Melton’s case, near tragedy. The co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) is one of the leading figures in the search for cures for presently incurable diseases, and his breakthrough work is challenging many long-held beliefs about the ways biology and human development work.

But it was a very personal experience that brought Melton to stem cells, one that 17 years later he still finds difficult to discuss. When his son Sam was 6 months old, he became ill with what his parents thought was a cold. He woke up with projectile vomiting and before long began taking short, shallow breaths. After several hours, he started to turn gray, and Melton and his wife Gail brought the baby to the emergency room. For the rest of that afternoon, doctors performed test after test, trying to figure out what was wrong. “It was a horrific day,” says Melton.

The state’s 2005 law promoting stem-cell research has begun paying dividends, according to state officials who announced Wednesday that University of Connecticut scientists have developed two kinds of human embryonic stem cells.

The cells — called CT1 and CT2 and created as part of the state’s 10-year, $100 million commitment to stem cell science — will be given away to researchers for nominal fees to study their potential for medical uses.

UConn joins the University of Wisconsin, Harvard University and the University of California at San Francisco among institutions that have developed lines of human embryonic stem cells.

Stressful experiences can have a long-lasting impact on children’s health, U.S. researchers report.

They evaluated the immune systems of teens who’d experienced either typical or extremely stressful childhoods, such as physical abuse or time in an orphanage. Specifically, the researchers looked at levels of antibodies against the common and usually latent herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1).

Early stressors in children have long-term implications on a child’s immunity, U.S. researchers said.

Senior study author Seth Pollak of the University of Wisconsin in Madison said the study revealed impaired immune function in adolescents who, as youngsters, experienced either physical abuse or time in an orphanage.

It’s the iconic dinosaur battle, seared into every kid’s imagination from picture books and cartoons: Tyrannosaurus rex lunges, mouth agape, and Triceratops parries with its horns and bony neck frill. This scene probably did unfold in North American forests 65 million years ago, but new research suggests Triceratops also used its headgear in fights against its own species.

Paleontologists have proposed this idea before. It makes sense, given that other animals with horns or antlers, such as deer, use them against their own kind in battles for dominance or mating rights. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal PLoS ONE, documented wounds on Triceratops fossils, backing the idea up with hard data for the first time.

The three-horned dinosaur Triceratops used its spectacular headgear to charge and wrestle with other members of its species in a similar way to modern deer and antelope, according to research.

Battle scars on the skulls of Triceratops fossils have revealed a pattern of injuries that is best explained by Cretaceous-era combat in a study that could settle a long-running debate over whether the creatureâ??s horns were used for fighting or display.

Meanwhile, studies in animals dating back to the 1980s show caloric restriction can extend lifespan and slow aging. The current findings are “another piece of evidence that what we see in laboratory rodents on caloric restriction translates to humans,” said Richard Weindruch, of University of Wisconsin–Madison, who has studied caloric restriction since 1975 but did not participate in Floel’s study. “I find it somewhat remarkable that such a brief period of [caloric restriction] actually would have these effects.”