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Neural Substrates Of Controlled And Automatic Processes Involved In Empathy For Pain
Seeing others in pain can automatically engage the brain"s empathy systems even if we are not paying attention, according to new research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine presented at the Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. The investigators showed people images of hands and feet in painful or non-painful situations while scanning the brain using magnetic resonance imaging. Under some conditions the subjects paid attention to whether the situation was painful, while in other conditions they paid attention to other aspects of the images. The results showed that a brain area called the insula responded to pain even if the subject was not paying attention to pain, while another area called the anterior cingulate cortex was important for the voluntary control of empathy for pain. The research provides a better understanding of how the social brain responds to others" pain.
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What Is The Function Of Lymph Nodes?
If we imagine our immune system to be a police force for our bodies, then previous work has suggested that the Lymph nodes would be the best candidate structures within the body to act as police stations - the regions in which the immune response is organised. However, a new paper - published in this week"s issue of PLoS Biology - suggests that lymph nodes are not essential in the mouse in marshalling T-cells (a main immune foot soldier) to respond to a breach of the skin barrier. This result is both surprising in itself, and suggests a novel function for the liver as an alternate site for T-cell activation.
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Capturing Kinetic Energy To Turn A Soldier's March Into A Charge
Engineers at the University of Leeds (UK) are developing a way to capture the kinetic energy produced when soldiers march and use it to power their equipment.
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Researchers Identify New Method To Selectively Kill Metastatic Melanoma Cells

An international team of researchers has identified a new method for selectively killing metastatic melanoma cells, which may lead to new areas for drug development in melanoma - a cancer that is highly resistant to current treatment strategies. Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University, in collaboration with a team of researchers led by Maria S. Soengas, Ph.D., with the Spanish National Cancer Research Center in Madrid, Spain, found that activation of a specific molecular pathway triggers melanoma cells to begin a process of self-destruction - through self-digestion and programmed cell death. The study is published in the August 4 print issue of the journal Cancer Cell. "The present research provides a path that could lead with further studies and a phase I clinical trial for safety to the development of a strategy that reenergizes the immune system to destroy this highly aggressive cancer," said lead investigator at VCU, Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., the first incumbent of the Thelma Newmeyer Corman Endowed Chair in Cancer Research with the VCU Massey Cancer Center. According to Fisher, the pathway that is activated involves the melanoma differentiation associated gene-5, or mda-5, a gene initially cloned in Fisher"s laboratory, that activates a protein called NOXA that is involved with programmed cell death. This series of chemical reactions results in induction of a cell-killing process involving self-digestion that leads to programmed cell death specifically in melanoma cells. Fisher said that mda-5 is a key regulator of innate immunity that induces interferon beta production limiting replication of specific pathogenic viruses. This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Spanish Association Against Cancer and the Spanish National Cancer Research Center. The project team in Spain was led by Soengas, with the Melanoma Laboratory, Molecular Pathology Program, Spanish National Cancer Research Center, Madrid, Spain. Fisher, who also is professor and chair of the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, and director of the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine in the VCU School of Medicine, lead the investigative team at VCU which included Paola M. Barral, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics; and Rupesh Dash, Ph.D., postdoctoral research scientist, in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine. Sathya Achia Abraham Virginia Commonwealth University


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