New book on mitochondria from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Robert Redmond rredmond@cshl.edu 516-422-4101 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Mitochondria are intracellular organelles that power the cell by metabolizing glucose and other energy sources to generate ATP. They are also critical in programmed cell death, and dysfunction of mitochondrial components is implicated in numerous muscle and neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease.
Mitochondria from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press contains contributions examining the evolution and normal function of mitochondria in cells, as well as their roles in various pathologies.
###
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
FILE - In this Oct. 1, 2013, file photo, New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez arrives at the offices of Major League Baseball in New York. Attorneys for Rodriguez will appear in a New York courtroom for an initial court conference in his lawsuit against Major League Baseball. The New York Yankees third baseman is not expected at the meeting Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, in Manhattan federal court. (AP Photo/David Karp, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 1, 2013, file photo, New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez arrives at the offices of Major League Baseball in New York. Attorneys for Rodriguez will appear in a New York courtroom for an initial court conference in his lawsuit against Major League Baseball. The New York Yankees third baseman is not expected at the meeting Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, in Manhattan federal court. (AP Photo/David Karp, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Rodriguez's legal team has gathered extensive additional evidence since he filed a lawsuit accusing Major League Baseball and Commissioner Bud Selig of trying to polish their images and destroy the third baseman's career and reputation, his lawyer said Thursday.
At a Manhattan federal court hearing, attorney Jordan Siev said his law office has gotten more evidence nearly every day to support its lawsuit accusing MLB and Selig of going on a "witch hunt" to ruin Rodriguez's reputation and career. He said the defendants went "way over the line."
He said evidence will prove that MLB and Selig engaged in behavior that subjects them to civil, "if not criminal," liability. The New York Yankees star did not attend the hearing.
MLB attorney Joseph Baumgarten responded by calling the lawsuit "inappropriate." He said the defendants will seek its dismissal.
"It doesn't belong in federal court," he said. Both sides were scheduled to file papers in the case on Friday. A hearing was scheduled for Jan. 23.
Siev is seeking to move the case back to state court, where it was originally filed.
At one point, U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield noted: "It's ironic. Neither side wants to be here, but you're both here."
Baumgarten made little mention of Rodriguez's allegations, but Siev used the public forum to lash out at the league and Selig.
He said baseball's investigation had a "sole purpose of destroying Rodriguez's career and reputation" and was designed "to get Mr. Rodriguez at all costs in an effort to salvage Mr. Selig's reputation as he heads toward retirement."
Siev said Selig "saw this as an opportunity to bring down one of the biggest players in the game."
The lawyer recounted some highlights of the lawsuit, including allegations that the league intimidated and offered cash to witnesses, purchased documents and allowed one of its investigators to engage in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a witness. He said the league made sure to leak information about the investigation to the press along the way.
Outside court, lawyers declined to comment.
The litigation comes after Rodriguez was given a 211-game suspension by the league on Aug. 5 for alleged violations of baseball's drug agreement and labor contract.
During promotions for "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," Jennifer Lawrence stopped by the Yahoo Headquarters in Sunnydale, CA on Wednesday (November 6).
The 23-year-old chatted with Tumblr execs and dished about a number of topics, including her childhood crush.
"My teen crush [was] Justin Timberlake," J Law stated. "Early 90s Justin Timberlake though. Like, 'N Sync Justin Timberlake."
"I remember buying the 'N Sync CD. Remember how CDs had like the pullout picture things? And I was like getting so overwhelmed with like hormones I almost threw up!" she joked.
Although she enjoyed a few laughs, Jennifer also spoke seriously about the negativity surrounding body image issues in Hollywood.
While discussing society's obsession with pointing out flawed figures, Miss Lawrence slammed the E! series "Fashion Police" for constantly criticizing celebrities.
"There are shows like 'Fashion Police' that are just showing these generations of young people to judge people based on all the wrong values and that it's okay to point at people and them ugly or fat," she explained.
Lawrence continued, "They call it 'fun' and they say 'welcome to the real world' - and that should be the real world. It's going to continue being the real world if we keep it that way. We have to stop treating each other like that and stop calling each other fat."
"There are unrealistic expectations for women. It's disappointing that the media keeps it alive and fuels that fire. It's something that really bothers me - because I love to eat," she added.
In regards to how she feels about people who cast judgement on others," Jennifer said, "Screw those people."
Potential for added medical benefits uncovered for widely used breast cancer drug
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Catherine Kolf ckolf@jhmi.edu 443-287-2251 Johns Hopkins Medicine
Lab tests show it protects cells from UV radiation, inflammation and oxidative damage
Exemestane, a synthetic steroid drug widely prescribed to fight breast cancers that thrive on estrogens, not only inhibits the production of the hormone, but also appears to protect cells throughout the body against damage induced by UV radiation, inflammation and other assaults, according to results of research by Johns Hopkins scientists.
A summary of the research, performed on a variety of different animal and human cells, was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Nov. 4, and suggests that exemestane's effectiveness against breast cancer could be due to more than its ability to halt estrogen production, the scientists say. The study's results further imply that the drug, a so-called aromatase (estrogen synthesis) inhibitor, could potentially be prescribed more widely, including to men, as a way to counteract the wear and tear on cells that often leads to chronic diseases.
"Cells already have their own elaborate protective mechanisms, and in many cases they are 'idling.' The right drugs and foods can turn them on to full capacity," says Paul Talalay, M.D., the John Jacob Abel Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "In our cell studies, we found that exemestane does exactly that," he adds.
Talalay explains that cells are constantly under assault from a wide range of potentially lethal agents. UV radiation from the sun can cause errors in DNA sequences; reactive oxygen species a class of unstable, oxygen-containing chemicals that are a natural byproduct of cellular functioning can build up and cause damage to DNA and proteins; and ongoing inflammation can damage many essential cell functions.
To withstand the pressures against them, cells have evolved various mechanisms for protecting themselves. One involves turning on genes that produce a "SWAT team" of proteins, he notes, collectively called the phase 2 response. In normal cells, this response is not fully active. In previous work, the Talalay group found that sulforaphane, a chemical found in broccoli and other vegetables, can ramp up the phase 2 response and help protect cells from the constant wear and tear that they experience.
"Looking at the chemical structure of exemestane, I realized that it was similar to sulforaphane, and I wondered if it too could boost cells' phase 2 protective responses," says Talalay.
To demonstrate that exemestane revs up the phase 2 response, Hua Liu, a research associate in Talalay's laboratory, tested exemestane's effects on various types of cells, including liver tumor and skin cells from a mouse, human cells from the eye's retina, and rat heart cells. As expected, the addition of exemestane elevated the activity of typical protective phase 2 response enzymes in all of the cells tested, a result similar to the effects of adding sulforaphane.
Exemestane was also effective in reducing the amount of reactive oxygen species in human retinal cells, where they are thought to contribute to age-related macular degeneration. It was also able to protect rat heart cells from similar damage.
To test the drug's ability to protect skin cells from UV-induced damage, Liu treated mouse skin cells with exemestane a day before subjecting them to UV radiation and, again, exemestane was able to protect the cells significantly, Liu and Talalay say.
Assessing exemestane's ability to protect cells from inflammation produced a surprise, Talalay notes. In all the other tests, Liu and Talalay had tried not only exemestane but also a mixture of exemestane and sulforaphane. They generally found that the two had an additive effect, suggesting that they both worked in a similar way and were more or less interchangeable. However, when mouse immune cells were exposed to both exemestane and sulforaphane, the two together were much more potent and at lower doses than either chemical alone.
"Our research showed unexpectedly that exemestane has multiple actions, which suggests that a wider use of exemestane should be considered if clinical tests confirm our cellular studies," says Talalay. "Of course, even if clinical tests confirm what we saw in cells, exemestane may not be appropriate for everyone. It's already advocated as a preventive measure for high-risk breast cancer populations, but it may also be valuable in preventing other noncancerous chronic diseases."
Talalay notes that the drug is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and taken by tens of thousands of women, with minimal side effects.
###
This work was supported by grants from the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Foundation and from Murakami Noen.
On the Web:
Link to article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1318247110
Media Contacts: Catherine Kolf; 443-287-2251; ckolf@jhmi.edu
Vanessa McMains; 410-502-9410; vmcmain1@jhmi.edu
Shawna Williams; 410-955-8236; shawna@jhmi.edu
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Potential for added medical benefits uncovered for widely used breast cancer drug
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Catherine Kolf ckolf@jhmi.edu 443-287-2251 Johns Hopkins Medicine
Lab tests show it protects cells from UV radiation, inflammation and oxidative damage
Exemestane, a synthetic steroid drug widely prescribed to fight breast cancers that thrive on estrogens, not only inhibits the production of the hormone, but also appears to protect cells throughout the body against damage induced by UV radiation, inflammation and other assaults, according to results of research by Johns Hopkins scientists.
A summary of the research, performed on a variety of different animal and human cells, was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Nov. 4, and suggests that exemestane's effectiveness against breast cancer could be due to more than its ability to halt estrogen production, the scientists say. The study's results further imply that the drug, a so-called aromatase (estrogen synthesis) inhibitor, could potentially be prescribed more widely, including to men, as a way to counteract the wear and tear on cells that often leads to chronic diseases.
"Cells already have their own elaborate protective mechanisms, and in many cases they are 'idling.' The right drugs and foods can turn them on to full capacity," says Paul Talalay, M.D., the John Jacob Abel Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "In our cell studies, we found that exemestane does exactly that," he adds.
Talalay explains that cells are constantly under assault from a wide range of potentially lethal agents. UV radiation from the sun can cause errors in DNA sequences; reactive oxygen species a class of unstable, oxygen-containing chemicals that are a natural byproduct of cellular functioning can build up and cause damage to DNA and proteins; and ongoing inflammation can damage many essential cell functions.
To withstand the pressures against them, cells have evolved various mechanisms for protecting themselves. One involves turning on genes that produce a "SWAT team" of proteins, he notes, collectively called the phase 2 response. In normal cells, this response is not fully active. In previous work, the Talalay group found that sulforaphane, a chemical found in broccoli and other vegetables, can ramp up the phase 2 response and help protect cells from the constant wear and tear that they experience.
"Looking at the chemical structure of exemestane, I realized that it was similar to sulforaphane, and I wondered if it too could boost cells' phase 2 protective responses," says Talalay.
To demonstrate that exemestane revs up the phase 2 response, Hua Liu, a research associate in Talalay's laboratory, tested exemestane's effects on various types of cells, including liver tumor and skin cells from a mouse, human cells from the eye's retina, and rat heart cells. As expected, the addition of exemestane elevated the activity of typical protective phase 2 response enzymes in all of the cells tested, a result similar to the effects of adding sulforaphane.
Exemestane was also effective in reducing the amount of reactive oxygen species in human retinal cells, where they are thought to contribute to age-related macular degeneration. It was also able to protect rat heart cells from similar damage.
To test the drug's ability to protect skin cells from UV-induced damage, Liu treated mouse skin cells with exemestane a day before subjecting them to UV radiation and, again, exemestane was able to protect the cells significantly, Liu and Talalay say.
Assessing exemestane's ability to protect cells from inflammation produced a surprise, Talalay notes. In all the other tests, Liu and Talalay had tried not only exemestane but also a mixture of exemestane and sulforaphane. They generally found that the two had an additive effect, suggesting that they both worked in a similar way and were more or less interchangeable. However, when mouse immune cells were exposed to both exemestane and sulforaphane, the two together were much more potent and at lower doses than either chemical alone.
"Our research showed unexpectedly that exemestane has multiple actions, which suggests that a wider use of exemestane should be considered if clinical tests confirm our cellular studies," says Talalay. "Of course, even if clinical tests confirm what we saw in cells, exemestane may not be appropriate for everyone. It's already advocated as a preventive measure for high-risk breast cancer populations, but it may also be valuable in preventing other noncancerous chronic diseases."
Talalay notes that the drug is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and taken by tens of thousands of women, with minimal side effects.
###
This work was supported by grants from the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Foundation and from Murakami Noen.
On the Web:
Link to article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1318247110
Media Contacts: Catherine Kolf; 443-287-2251; ckolf@jhmi.edu
Vanessa McMains; 410-502-9410; vmcmain1@jhmi.edu
Shawna Williams; 410-955-8236; shawna@jhmi.edu
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Schildi is not your average turtle. After having been abandoned and losing a leg, some awesome German vets found a way to make him a better, stronger, faster tortoise. Now, fitted with a Lego wheel for a leg, he's a bionic hero in a half shell. And he's stolen my heart.
What are the most striking features of the new version of Office Web Apps? The ones that aren't there.
It isn't the fact that the Save button has been nixed (shades of Google Docs!) or that multiple users can edit the same document in real time and not stomp all over each other's work. It's how little -- as opposed to how much -- variation there is between OWA and its desktop counterparts.
That small margin makes a big difference.
Better collaborative editing than the desktop Tony Bradley at PCWorld covers in detail all the new goodies in OWA, which still consists only of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The biggest is simultaneous co-authoring: Many users can log into OWA, open the same document, and work on it simultaneously. Flags within the document tell you where each user is.
One particularly smart touch here is how Microsoft has set different levels of editing granularity for each document type. For Word, it's a paragraph; for Excel, it's a cell; for PowerPoint, it's a slide. They're good commonsense defaults, and in my conversation with Microsoft's people, they hinted at the possibility that it could be made even more fine-grained.
From a practical standpoint, it's unlikely two people will attempt to edit the same sentence at once. But if Microsoft can nudge the line of thinking a smidge further in that direction, it's a sign of how completely Web apps could be able to eclipse their desktop cousins. For one, the desktop versions of these apps don't have anything like the simultaneous-editing features found in OWA -- a case where the Web app actually sports a feature superior to the desktop app.
This brings up the first of two big questions about OWA. Do Web apps need to displace their desktop counterparts?
The answer may be different depending on whether you're asking Microsoft or end-users. End-users may enjoy the convenience of OWA, but there comes a point where OWA simply can't deliver. The longer and more complex the document, the greater the odds OWA -- or your browser -- will simply gag.
There's little question that Microsoft needs to create a product portfolio off the desktop that's as valuable and rich as the one the company has created on it. But I doubt it can move people off desktop editions of Office and into OWA anytime soon, and not just because OWA's feature set is lacking.
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a man who was wounded when a bomb blast attacked the entrance of the main train station, lies on a hospital bed, in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. Bombs targeting the entrance of a landmark Ottoman railway building in Damascus and a feared security agency in Syria's southeast killed more than a dozen people on Wednesday, activists reported. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a man who was wounded when a bomb blast attacked the entrance of the main train station, lies on a hospital bed, in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. Bombs targeting the entrance of a landmark Ottoman railway building in Damascus and a feared security agency in Syria's southeast killed more than a dozen people on Wednesday, activists reported. (AP Photo/SANA)
This image made from citizen journalist video posted by the Shaam News Network, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows smoke from shelling in Deir al-Zour, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. Syria's 23 million people belong to a startling patchwork of different religious groups, and the three-year conflict has taken increasingly sectarian overtones in the past year. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a doctor, right, treats a man who was wounded where a bomb blast attacked the entrance of the main train station, in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. Bombs targeting the entrance of a landmark Ottoman railway building in Damascus and a feared security agency in Syria's southeast killed more than a dozen people on Wednesday, activists reported. (AP Photo/SANA)
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's main Western-backed opposition group is considering an invitation for informal meetings involving Syrian government representatives in Moscow that would focus on establishing humanitarian corridors, opposition figures confirmed Thursday.
It was not immediately clear when the talks might take place, or whether they would include direct contact between representatives of President Bashar Assad's government and the Syrian National Coalition. But if the two sides were to sit down together for discussions on humanitarian issues, it could boost the prospects for a proposed peace conference the U.S. and Russia have been trying to convene in Geneva.
The coalition has demanded that Assad step down in any transitional Syrian government as a condition for its going to Geneva. Syrian officials say Assad will stay in his post at least until his terms ends in 2014 and that he may run for re-election.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that representatives of the opposition, who met with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Geneva, "responded positively" to a Kremlin offer to host "informal contacts in Moscow for the entire spectrum of Syria's social and political forces."
Bogdanov said the talks could focus on humanitarian problems as well as some political issues.
Kamal Labwani, a coalition member, said the opposition was considering whether to accept the Russian offer. But he said talks would be confined to experts from the coalition's humanitarian arm and government humanitarian organizations.
"The Russians called on the opposition to meet with the regime there, but then scaled it back to solving the humanitarian crisis," Labwani said. "They want to open a line of communication between the regime and the opposition through Russia."
Another Syrian opposition official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the proposed talks, said the opposition coalition has decided to send experts to Moscow for discussions limited to humanitarian corridors.
The coalition has long called on the international community to help secure aid to civilians, particularly in rebel-held areas that have been blockaded by government forces.
The civil war in Syria has touched off a humanitarian catastrophe across the region. More than 2 million Syrians have sought refuge abroad, while the U.N. said this week that more than 9 million Syrians — out of the country's pre-war population of 23 million — are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Wednesday that it is "outrageous" that "the Syrian regime is denying aid workers access to towns that they are besieging, even as it is allowing international chemical weapons inspectors into the country."
"The fact of the chemical weapons implementation only underscores how much this is an issue of will for the regime, and lack of will," Power said.
On Thursday, international inspectors said they have verified 22 of 23 declared chemical weapons sites after receiving video and photographic evidence showing that a facility near the contested northern city of Aleppo has been dismantled and abandoned.
The joint mission by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations, which is overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal, inspected 21 of the sites last month but had been unable to visit the remaining two because of fighting in the area.
The OPCW-U.N. statement said the Syrian government provided the joint mission with photographs and footage of the facility near Aleppo that confirmed the site has been dismantled and abandoned. It added that the building bore signs of "extensive battle damage." It was not clear when the damage occurred.
The images were shot with a tamperproof camera that inspectors had fitted with a GPS system so that the location of the camera could be tracked, the statement said. International inspectors have authenticated the photos and video.
The OPCW-U.N. mission has not disclosed the location of the last remaining site the inspectors need to verify.
___
Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Desmond Butler in Istanbul, Mike Corder in The Hague, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Ryan Lucas in Beirut contributed to this report.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u-wKXfdTBYpxGYQegtwZuSOy1eBrzZXgf72SBSX7eTpMJNFgQaTbKKpH5OTljsJ7OLLUxvGZXysLr4e6o1LutYEQLQ4Lx9WqHxHTByRmA=s0-d){kind=small}
Share
Source: