核酸干扰药物——从“潜力股”到“生力军”

自1868年瑞士科学家米歇尔第一次在人体细胞里发现了核酸以来,百余年间,有关核酸研究的进展日新月异。     

吻与健康

接吻能让人心情愉悦,异性之间充满爱意的吻更是如此。但你也许不知道,接吻还对人体机能有着诸多益处。经常接吻能够使心血管更加稳定、降低高血压、降低胆固醇。总之,能够让一个人的生活变得更加美好。     

基于AnyBodyTM技术的人体运动建模方法

人体运动的建模与仿真是当今运动生物力学研究的一个热点.利用数值模型研究人体的运动规律,是人体运动研究的一个重要手段和有效工具.其关键技术在于应用逆向运动学方法求解人体运动,并获取人体运动中各个肌肉力学上技术参数.文中主要探讨基于AnyBodyTM System软件人体运动仿真的建模方法来研究人体运动力学规律,结合The AnyBodyTM system对人体运动具体应用,说明The AnyBodyTM system技术在人体运动仿真领域的优势.     

肠道菌群与人体健康关系研究获重要进展

来自上海交通大学系统生物医学研究院、浙江大学第一附属医院、英国帝国理工大学、国家人类基因组南方研究中心和中科院武汉物理与数学研究所5个科研和医疗机构的科学家组成多学科交叉研究团队,经过近3年的联合攻关,在肠道菌群与人体健康关系的研究中取得了重要进展。     

小型猪在异种移植中的应用前景

很早以前,人们就认识到,人体健康或生命之所以不能维持,往往不是机体所有器官受到损害,而是由于部分组织或个别生命重要器官丧失功能所致,因而产生了更换受损组织或器官的设想。为了实现用新的器官替换功能低下器官的愿望,19世纪的欧洲即已开始尝试器官移植的相关实验研究。然而,人源供体器官异常短缺,许多患者在等待器官的过程中死亡,这使人们将目光转向了异种移植,     

研发动态

我国完成大熊猫基因组序列图谱,我国完成世界首例转基因克隆免实验,我国诞生世界首例带有抗猪瘟病毒基因的克隆猪,2008诺贝尔生理或医学奖颁布,科学家绘制出首幅小麦基因组物理图谱,澳大利亚首次批准克隆人体胚胎,美国科学家成功绘制出完整肿瘤基因图谱。     

生命的节拍

许多生物的生命活动都表现出周期性的节律变化。例如,人体体温在24小时内常常呈现周期性波动;含羞草的叶片每到夜晚就会闭合,第二天又会重新打开,如此循环反复;有些虫媒传粉的植物总是在清晨或傍晚开花,而花香和花蜜的合成和释放又总是在一天中的特定时间达到峰值……     

Tackling the epigenome in the pluripotent stem cells

Embryonic stem cells are unique in their abilities of self-renewal and to differentiate into many, if not all, cellular lineages. Transcrip- tional regulation, epigenetic modifications and chromatin structures are the key modulators in controlling such pluripotency nature of embryonic stem cell genomes, particularly in the developmental decisions and the maintenance of cell fates. Among them, epigenetic regulation of gene expression is mediated partly by covalent modifications of core histone proteins including methylation, phosphoryla- tion and acetylation. Moreover, the chromatins in stem cell genome appear as a highly organized structure containing distinct functional domains. Recent rapid progress of new technologies enables us to take a global, unbiased and comprehensive view of the epigenetic modifications and chromatin structures that contribute to gene expression regulation and cell identity during diverse developmental stages. Here, we summarized the latest advances made by high throughput approaches in profiling epigenetic modifications and chromatin con- formations, with an emphasis on genome-wide analysis of histone modifications and their implications in pluripotency nature of embry- onic stem cells.     

Comparison of the immunogenicities of HIV-1 mutants based on structural modification of env

Eleven env mutants were designed and generated by site-directed mutagenesis of the regions around NAb epitopes and deletions of variable regions in env. The immunogenicities of the generated mutants were evaluated using single-cycle infection neutralization assays with two pseudoviruses and IFN-γ ELISPOT. Overall, five mutants (dWt, M2, M5-2, M5-1 and dM7) induced higher neutralization activities for both pseudoviruses than plasmid Wt, while only two of the mutants (dWt and M5-2) showed significant differences (P<0.05). Two mutants (M2 and dM2) induced more Env-specific T cells than plasmid Wt. Statistically however, significance was only reached for mutant M2. Thus, properly modified HIV-1 Env may have the potential to induce potent cellular and humoral immune responses.      

益生菌与人体健康

李雄彪教授是记者的湖南老乡,也是记者的良师益友,近年来他深入研究益生菌,获得了一些研究成果。益生菌是一个日益引起医学科学家重视的重要研究对象,与人体健康关系密切,为了使读者了解益生菌与人体健康之间的关系,记者走访了李雄彪教授,与他就益生菌及其相关研究和市场状况进行了探讨。