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UT Southwestern ranked among America's top biomedical research universities

12-11-2006 · UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern Medical Center ranked among the top 10 American institutions in three of the six biomedical fields assessed in an independent analysis of scientific research impact.

Keywords: southwestern, ranked, america, top, biomedical, research, universities, university

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Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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CIHR news: U of S scientists find plant gene that affects stress resistance
01-25-2008 · EurekAlert!
A University of Saskatchewan team of scientists funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has isolated a gene that has never before been identified in helping plants to resist stress.The study -- published this month in the top-ranked plant journal The Plant Cell -- could pave the way for development of agricultural and forestry crops that are more tolerant to environmental stresses such as ultraviolet light and other types of radiation.
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University "very pleased" to be ranked ninth in UK
07-30-2007 · University of Bath
The University of Bath was â€œvery pleasedâ€ to be ranked in the top ten UK universities in the Daily Telegraph's league table today.
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Dual gene therapy suppresses lung cancer in preclinical test
01-15-2007 · EurekAlert!
Combination gene therapy delivered in lipid-based nanoparticles drastically reduces the number and size of human non-small cell lung cancer tumors in mice, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center report in the January 15 edition of Cancer Research.
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Vet medicine researcher examines link between cancer, Down syndrome
02-04-2008 · EurekAlert!
There's new hope for breast cancer research, and it's coming from a very unlikely place. Researchers at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences recently published articles in the journals Molecular and Cellular Biology and Carcinogenesis indicating that a protein long suspected to play a role in Down Syndrome may also contribute to treating this devastating disease.
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MIT involved in two of top 10 physics stories of 2007
12-19-2007 · Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Two research projects involving MIT physicists are among the top ten physics stories of the year, as ranked by the American Institute of Physics.
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1 sample examined by 1,000 pathologists -- how and why?
09-05-2007 · EurekAlert!
This week, more than 800 pathologists from around Europe and the world will take part in a first of its kind, large-scale virtual microscopy slide seminar on the web. The seminar is arranged by the Biomedical Informatics Research Group from the University of Helsinki in conjunction with the 21st European Congress of Pathology, which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey.
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Bath part of Â£5 million research centre to tackle smoking
01-23-2008 · University of Bath
The University of Bath's Tobacco Control Research Group, a collaboration between the Department of Social & POlicy Sciences and the School for Health, has been successful in securing Â£5 million funding, along with colleagues in other universities, to establish a UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies (UKCTCS).
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'Supersize me' mice research offers grim warning for America's fast food consumers
05-23-2007 · EurekAlert!
New Saint Louis University research presented this week found fatty liver disease and signs of type 2 diabetes after only four weeks of a high-fat, high-sugar diet.
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Lasting impression: Does the face of a CEO determine a successful company?
01-10-2008 · EurekAlert!
It certainly takes more than a pretty face to run a leading national corporation. But according to a recent Tufts University study, the performance levels of America's top companies could be related to the first impressions made by their chief executive officers.
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