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Kenyan center supports literacy, development

Aisha Walcott, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science, recently traveled to Laare, Kenya, as a representative of the Imara outreach program, which was funded by a grant from the MIT Public Service Center.

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1. New center to support aspiring entrepreneurs
   09-17-2007 · Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
   The firm Legatum announced Aug. 17 a structured gift of $50 million to create a new center at MIT to support aspiring entrepreneurs from the developing world who have a strong commitment to development entrepreneurship.
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2. UWM brain research supports drug development from jellyfish protein
   10-27-2006 · EurekAlert!
   With the research support from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Wisconsin biotech company has found that a compound from a protein found in jellyfish is neuroprotective and may be effective in treating neurodegenerative diseases.
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3. Ravenell named recipient of grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
   01-07-2008 · UT Southwestern Medical Center
   Dr. Joseph Ravenell, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has received a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The $416,558 award supports his research for the next four years.
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4. Louisiana Tech joins in effort to protect cyberspace
   08-16-2007 · EurekAlert!
   A new cyberspace technology center has been established in Ruston through the combined efforts of Louisiana Tech University and Louisiana State University.The Center for Secure Cyberspace has been created to assist Tech faculty members in their research and to support the US Air Force if it decides to place its planned cyber center in Louisiana, said Dr. Les Guice, vice president for research and development.
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5. Cannibalistic signals help mammalian embryos develop normally
   08-29-2007 · EurekAlert!
   A cannibalistic process called autophagy spurs dying embryonic stem cells to send "eat me" and "come get me" signals to have their corpses purged, a last gasp that paves the way for normal mammalian development, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.
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6. 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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7. New links in the cystic fibrosis chain uncover potential therapeutics
   10-18-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disease caused by mutations in the CFTR gene. Each mutation has number of effects on lung cells. New in vitro evidence published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation has provided insight into the mechanisms by which one of these changes impacts both CF and the complications of CF, providing support for ongoing clinical trials and raising the possibility of new targets for the development of drugs to treat CF.
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8. New studies suggest brain overgrowth in 1-year-olds linked to development of autism
   12-08-2007 · EurekAlert!
   Brain overgrowth in the latter part of an infant's first year may contribute to the onset of autistic characteristics, according to research presented today at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Annual Meeting. These findings support concurrent research which has found brain overgrowth in autistic children as young as 2 years old.
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9. Cedars-Sinai researchers on multicenter team linking gene mutation to Crohn's disease
   10-26-2006 · EurekAlert!
   The North American IBD Genetics Consortium has linked a gene mutation to the development of Crohn's disease, a chronic, relapsing inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract that affects 100 to 150 of every 100,000 people of European ancestry. The consortium is composed of IBD genetics research groups from seven centers in North America, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and this effort was led by teams at Yale University and the University of Pittsburgh.
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10. NMR advance relies on microscopic detector
    05-15-2007 · Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
    Researchers from MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms report the development of a radically different approach to NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance). The new highly sensitive technique could prove invaluable in diagnosing a variety of diseases.
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