Researchers have developed a new prenatal blood test that accurately detected Down syndrome and two other serious chromosomal defects in a small study of 18 pregnant women. The test scan fetal DNA present in the mother's blood to detect chromosomal anomalies, particularly with chromosomes 21, 18, and 13, which are associated with severe birth defects.

Employing a "shotgun sequencing" strategy using a high-throughput gene sequencing technology to identify millions of unique sequence "tags" in the fetal DNA, the scientists were able to correctly identify the 12 women who carried aneuploid fetuses and the six whose pregnancies were normal. Their results matched those of amniocentesis or CVS test that were done on the women.

The research group is now planning a larger scale study. The cost of the test is estimated to be about $300, with DNA sequencing accounting for the majority of the overall cost.

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Researchers have found in a pilot study that Chlorella crude extract (CCE) may help in the treatment of short bowel syndrome, a condition characterized by diarrhea, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, malabsorption, and progressive malnutrition related to a wide resection of the small intestine.

In an article published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology, CCE has been shown to have beneficial effects on the intestinal adaptation of rats which had undergone short bowel syndrome.

In rats receiving CCE, villus lengthening, crypt depth, mucosal DNA and protein levels, intestinal proliferation, and serum citrulline, protein and albumin levels were found to be significantly higher than those in control group. Apoptosis in CCE treated rats was significantly reduced when compared to EN group rats.

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)will launch a new journal focusing on the interface between molecular biology and clinical research. The EMBO Molecular Medicine journal, to be released starting 2009, will publish studies on molecular insights into cellular and systemic processes underlying defined human diseases as well as potential clinical applications for diagnosis, prevention and therapy.

"EMBO Molecular Medicine offers a unique opportunity to broadly distribute new findings in biomedical research and to strengthen links between clinicians and molecular biologists," said Hermann Bujard, EMBO Director. "We hope that published papers will lead to advances that will improve the detection, diagnosis and clinical management of diseases." Submissions are invited from research groups at universities, independent research laboratories and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide.

Research groups from universities, independent research institutions and pharma/biotech companies are invited to submit their manuscripts for publication. The journal offers free access to all content for the first two years of publication.

Cornell University researchers have tested 25 fruits of its cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) and found that wild blueberries have greater antioxidant content than common fruits such as apples, bananas, red grapes and strawberries. Even superfruits such as noni, acai and goji did not measure up to wild blueberries.

In addition to CAA, the researchers also measured total phenolic content, and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) values. These are more typical 'in-the-fruit' readings but the researchers wanted to test the levels of antioxidants in fruits in a more biologically representative manner, hence their application of the CAA method which measures antioxidant activity 'in-the-cell'.

Findings are published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

80-year-old Osamu Shimomura of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution lab had won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and Roger Y. Tsien of the University of California, San Diego, for discovering a green fluorescent protein in jellyfish.

By attaching this protein to cells, scientists have found ways to track and see biological processes under a microscope that were previously invisible, such as how cancer cells spread.

"GFP technology has revolutionized what we can see at the most fundamental levels of life," Gary Borisy, director of the Marine Biological Laboratory, said in a statement. "GFP is revealing, for example, how proteins move and interact in cells."

The glowing protein, called GFP, is now an important everyday tool in biomedical labs worldwide.

Read more from The Boston Globe.

A privately-owned, FDA-registered, state of the art laboratory - LifeSource Cryobank, LLC - is committed to ensuring the safety and integrity of the stem cells it store in a totally secure environment. Located in Covington, Louisiana, LifeSource opened its doors in September 2007 and is the only company in the U.S. to extract and store stem cells directly from bone marrow.

Utilizing an advanced medical technique, doctors at LifeSource Cryobank, LLC can extract, purify, expand and store a type of stem cells directly from bone marrow. Because these stem cells give rise to or participate in the formation of bone, muscle, cartilage, blood vessels and other tissues and organs, they are far superior to hematopoietic stem cells that can only regenerate new blood cells.

This summer, Michael Drury became the first person in the United States to have his stem cells banked via the new extraction method. Developed by LifeSource Scientific Director Jose Minguell, Ph.D., and overseen by its Medical Director, Gabriel Lasala, M.D., Drury had stem cells aspirated directly from bone marrow in his hip. The stem cells were then isolated and multiplied before being stored in the cryopreservation facility.

The researchers are also using these procedures to execute three Federal Drug Administration reviewed clinical trials to treat lower limb ischemia (blockage to the vessels of the legs), coronary ischemia (blockage to the vessels of the heart) and damage to heart muscle from heart attack. Over the last nine months, more than twenty people have undergone the patent-pending procedure as part of the trials.

Find out more at LifeSource Cryobank, LLC.

[Press release provided by Jill Willie of Gallinghouse & Associates.]