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UN Secretary-General, World AIDS Campaign And UNAIDS Launch World AIDS Day Theme Of 'Universal Access And Human Rights'
Ahead of this year"s World AIDS Day, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the World AIDS Campaign and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) have come together to announce the theme of "Universal Access and Human Rights". Don't forget to buy zoloft online no prescription.

Medicare Payments Get Attention In House Democrats' Plan
Bloomberg reports that "While the House Democrats" plan would boost Medicare payments to primary-care physicians, it will also cut payments to Medicare Advantage health plans. Details of those cuts weren"t provided." Bloomberg details other features of the legislation: "An outline of the plan also says Democrats drafting the House bill will propose new restrictions on insurers, including caps on out-of-pocket health-care expenses in policies to protect consumers from bankruptcy. The legislation also would bar insurers from excluding people based on pre-existing conditions, according to the outline, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News" (Litvan and Rowley, 6/9).

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Extending The Life Of An Appetite-Suppressing Peptide
The peptide alpha-MSH works in a region of the brain known as the hypothalamus to suppress appetite. A team of researchers, at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, and the University of California Davis, has provided new insight into the way in which levels of the active form of alpha-MSH are regulated in mice. Specifically, genetic and biochemical analysis performed by the team, led by Sabrina Diano and Craig Warden, indicated that the protein PRCP is expressed in the hypothalamus and breaks down the active form of alpha-MSH, generating a slightly smaller peptide that does not suppress food intake. Importantly, administration of PRCP inhibitors to both normal and obese mice reduced their food intake. Further, mice lacking PRCP had increased levels of the active form of alpha-MSH in the hypothalamus and were leaner and shorter than normal mice; they also did not get obese when fed a high-fat diet. The authors suggest that these data are the first step in identifying PRCP as a candidate drug target for the treatment of obesity and obesity-related disorders. Although Richard Palmiter, at the University of Washington, Seattle, also raises this intriguing possibility, he cautions that any drug would need to penetrate the brain.
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Mapping Gene Expression With Gene Expression Atlas

Recently, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory"s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) launched a new database, the Gene Expression Atlas, which allows scientists to search and compare gene expression data at unprecedented detail and scope. Observing how gene expression varies in different cell types, tissues and under disease conditions can help researchers understand gene function and to develop new drugs and therapies. Although most cells in an organism share the same genetic information, different cell types, for example skin and liver cells, have different properties and functions, largely because different genes are active in these cells. The Gene Expression Atlas is a new database that allows users to query gene expression under a range of biological conditions, including different cell types, developmental stages, physiological states, phenotypes and disease states. The key questions this new database can answer can be summarised as: 1. under which conditions is my particular gene of interest expressed? 2. which genes are expressed in a particular condition? For example, what genes are specifically active in kidney cells, or how does the expression of genes in leukemic blood differ compared to normal blood? Both questions can also be combined to focus on particular genes and their role in a specific disease, such as identifying members of the Wnt signalling pathway that are expressed in cancer. The Atlas collates data from over 1000 different independent studies, mainly microarray experiments, with more than 30,000 samples in total. The new database is the latest product of the EBI"s Microarray Informatics group and has its origins in the EBI"s ArrayExpress re. After a phase of development, the Atlas is ready to begin its own life as an independent major re. Misha Kapushesky, Atlas project leader at the EBI commented, "While the ArrayExpress Archive makes data from high throughput functional genomics assays available to experts, Gene Expression Atlas presents this information in a format accessible to any biologist. The Atlas takes data directly from the ArrayExpress Archive, which is then enriched by curation, re-annotation and statistical computations before the results are presented to the user in an easily accessible form." Notes: The Gene Expression Atlas has already found use in the pharmaceuticals industry as a valuable research platform. The re can be accessed from http://www.ebi.ac.uk/gxa and the Microarray Informatics group have produced an e-learning tutorial to guide users on how to get the most from the Atlas. This tutorial is freely available from the EBI"s e-learning portal at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/training/elearningcentral/. Gene Expression atlas: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/gxa For more information please check: http://www.ebi.ac.uk Katrina Pavelin European Molecular Biology Laboratory


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