Key element of cell division: How daughter cells receive the same number of chromosomes

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2011) ? Scientists at Warwick Medical School have uncovered the molecular process of how cells are by-passing the body's inbuilt 'health checkpoint' with cells that carry unequal numbers of chromosomes that have a higher risk of developing cancer.

Studying simple yeast cells, scientists now understand the mechanism by which cells ensure their daughter cells receive the correct number of chromosomes.

Most cells in our bodies contain 23 pairs of chromosomes that encode our individual genetic identities. In healthy, dividing human cells, each of these chromosomes is duplicated and one copy passed to each of the two daughter cells. However, if this process is disturbed, daughter cells receive an unequal number of chromosomes, a state that is known to drive normal cells to become cancerous. In fact, aggressive human tumours are frequently composed of cells with an abnormal complement of chromosomes.

Professor Jonathan Millar explained: "This cell division process is monitored by the body's surveillance system known as the 'spindle checkpoint', and that is only switched off once everything within the cell is set up correctly. Amazingly, all of the elements of this process are conserved from yeast to human cells.

"Therefore it is extremely likely that what we have found in yeast also happens in human cells. So by preventing this process happening with drugs, you could restrict the cell's ability to develop into full blown cancer," explained Professor Millar.

Currently, one of the most frequently used classes of anti-cancer drugs are taxanes, which target the mitotic apparatus in part by preventing proper silencing of the spindle checkpoint. However, this class of drug affects healthy and cancerous cells alike and can have debilitating side effects including permanent neurological damage and hair loss.

Professor Millar said: "Now that we have pinpointed the central elements of cell division, we are in a great position to design drugs that can be more selective and targeted about which cells they treat. But this is just the start -- much more research has to be done before we can convert this into a commercial treatment for patients, but we are greatly encouraged that our research here at Warwick is leading the way in the search for more effective cancer treatments with fewer side effects."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Warwick.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. John?C. Meadows, Lindsey?A. Shepperd, Vincent Vanoosthuyse, Theresa?C. Lancaster, Alicja?M. Sochaj, Graham?J. Buttrick, Kevin?G. Hardwick, Jonathan?B.A. Millar. Spindle Checkpoint Silencing Requires Association of PP1 to Both Spc7 and Kinesin-8 Motors. Developmental Cell, 2011; 20 (6): 739 DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2011.05.008

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111101125947.htm

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Suicide bomber reportedly from Minneapolis

A man who blew himself up in an attack in the Somali capital on Saturday reportedly grew up in Minneapolis and was known by the FBI as one of 20 Somali Americans to have joined an al-Qaida-linked militant group.

Abdisalan Hussein Ali, 22, was suspected of being a member of al-Shabab, the FBI told msnbc.com.

Kyle Loven, the FBI's chief division counsel for Minneapolis, said Ali was a subject of "Operation Rhino," an ongoing investigation into Somali youth traveling from the U.S. to Somalia to fight for al-Shabab.

Loven could not confirm whether Ali was indeed the bomber but told msnbc.com that the FBI was "awaiting results from DNA checks at this point."

Al-Shabab posted an audiotape that they said was made by Ali before he blew himself up during an attack Saturday on an African Union base in Mogadishu that left at least 10 people dead.

The FBI could not confirm whether the audiotape was authentic but was investigating its credibility.

A spokesman for the Somali affairs unit at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi told msnbc.com that they had seen reports alleging that one of the bombers was an American citizen."We have not been able to verify those reports," Matt Goshko said.

In the tape, the young man, who would be at least the fourth American to become a suicide bomber in Somalia, urges other young people to not "just chill all day" and instead fight nonbelievers around the world.

The website Somalimemo.net (website not in English), often used by the al-Shabab militia, said the Somali-American bomber had emigrated to the U.S. when he was two years old.

'Bullethead'
There were conflicting reports of his name, with some sources naming the bomber as Abdisalan Taqabalahullaah and Cabdi Salaam al-Muhajir.

But a Somali diplomat at the United Nations said the youth's friends and family listened to the recording and identified him as Abdisalan Hussein Ali, The New York Times reported.

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"They all say it is him," Omar Jamal, the diplomat, told The Times.

According to The Minneapolis Star Tribune, he graduated from Edison High School and attended the University of Minnesota, where he was a pre-med student, The Times reported. He disappeared in 2008.

The Star Tribune reported that Ali's nickname was "Bullethead," and that during high school he liked to lift weights and that he sold shoes to help support his family.

The young man in the tape had an American accent and mixed Muslim terminology with American slang as he urged Muslims to carry out attacks against non-Muslims around the world.

"My brothers and sisters, do jihad in America, do jihad in Canada, do jihad in England, anywhere in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in China, in Australia," the voice on the al-Shabab tape said. "Anywhere you find (unbelievers), fight them and be firm against them.

Story: Gunmen abduct US, Danish aid workers in Somalia

"Today jihad is what is most important thing for the Muslim ummah," he said, using a word for the Islamic community. "It is not important that you, you know, you you become a doctor or you become, you know, uh, some sort of engineer."

"We have to believe in Allah and die as Muslims ... Brainstorm," the youth said. "Don't, don't just sit around and, you know, be, be be a couch potato and you know, you know, just like, you know, just chill all day, you know. It doesn't, it doesn't, it will not benefit you, it will not benefit yourself, or the Muslims."

Disguised as soldiers
In Saturday's attack in Mogadishu, two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the entrance to the African Union compound and armed attackers then jumped over the base's walls, sparking a two-hour gunfight that left at least 10 people dead, according to security officials.

The AU has not released official casualty figures but al-Shabab said dozens died.

"They were dressed in Somali military uniform and disguised as ordinary soldiers," a Somali soldier, Col. Nor Abdi, said. "Then they tried to enter the base and (AU) soldiers fired at them. Then heavy gunfire started and all of them were killed. I don't know how many they were but they were more than 10 men."

Story: Thousands of Somalis flee area fearing fighting

About 9,000 AU peacekeepers supporting Somali government troops have almost pushed al-Shabab from the capital of Mogadishu.

Earlier this month, Kenya opened a second front, sending hundreds of soldiers across the border into southern Somalia.

The insurgency is outgunned by both forces and has been weakened by a famine in its strongholds. But it still maintains the ability to carry off spectacular attacks, like a truck bomb that killed more than 100 people earlier this month, or Saturday's two-hour attack on the AU base.

Somalia has not had a functioning government in more than 20 years.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45100121/ns/world_news-africa/

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'Mini' Stem Cell Transplant May Help Seniors With Blood Cancer (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Nov. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Age in itself should not be a factor in deciding whether blood cancer patients are candidates for stem cell transplantation, according to a new study.

Blood cancers include leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

For the study, researchers analyzed long-term outcomes among 372 blood cancer patients aged 60 to 75 who underwent a "mini-transplant," which is a "kinder, gentler" form of allogeneic (cells from another person) stem cell transplantation developed at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

The five-year rates of overall survival and disease progression-free survival among the patients were 35 percent and 32 percent, respectively. Comparable survival rates were seen when the patients were divided into three age groups -- 60 to 64, 65 to 69, and 70 to 75 -- suggesting that age plays a limited role in the success of the mini-transplant.

While a survival rate of one-third may seem low, all of the patients would have died within months if they didn't have the transplant, Dr. Mohamed Sorror, an assistant member of the Hutchinson Center's Clinical Research Division, noted in a news release from the Center.

The investigators also found that greater cancer aggressiveness and having a larger number of medical problems not linked to cancer ("comorbidities") were two factors that affected survival, regardless of age.

For example, the five-year survival for patients with less aggressive cancer and fewer comorbidities was 69 percent, compared with 23 percent for patients with more aggressive cancer and a large number of comorbidities, according to the report in the Nov. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Conventional stem cell transplants are generally not performed on blood cancer patients older than 60 because high doses of total-body radiation and potent chemotherapy are used to prepare patients for transplantation.

However, the mini-transplant relies on the donor's immune cells to kill the cancer, and low-dose radiation and chemotherapy is used to suppress the immune system rather than destroy it.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about blood cancers.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111101/hl_hsn/ministemcelltransplantmayhelpseniorswithbloodcancer

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Car Insurance Comparisons | Estate Of ?

If you are hunting for car insurance comparisons, then finding a web site with all the insurance policies providers can be really time consuming and tiresome. One particular way to hunt for a website which possibly lists or compares almost every single car insurance company, is to discover a web site which offers a comparison or record of other main comparison sites.

This way, you will be in a position to get motor insurance policy online quotations from the key comparison internet sites all below a single roof. You will be able to conduct a Car Insurance Cost Comparison, as well as review breakdown cover from most of the insurance policies organizations. This technique of making use of a website which homes numerous of the key comparison websites, must help save you significant time of heading back and forth by way of the search engines researching all the Car Insurance Comparisons web sites.

Apart from conserving substantial time of employing this research method, you will also be able to find top quality and inexpensive motor insurance policy much more effortlessly. This is simply because most of the car insurance comparison websites have capabilities that let you to compare rates and charges side by aspect. In addition, these car insurance on the internet quotations will be from a extensive range of insurance policy companies. From nicely known family manufacturers, to smaller and a lot more professional kinds of providers.

Locating a Motor Insurance policy Supermarket type of website, has a lot of benefits in contrast to other kind of mediums. For instance, when you make a get in touch with or go to a motor insurance organization, there is only so a lot they can do for you in the time readily available. For instance, you could invest 30 minutes on the phone or encounter to confront and discover at the conclude you are both ambigu-minded about the modest handful of quotations you acquired probably as well costly or inadequate cover, or you wanted to escape as speedily as achievable due to the fact of the pressuring pushy salesperson wanting to generate his/her commission. On the other hand, with a Car Insurance Comparisons internet site, all is effortlessly and peacefully accomplished on the web. No pushy salesperson to deal with, no need to have to repeat your information once more and once more, no require to listen to stay on the line with recorded messages. All is at your fingertips, review hundreds upon hundreds of rates on the web and most of all, within a really short room of time.

For some insurance policies companies, the complete approach from getting an online car insurance quote to finishing the paperwork, can be completed completely on-line. So, waiting ages on the telephone for your turn gets to be a point of the past. On the other hand, if you do choose to speak to a person, again, there are a lot of insurance firms which offer that option.

Auto Insurance policies Comparisons are built straightforward when you locate that one website which residences several of the significant on the internet automobile comparison sites.

Car Insurance Comparison

Source: http://estateof.com/2011/10/30/car-insurance-comparisons/

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Demi Lovato, Kelly Clarkson Reveal Halloween Plans

'A pirate or Ke$ha ... they're one in the same," Lovato jokes.
By Christina Garibaldi


Demi Lovato
Photo: MTV News

It's Halloween, a favorite time of the year when you can dress up as someone (or something) entirely different from yourself. Some will take the scary route, some will dress up in a sexy costume, and others might transform themselves into their favorite celebrity.

So, what are some of the biggest pop stars doing to celebrate the big day? When MTV News caught up with Demi Lovato, she told us about her Halloween plans.

"I think I'm going to dress up, but I think I'm just going to pass out candy," Lovato said.

And it seems the Unbroken singer can't decide what she will be. "I think I'm going to be a pirate or Ke$ha — two similar options; they're one in the same," she joked.

It sounds like Lovato's trick-or-treaters are in for something special. Yet, not everyone has a costume in mind. When Kelly Clarkson stopped by MTV News on Friday, she was still unsure what she was going to be this Halloween.

"I think we are going to be in Cologne, Germany," Clarkson said. "We'll probably find a bar somewhere and dress up stupid. Our schedule's been so busy, we kind of forgot that it's happening. We'll all dress up; we're all pretty game for stuff like that."

And Clarkson wasn't kidding. The Stronger singer seems up for just about anything: Just ask about her favorite Halloween memory.

"I didn't know I was supposed to dress up for something at work — this was years ago — and I ended up going to Wal-Mart," Clarkson revealed. "The only thing they had left was a XXXL cow costume, and it had udders that were dragging on the floor. It was really gross and awesome."

What would you like to see your favorite pop stars wear this Halloween? Let us know in the comments!

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673396/demi-lovato-kelly-clarkson-halloween-costumes.jhtml

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Latin Americans grade Obama high, Castro low (AP)

SANTIAGO, Chile ? Latin Americans give U.S. President Barack Obama the highest approval rating for any leader in the region.

Obama is rated 6.3 on a scale of one to 10 in the survey conducted by the Chile-based Latinobarometro polling organization. He is closely followed by Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff at 6.

Latinobarometro polled 20,000 people in 18 Latin American countries. The leader with the worst mark is former Cuban President Fidel Castro at 4.1. Next lowest are Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, who tied at 4.4.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has 4.9 and Chilean leader Sebastian Pinera got 5.1.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_chile_leaders_poll

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IndyCar has issues to fix beyond Wheldon accident

IndyCar made gains this year in building a buzz about the series that many believed would carry over into the 2012 season.

Even so, there was obvious work that still had to be done during the offseason. Though the investigation of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon's death now takes top priority, other pressing issues can't be forgotten.

First up is the 2012 car that Wheldon, the primary test driver, helped develop. The investigation into Wheldon's death ? the result of a 15-car accident in the early laps of the Oct. 16 season finale at Las Vegas ? could reveal information that potentially could be applied to the car.

Four-time series champion Dario Franchitti got his first laps in the car this week during a two-day test at Sebring, and said Thursday that drivers have a long way to go in getting the car ready for next season.

"I'm really appreciative of Dallara naming the car after Dan; he did put a lot of work into it, and he did a really good job of not telling us anything," Franchitti said. "He was very secretive about what went on so he didn't give anyone an advantage, and a few of us tried to tap him for information.

"We're at the beginning of a long development process. ... We still have a lot of work to do. It will be a busy couple of months."

Although the new car has been touted as both safer and technologically improved, Wheldon's accident has led to a call for a variety of new features such as increased horsepower, less downforce and a closed canopy cockpit, which driver Will Power said isn't realistic.

"It's no question better than the old car, a little easier to drive and it's definitely faster," said Power, who has tested. "But I think a canopy itself would be a very long-term project. You've got to be able to get out of the car if there happened to be a fire; you've got to be able to be extracted quickly. It's not something that can be put on in the next three months."

Franchitti also downplayed the calls for a canopy.

"This is the problem with these knee-jerk things," said Franchitti, "how big a canopy would there have had to have been for Dan to survive? How thick would it have had to have been? You know?"

While the teams work on car development, CEO Randy Bernard must address the 2012 schedule, which is unfinished.

Bernard previously had announced that the series will return next season to Detroit's Belle Isle Park, and he's been working hard on a deal to stage an event in China.

Although Las Vegas already had been announced as the season finale, a return to that track or any other high-banked oval is up for debate.

NASCAR five-time champion Jimmie Johnson was blasted by fans for calling on IndyCar to stop racing on ovals, but Johnson specifically meant the high-banked tracks. Franchitti and Power, two of IndyCar's most visible drivers, said Johnson is not off the mark.

"I absolutely understood what he meant, and I think that was totally taken the wrong way," Power said. "But my personal thought is that all those tracks, the high-banked tracks, were built for NASCAR. Las Vegas used to be a track we could race, and then they added the banking. The fact is, a stock car is three times the weight of an IndyCar, and that it makes it very difficult to get the formula right for many of those big ovals."

IndyCar wants to mix ovals with street and road courses as Bernard tries to market the series as the most versatile in motorsports. His struggle now will be finding enough suitable venues. Texas Motor Speedway, a banked oval, presumably will be on the 2012 schedule, but a sanctioning agreement has not been completed yet with a track many consider to be second in prestige only to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said he wants IndyCar back, and the lack of a deal right now is strictly business related. It doesn't help that Gossage loved Texas running after the Indy 500 ? the date Belle Isle now has.

Penske Racing president Tim Cindric said completing a schedule is paramount.

"There's a lot of priorities, and one is to understand what the schedule is for next year because people have to plan," Cindric said. "We have to establish how we are going to compete so that the manufacturers that have come into the series have a level playing field, and the drivers that are competing in the series are confident that we're going to continue to improve the areas of competition and the areas of safety."

Bernard also has two very serious areas of competition to address.

This past season was controversial as drivers openly complained of inconsistent officiating. Although the politically correct way to fingerpoint was to blame a muddled rule book that leaves much room for interpretation, drivers also lashed out at race director Brian Barnhart.

In August, Power jumped out of his car, hopped over a wall and then flashed two middle fingers at race officials following an aborted restart on a wet track at New Hampshire. He later was fined $30,000 and put on probation for the obscene gesture. A month later, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves called Barnhart a "circus clown" during a Twitter rant about a penalty imposed on the final lap at Japan. He also was fined $30,000.

Before the season ended Bernard promised an offseason "scrubbing" of the rule book. In a recent interview, he told The Associated Press that's still the plan.

"Our goal was always to have this done by mid-December, but it might take an extra couple of weeks with the investigation now being the priority," he said. "We know we need to tighten the rule book, and we'll debrief over the next few weeks with many people in the series and react with an appropriate plan."

Bernard would not speculate about Barnhart's future.

"We're debriefing on all elements," he said.

Power suggested creating a team of stewards similar to Formula One so that one person in race control doesn't have the authority to make every decision. But even if nothing changed, a tighter rule book could alleviate some of the controversy.

"I'd add people up there to make the decision, to make it easier on the race director so he doesn't have to do everything. It will make things easier and make the decisions fair, no question," Power said. "But the rule book absolutely needs to be black and white, clear as day. Whoever is calling the race has to be able to make clear decisions and understand exactly what the penalty is. That's something that absolutely has got to be changed."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-10-27-CAR-IndyCar-What's-Next?/id-ffc975b1668f44d4b76e33f0231b6eac

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus Only Fortified Glass, Not Gorilla Glass [Android]

Looks like Google's latest flagship Android phone is slightly less awesome than we thought it was — no Corning Gorilla glass, just 'fortified glass'. Of course Samsung didn't actually speak about the glass originally, we just hoped-and-wished it was furnished in Gorilla. [Twitter via Phandroid via Android and Me via Engadget via Gizmodo UK] More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/tAD_rcH98kc/samsung-galaxy-nexus-only-fortified-glass-not-gorilla-glass

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