Research Roundup
Sign of ‘Embryonic Planets’ Found
Researchers at Rochester are pointing to three nearby stars they say may hold “embryonic planets”—a missing link in planet-formation theories. Alice Quillen, associate professor of astronomy, employed new Hubble Space Telescope imagery to measure the thickness of the dust disks that surround forming stars and to calculate the size of the planets growing within. The results help paint a picture of a planet’s earliest years, and help explain how our own small planet probably began its life, says Quillen.
Scientists Apply Mathematics to Investigate Invisible ‘Wormholes’
The team of scientists that first created the mathematics behind the “invisibility cloak” announced by physicists last October has now shown that the same technology could be used to generate an “electromagnetic wormhole.” In the study, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Allan Greenleaf, professor of mathematics, and his coauthors lay out a variation on the theme of cloaking. To create cloaking technology, Greenleaf and his collaborators use theoretical mathematics to design a device to guide the electromagnetic waves in a useful way. Researchers could use such blueprints to create layers of specially engineered, light-bending composite materials called metamaterials.
One Species’ Genome Discovered Inside Another’s
Scientists at the University and the J. Craig Venter Institute have discovered a copy of the genome of a bacterial parasite residing inside the genome of its host species. The research, reported in the journal Science, also shows that lateral gene transfer—the movement of genes between unrelated species—may happen much more frequently between bacteria and multicellular organisms than scientists previously believed. Such large-scale heritable gene transfers may allow species to acquire new genes and functions extremely quickly, says Jack Werren, professor of biology and a principal investigator of the study.
How Do Stem Cells Decide to Become Either Skeletal or Smooth Muscle?
Medical Center researchers have discovered a key protein that controls how stem cells “choose” to become either skeletal muscle cells that move limbs or smooth muscle cells that support blood vessels, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results may suggest new ways to treat atherosclerosis and cancer, diseases that involve the creation of new blood vessels from stem cell reserves, says Joseph Miano, senior author of the paper and associate professor in the Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute.
Daisies Lead Scientists Down Path to New Leukemia Drug
A new, easily ingested form of a compound that draws its roots from a daisy-like plant known as feverfew or bachelor’s button and that has shown it can attack the roots of leukemia in laboratory studies is moving into human clinical trials, according to an article by Rochester investigators in the journal Blood. The Rochester team, including Craig Jordan, senior author of the article and director of Translational Research for Hematologic Malignancies at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, and Monica Guzman, the lead researcher on the project and a senior instructor at the Medical Center, has been leading the investigation of the promising therapy for nearly five years. Clinical trials are expected to begin in England by the end of 2007.
