Pythons may help heal hearts

INTERN DAILY

File image: Python.

by Staff Writers
Boulder, Colo. (UPI) Aug 29, 2008
A biotech firm is teaming with the University of Colorado at Boulder to use pythons as a model for new ways to treat heart disease.

Pythons dramatically increase their heart size for a short time after swallowing prey, the university said in a release.

Researchers are working with Hiberna Corp., based in Boulder, which is developing drugs based on natural models of extreme metabolic regulation.

CU professor Leslie Leinwand said the ability of pythons and other constricting snakes to enlarge and then decrease their heart muscle mass in just days may help researchers target new drugs for treating cardiac growth in response to disease.

"This may be a unique path toward potential drug development," Leinwand said. "If we are able to understand the genetic cues involved in rapid python heart muscle increases and decreases, that to me says there is the potential to develop therapeutics for humans."

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

INTERN DAILY

Two years on, face transplant patients can smile: study

Paris (AFP) Aug 22, 2008
Two facial transplants -- one on a Chinese man who had half his face ripped off by a bear -- have proved highly successful two years on, opening the way for wider use of the procedure, studies released Friday report.

INTERNET SPACE Carnegie Mellon System Thwarts Internet Eavesdropping Tiny nation of Niue gets laptop for every child 'Phoney' queues used to spur Polish iPhone launch Yahoo mixes old and new in Internet-age news service	LAUNCH PAD Arianespace To Launch Koreasat 6 Inmarsat Selects ILS Proton To Launch S-Band Satellite For Europe Forecast International Projects 50 Billion Dollar ELV Market Successful Launch For Third Inmarsat-4 Satellite
AEROSPACE Chinese airlines fly into headwinds in Olympic year The M2-F1 - An Aircraft Without Wings China's Tianjin building runway for Airbus test flights: report NASA evaluates new wing sensor	MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS DataPath Wins Suppport Contract For US CENTCOM SatComm Hubs Satellite's Data Collection Will Support Warfighter Boeing Awarded E-6B Upgrade Contract Defense Support Program Satellite Decommissioned
TECH SPACE North Korea marks long-range missile test Eyes turn to dawn of 'visual computing' NPL To Create Encyclopedia For Space Nanomaterials Key Advance Toward Micro-Spacecraft	APPOINTMENTS Orbital Appoints Frank Culbertson And Mark Pieczynski To Management Chris Smith Named Director Of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory AsiaSat Appoints New General Manager China NASA names aeronautics administrator
EARTH OBSERVATION Hanna Not Moving Much Near North Of The Caicos Islands Arctic Ice On The Verge Of Another All-Time Low Changing The World, One Student At A Time GOCE To Look At The Earth Surface And Core	GPS NEWS Rockford Map Publishers Selects TerraGo To Enhance Plat Books u-blox GPS Technology To Power Microsoft MapPoint 2009 USB Stick XATA Adds Enhanced Mapping Capabilities To Fleet Management Solution Airbiquity Announces Connected Services Platform For PNDs

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement