New from BioMed Central

Launch of BMC Systems Biology
BMC Systems Biology, the first open access journal focussed solely on the entire emerging subject of systems biology, has just published its first articles. Read the press release for more information, or visit the journal homepage.

BMC Cell Biology's Image of the Month
BMC Cell Biology's Image of the Month for December shows weak intracellular localization of the phosphodiesterase 9A (PDE9A) splice variant PDE9A1 to the endoplasmic reticulum.

New supplement
Retrovirology has published the meeting abstracts from the "2006 International Meeting of The Institute of Human Virology", Baltimore, USA, 17-21 November 2006.

New supplement
BMC Bioinformatics has published a new supplement from "APBioNet - Fifth International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB2006)", New Dehli, India, 18-20 December 2006.

Launch of Journal of Molecular Signaling
We are pleased to announce the launch of Journal of Molecular Signaling. The Editor-in-Chief, Danny Dhanasekaran, is supported by an international Editorial Board .

BMC Developmental Biology's Image of the Month
BMC Developmental Biology's Image of the Month for December shows that epidermal wounding in the pupal wing of the butterfly Bicyclus anynana induces expression of the transcription factors Distal-less (Dll) and Engrailed (En).

"Most investigators are aware that the function of an individual protein of interest can be altered by its fusion to enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), but this paper shows that expression of EGFP alone or as part of a fusion protein generally reduces polyubiquitination in eukaryotic cells." See the full evaluation of this paper by Karin Romisch (University of Cambridge, UK) for Faculty of 1000 Biology.

"This is a great piece of work presenting interesting possibilities and providing us with new therapeutic prospects." See the full evaluation of this paper by David Whiting (Dallas Associated Dermatologists, Dallas, USA) for Faculty of 1000 Medicine.

Research highlights

Among patients with obstructive sleep apnea and elevated blood pressure, cholesterol or heart rate, heterozygote carriers of the three main polymorphisms of the beta-2-adrenergic receptor have a lower risk of heart attack.

Multiphoton laser-scanning microscopy identifies that the alignment of collagen fibers relative to tumors may facilitate invasion and tumor growth in breast cancer.

Mutations in genes involved with the metabolism of choline, an essential nutrient, are associated with the risk of developing spina bifida, however maternal choline intake does not appear to override this genetically determined risk.

Latest articles[more info]

Epidural analgesia and breastfeeding (William Camann, 08 Jan 2007)
To the editor; I read with interest the recent article by Torvaldsen et.al. (Intrapartum epidural analgesia and breastfeeding: a prospective cohort study. Int Breastfeeding... [read full comment]

Growth references and breastfeeding (Colin Binns, 08 Jan 2007)
This article is an important addition to the literature at a time when many countries are deciding whether to adopt the new WHO growth references. This paper shows that mothers... [read full comment]

Minor edit to methods (Katy Turner, 02 Jan 2007)
Page 3 of pdf - In the method section, sexual behaviour, 3rd (final) paragraph, before Age dependant processes, the final sentence should be corrected to: "Concurrent partnerships... [read full comment]

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