University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science scientist Chris Langdon and colleagues developed a new tool to monitor coral reef vital signs. By accurately measuring their biological pulse, scientists can better assess how climate change and other ecological threats impact coral reef health worldwide.

A multi-center gene therapy trial for patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease demonstrated reduced symptoms of the progressive movement disorder, according to a new study published in Lancet Neurology. The study was designed to deliver the gene for glumatic acid decarboxylase (GAD) packaged in inert viral vectors into an area of the brain called the subthalamic nucleus. GAD makes an important inhibitory chemical called GABA. The subthalamic nucleus is abnormally activated in Parkinson’s disease and this activity leads to the debilitating movement problems. The idea of the gene therapy is that the billions of AAV-2 GAD viral vectors delivered into the subthalamic nucleus will increase GABA, thereby quieting this brain region.

A new plant species is providing an insight into how evolution works and could help improve crop plants, scientists have revealed.

The common fig is a subtropical, deciduous fruit tree grown in most Mediterranean-type climates. Although some believe that figs may be the oldest cultivated fruit species on earth, global expansion of fig crops has been hindered by the narrow research base pertaining to production practices and the limited number of fig cultivars currently available. Recently, three black figs were established in the Mediterranean-type climate of Western Cape Province of South Africa to provide fruit for fresh markets throughout South Africa and Europe.

Biochemist Leor Weinberger and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego and UCLA have proposed a fundamentally new intervention for the HIV/AIDS epidemic based on engineered, virus-like particles that could subdue HIV infection within individual patients and spread to high-risk populations that are difficult for public health workers to reach.

When Geoffrey Murphy, Ph.D., talks about plastic structures, he's not talking about the same thing as Mr. McGuire in The Graduate. To Murphy, an associate professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Michigan Medical School, plasticity refers to the brain's ability to change as we learn.