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A low tissue pH is often associated with disease - for example cancer, ischaemia and inflammation - so a technique that could image tissue pH would have considerable potential for disease diagnosis and for monitoring response to treatment. A new, non-invasive method of pH imaging has now been devised, and demonstrated by monitoring the extracellular pH in living mice. It combines magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the intravenous injection of carbon-13-labelled bicarbonate - made extremely sensitive to detection by the use of dynamic nuclear polarization. Bicarbonate is a natural buffer in mammalian tissues, resisting pH change via interconversion with carbon dioxide in the reaction catalysed by carbonic anhydrase. The ratio of labelled bicarbonate to carbon dioxide can be used to calculate pH from the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. Images of mice with implanted tumours confirmed a reduced tumour pH, and suggest that clinical application of the new technique is a realistic proposition. On the cover, colur in the images represents pH. Cover graphic: Mikko Kettunen & Rebekah McLaughlin.
Translational medicine is a key addition to the biomedical research enterprise. Policy-makers and research leaders now must build the infrastructure to take discoveries from the bench to application.
Huge numbers of offices have been established over the past 30 years to help university researchers take their discoveries from the lab to the clinic. Meredith Wadman assesses their success.
A chasm has opened up between biomedical researchers and the patients who need their discoveries. Declan Butler asks how the ground shifted and whether the US National Institutes of Health can bridge the gap.
Results can be thrust from bench to bedside, but there is also much to be learned by pushing the other way. Heidi Ledford tells tales of clinical trials that have prompted a change in tack.
The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research is focused on translating research into cures. Helen Pearson investigates whether its sometimes unusual methods are producing results.
If Japan is to become a front-runner in pharmaceutical development, it must not only speed up its approval of new drugs, but also enhance its own research capabilities, argue Kaori Tsuji and Kiichiro Tsutani.
Will high drug prices and a lack of new medicines force the pharmaceutical industry to restructure and take a more personalized approach to research, asks Merrill Goozner.
Protease enzymes cut other proteins into pieces, but some can be blocked by inhibitors. One such inhibitor binds to the substrate rather than the enzyme, suggesting a new tactic for drug discovery.
A long-sought but short-lived molecule has been made and characterized for the first time. This compound decays at low temperatures using an unusual trick — a mechanism known as quantum tunnelling.
A monkey model of Huntington's disease created by gene transfer is only a work in progress. But as a technological feat it offers great promise for fathoming this devastating condition.
Periodic oscillations have been observed in what should be straightforward exponential decay curves of two radioactive isotopes. An entirely mysterious phenomenon, its proposed cause seems equally exotic.
In a disordered medium, a quantum particle can literally stop itself in its tracks. This localization phenomenon can be observed directly using the coldest known form of matter, caught in a laser trap.
The testis-determining factor SRY, which is encoded on the Y chromosome, forms a complex with an orphan nuclear receptor SF1, and together they bind to an enhancer regulating Sox 9. Sox9 controls the expression of genes involved in male development. Earlier work had suggested that Sox9 is a target of SRY. However, this study identifies a direct regulatory interaction at the level of transcriptional regulation, and identifies the enhancer element responsible.