Medical research articles within Nature

Featured

  • Opinion |

    Twenty years on from the first pregnancies after preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Alan Handyside argues that informed prospective parents are largely good guides to the use of the thriving technology.

    • Alan Handyside

  • Editorial |

    A new generation of clinical trials could yield breakthroughs, but must be handled with care.

  • Letter |

    During atherosclerosis, crystals of cholesterol accumulate in atherosclerotic plaques. But are they a consequence or a cause of the inflammation associated with the disease? Here it is shown that small cholesterol crystals appear early in the development of atherosclerosis, and that they act as an endogenous danger signal, causing inflammation by activating the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. Cholesterol crystals thus seem to be an early cause, rather than a late consequence, of inflammation.

    • Peter Duewell
    • , Hajime Kono
    •  & Eicke Latz

  • Article |

    African sleeping sickness, caused by Trypanosoma brucei species, is responsible for some 30,000 human deaths each year. Available treatments are limited by poor efficacy and safety profiles. However, a new molecular target for potential treatments has now been identified. The protein target is T. brucei N-myristoyltransferase. In further experiments, lead compounds have been discovered that inhibit this protein, kill trypanosomes in vitro and in vivo, and can cure trypanosomiasis in mice.

    • Julie A. Frearson
    • , Stephen Brand
    •  & Paul G. Wyatt

  • Opinion |

    Genomic data will soon become a commodity; the next challenge — linking human genetic variation with physiology and disease — will be as great as the one genomicists faced a decade ago, says J. Craig Venter.

    • J. Craig Venter

  • Opinion |

    There is little to show for all the time and money invested in genomic studies of cancer, says Robert Weinberg — and the approach is undermining tried-and-tested ways of doing, and of building, science. This Opinion piece is part of a linked pair; see also Counterpoint: Data First by Todd Golub.

    • Robert Weinberg

  • News Feature |

    The more biologists look, the more complexity there seems to be. Erika Check Hayden asks if there's a way to make life simpler.

    • Erika Check Hayden

  • Editorial |

    • Marie-Thérèse Heemels

  • Career Brief |

    The UK Wellcome Trust launches new PhD studentships in several fields.

  • Opinion |

    Translational-research programmes supported by flexible, long-term, large-scale grants are needed to turn advances in basic science into successful vaccines to halt the AIDS epidemic, says Wayne C. Koff.

    • Wayne C. Koff

  • Editorial |

    Turkey's government is about to pass legislation that could cripple the country's biological research.

  • Editorial |

    The time is ripe for Europe's scientists to lobby for community-wide infrastructure funding.

  • News & Views |

    DNA is particularly well preserved in hair — enabling the genome of a human to be sequenced, and his ancestry and appearance to be determined, from 4,000-year-old remains.

    • David M. Lambert
    •  & Leon Huynen

  • Article |

    To survive and evade host responses, malaria parasites export several hundred proteins into the host cell on infection. A feature of these proteins is a conserved, pentameric motif that is cleaved by an unknown protease before export. This is one of two independent studies revealing the identity of the protease as plasmepsin V, an aspartic acid protease located in the endoplasmic reticulum. This enzyme is essential for parasite viability and is an attractive candidate for drug development.

    • Ilaria Russo
    • , Shalon Babbitt
    •  & Daniel E. Goldberg

  • Career Brief |

    Fellowship aims to boost collaborative research at European academic institutions and industrial labs.

  • Column |

    Innovation policies are more likely to be successful if they leverage existing capabilities, argues Daniel Sarewitz.

    • Daniel Sarewitz

  • Article |

    The integrase protein of retroviruses such as HIV-1 catalyses insertion of the viral genome into that of the host. Here, the long-awaited structure of the full-length integrase complex is predicted, revealing not only details of the biochemistry of the integration reaction, but also the means by which current inhibitors affect this process.

    • Stephen Hare
    • , Saumya Shree Gupta
    •  & Peter Cherepanov

  • Editorial |

    The reporting of candidate biomarkers for disease must be rigorous to drive translational research.

  • Editorial |

    By opening up its database of potential malaria drugs, GlaxoSmithKline has blazed a path that other pharmaceutical companies should follow.

  • News Feature |

    Alan Ashworth took a cancer drug from Petri dish to patients in near record speed. Daniel Cressey meets a biologist who is evangelical about translational research.

    • Daniel Cressey

  • Column |

    Quantitative research assessment is a bad idea whose time has come, argues Colin Macilwain.

    • Colin Macilwain

  • Editorial |

    Science in Canada cannot realize its full potential without clear direction from government.

  • Opinion |

    A lack of coordination in Arctic research funding leaves scientists without the support they need for fieldwork. John England outlines how Canada can set things right, and show leadership in the north.

    • John England

  • Editorial |

    There are many ways in which the understanding and treatment of conditions such as schizophrenia are ripe for a revolution.

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