MANHASSET, NY -- Molecular Medicine, a peer-reviewed biomedical journal published by the Feinstein Institute Press, published the results of a new study reporting clinically significant pain reduction in type 2 diabetic patients. In an exploratory study conducted by Araim Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company developing novel treatments for chronic diseases, investigators also observed improvements in metabolic control in patients administered ARA 290. ARA 290 is a peptide engineered to activate the innate repair receptor, a receptor discovered by Araim scientists, which is ...

Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany have discovered a new signal pathway in the brain that plays an important role in learning and the processing of sensory input. It was already known that distinct glial cells receive information from neurons. However, it was unknown that these same glial cells also transmit information to neurons. The glia release a specific protein fragment that influences neuronal cross-talk, most likely by binding to the synaptic contacts that neurons use for communication. Disruption of this information flow from the ...

New research led by the University of Exeter has found that people who have a stronger sense of place at the global than the national level are more likely to accept that climate change is caused by human activities. This is the first time that acceptance of human causes of climate change has been shown to be linked to people's sense of place at the global level. The findings have significant implications both for climate change communications and for our understanding of place and identities. The study 'My country or my planet? Exploring the influence of multiple place ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Scientists at Indiana University and colleagues at Stanford and the University of Texas have demonstrated a technique for "editing" the genome in sperm-producing adult stem cells, a result with powerful potential for basic research and for gene therapy. The researchers completed a "proof of concept" experiment in which they created a break in the DNA strands of a mutant gene in mouse cells, then repaired the DNA through a process called homologous recombination, replacing flawed segments with correct ones. The study involved spermatogonial stem ...

Patients with Parkinson's, medics and carers have identified the top ten priorities for research into the management of the condition in a study by the University of East Anglia and Parkinson's UK. Commissioned by Parkinson's UK, people with direct and indirect personal experience of the condition worked together to identify crucial gaps in the existing evidence to address everyday practicalities in the management of the complexities of Parkinson's. Patients stated that the overarching research aspiration was an effective cure for Parkinson's but whilst waiting for this ...

DALLAS - Dec. 15, 2014 - UT Southwestern Medical Center neurology researchers have identified an important cell signaling mechanism that plays an important role in brain cancer and may provide a new therapeutic target. Researchers found that this mechanism -- a type of signaling termed constitutive or non-canonical epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling -- is highly active in glioblastomas, the most common type of adult brain cancer and a devastating disease with a poor prognosis. When activated in cancer cells, it protects the tumor cells, making them more ...

In the same way as we now connect computers in networks through optical signals, it could also be possible to connect future quantum computers in a 'quantum internet'. The optical signals would then consist of individual light particles or photons. One prerequisite for a working quantum internet is control of the shape of these photons. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and the FOM foundation have now succeeded for the first time in getting this control within the required short time. These findings are published today in Nature Communications. Quantum ...

For decades, the mantra of electronics has been smaller, faster, cheaper. Today, Stanford engineers add a fourth word - taller. At a conference in San Francisco, a Stanford team will reveal how to build high-rise chips that could leapfrog the performance of the single-story logic and memory chips on today's circuit cards. Those circuit cards are like busy cities in which logic chips compute and memory chips store data. But when the computer gets busy, the wires connecting logic and memory can get jammed. The Stanford approach would end these jams by building layers ...

PEOPLE who have problems with numbers may be more likely to feel negative about bowel cancer screening, including fearing an abnormal result, while some think the test is disgusting or embarrassing, according to a Cancer Research UK supported study* published today (Monday) in the Journal of Health Psychology. The researchers** sent information about bowel cancer screening to patients aged from 45 to 59 along with a questionnaire which assessed their numerical skills and attitudes to the screening test, which looks for blood in stool samples. Almost 965 people - registered ...

E-cigarette use among teenagers is growing in the U.S., and Hawaii teens take up e-cigarette use at higher rates than their mainland counterparts, a new study by University of Hawaii Cancer Center researchers has found. The findings come as e-cigarettes grow in popularity and the Food and Drug Administration is considering how to regulate their sale. Some public health officials are concerned that e-cigarettes may be recruiting a new generation of young cigarette smokers who otherwise might not take up smoking at all, and the study's results bolster this position. Data ...

While serious infections can be transmitted from donated organs, the risk of passing Ebola virus disease from an organ donor to a recipient is extremely small. In a new editorial published in the American Journal of Transplantation, experts explain how simple assessments of donors can help ensure that the organ supply is safe, while having little impact on the donor pool. Despite screening all organ donors for infection, on rare occasions an organ donor will transmit an unexpected infection to a recipient. Because cases of Ebola virus disease have occurred in the United ...

Both positive and negative experiences influence how genetic variants affect the brain and thereby behaviour, according to a new study. "Evidence is accumulating to show that the effects of variants of many genes that are common in the population depend on environmental factors. Further, these genetic variants affect each other," explained Sheilagh Hodgins of the University of Montreal and its affiliated Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal. "We conducted a study to determine whether juvenile offending was associated with interactions between three ...

Baltimore MD-- We would not expect a baby to join a team or participate in social situations that require sophisticated communication. Yet, most developmental biologists have assumed that young cells, only recently born from stem cells and known as "progenitors," are already competent at inter-communication with other cells. New research from Carnegie's Allan Spradling and postdoctoral fellow Ming-Chia Lee shows that infant cells have to go through a developmental process that involves specific genes before they can take part in the group interactions that underlie ...

TORONTO, ON - Consider the relationship between an air traffic controller and a pilot. The pilot gets the passengers to their destination, but the air traffic controller decides when the plane can take off and when it must wait. The same relationship plays out at the cellular level in animals, including humans. A region of an animal's genome - the controller - directs when a particular gene - the pilot - can perform its prescribed function. A new study by cell and systems biologists at the University of Toronto (U of T) investigating stem cells in mice shows, for the ...

White adipose tissue stores excess calories as fat that can be released for use in other organs during fasting. Mammals also have small amounts of brown adipose tissue, which primarily acts as an effective fat burner for the production of heat. Now researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have uncovered the mechanism by which white fat cells from humans gets reprogrammed to become browner. Browning of white adipose tissue increases the energy consumption of the body and therefore constitutes a potential strategy for future treatment of obesity. The challenge ...

Immune cells perform a previously unsuspected role in the brain that may contribute to obesity, according to a new study by UC San Francisco researchers. When the researchers fed mice a diet high in saturated milk fats, microglia, a type of immune cell, underwent a population explosion in the brain region called the hypothalamus, which is responsible for feeding behavior. The researchers used an experimental drug and, alternatively, a genetic approach to knock out these microglia, and both strategies resulted in a complete loss of microglia-driven inflammation in the ...

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Dec. 12, 2014 -- Using a basic genetic difference between men and women, the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) has uncovered a way to track down the source of a neurological disorder in a young girl. TGen's discovery relies on a simple genetic fact: Men have one X and one Y chromosome, while women have two X chromosomes. This women-only factor was leveraged by TGen investigators to develop a highly accurate method of tracking down a previously unrecognized disorder of the X-chromosome. The study of a pre-teen girl, who went years ...

With the ball at the three-point line near the top of the key, what will Tim Duncan of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs do? Pass to a player posting up? Or does he take a shot? An analysis by Disney Research of player tracking data, however, suggests the highest probability is a pass to guard Tony Parker on his left. It's just one play, by one player, in one sport - and perhaps not that hard for the average courtside observer to anticipate - but with the field of sports becoming more driven by sports analytics, predicting the next thing that a player will do has become a major ...

A new National Science Foundation (NSF) report reveals the number of U.S. citizen doctoral graduates in science, engineering and health fields, who remain in the United States, tracks closely with their intent to stay in the United States at the time of graduation. However, there are noticeable differences for doctoral graduates who were temporary visa holders at the time of graduation. According to the report, 96.4 percent of U.S. citizen doctoral graduates from academic years 2001-09 reported their intent to live in the United States, a measure referred to as the expected ...

December 12, 2014 - All children should undergo vision health screening between age 36 and 72 months--preferably every year--using evidence-based test methods and with effective referral and follow-up, according to recommendations published in the January issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The National Expert Panel to The National Center for Children's Vision Health makes recommendations for vision health screening in ...

MADISON, Wis. - As a fundamental unit of life, the cell is central to all of biology. Better understanding how complex cells evolved and work promises new revelations in areas as diverse as cancer research and developing new crop plants. But deep thinking on how the eukaryotic cell came to be is astonishingly scant. Now, however, a bold new idea of how the eukaryotic cell and, by extension, all complex life came to be is giving scientists an opportunity to re-examine some of biology's key dogma. All complex life -- including plants, animals and fungi -- is made up of ...

The genomes of modern birds tell a story: Today's winged rulers of the skies emerged and evolved after the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs and almost everything else 66 million years ago. That story is now coming to light, thanks to an international collaboration that has been underway for four years. The first findings of the Avian Phylogenomics Consortium are being reported nearly simultaneously in 23 papers--eight papers in a special issue this week of Science, and 15 more in Genome Biology, GigaScience and other journals. The results are funded in part ...

An ancient meteorite and high-energy X-rays have helped scientists conclude a half century of effort to find, identify and characterize a mineral that makes up 38 percent of the Earth. And in doing so, a team of scientists led by Oliver Tschauner, a mineralogist at the University of Las Vegas, clarified the definition of the Earth's most abundant mineral - a high-density form of magnesium iron silicate, now called Bridgmanite - and defined estimated constraint ranges for its formation. Their research was performed at the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy ...

Chicago, IL, and New Haven, CT, December 12, 2014 - The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research today released the first set of findings from its inaugural environment poll. The poll surveys a nationally representative sample of American adults and provides a portrait of what the public thinks and feels about environmental issues, and what actions they are taking as consumers. Findings from the first report indicate that most Americans say the United States ought to take a leadership role in combating ...

VIDEO: A wide-field movie by GOES-WEST of the North Pacific from Dec. 9-12, 2014 reveals the violent rain storms pouring moisture on the "Pineapple Express " jet stream into California in mid-December.... Click here for more information. The ''Pineapple Express'' happens when warm air and lots of moisture are transported from the Central Pacific, near Hawaii, to the Eastern Pacific Ocean. An animation of satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite showed the stream of ...