Changing the size of cell-carrying spheres may surmount the difficulties that have bedeviled diabetes researchers trying to ferry insulin-producing islet cells into hosts as a way to treat type 1 diabetes. New findings published in the journal Nature Materials suggest that for the spherical capsules, bigger may be better. Tiny gel capsules carrying islet cells allow insulin to seep out, and nutrients to get in, through microscopic holes. The holes are small enough, however, to isolate and protect the encapsulated cells from the cells of host's immune system, which would ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Researchers at Oregon State University are pursuing a new concept in treatment of epithelial cancer, especially head and neck cancer, by using two promising "analogs" of an old compound that was once studied as a potent anti-tumor agent, but long ago abandoned because it was too toxic. The analogs are more highly selective than the parent compound, pactamycin, which originally was found to kill all cells, from bacteria to mammals, by inhibiting their protein synthesis. The pactamycin analogs, which were developed with biosynthetic engineering, also ...

Largest study of its type shows people associate science with men in all 66 nations studied Dominance of men in science stereotypes strongest in Scandinavian countries, especially the Netherlands Gender-science stereotypes weaker in nations with more female scientists Interactive table providing comprehensive rankings for all 66 nations EVANSTON, Ill. --- The Netherlands had the strongest stereotypes associating science with men more than women, according to a new Northwestern University study that included data from nearly 350,000 people in 66 nations. These ...

Jumping spiders were already known to see in remarkably high resolution, especially considering that their bodies are less than a centimeter long. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 18 have figured out how spiders in the colorful genus Habronattus see in three color "channels," as most humans do. "The eyes of jumping spiders could not be more different from those of butterflies or birds, and yet all three tune the color sensitivities using pigments that filter light," says Nathan Morehouse of the University of Pittsburgh. "It's ...

Researchers have uncovered the first geologic evidence that New Zealand's southern Hikurangi margin can rupture during large earthquakes. The two earthquakes took place within the last 1000 years, and one was accompanied by a tsunami, according to the study published in the Bulletin of the Seimological Society of America (BSSA). The earthquakes took place roughly 350 years apart, according to the analysis by Kate Clark of GNS Science and colleagues. This may mean that the time between large earthquakes in this region is shorter than scientists have thought. The current ...

In a first-of-its-kind clinical trial, physician-scientists at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine found that a new non-invasive technology for colon cancer screening is a promising alternative to colonoscopy for African Americans. The study recruited patients to compare the effectiveness of stool DNA (sDNA) testing with colonoscopy for detecting large colon polyps. SDNA is a test that detects colon cancer in its earliest stages, based on analysis of stool DNA. Developed in the laboratory ...

(Philadelphia, PA) - Today's academic medical centers (AMCs) need to embrace the changing healthcare marketplace or run the risk of becoming the next Kodak - a former industrial giant that became obsolete when it failed to adapt to a shifting technological landscape. That is the premise of a commentary published this month electronically ahead of the print edition of Academic Medicine, the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The commentary is authored by Verdi DiSesa, MD, MBA, Chief Operating Officer of the Temple University Health System (TUHS) and ...

PHILADELPHIA - An important link between the human body clock and the immune system has relevance for better understanding inflammatory and infectious diseases, discovered collaborators at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Trinity College, Dublin. In a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they report how a critical white blood cell called the macrophage, when exposed to bacteria, makes the biological clock inside the macrophage stop, allowing it to become inflamed. The complex mechanism they ...

ATS 2015, DENVER - Patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a coronary artery widening procedureused to treat heart disease, are at high risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), according to new research presented at the 2015 American Thoracic Society International Conference. "Our findings, in a large, multicenter sample of patients, reinforce the known association between OSA and cardiovascular disease," said researcher Luciano Drager, MD, PhD, of the University of São Paulo School of Medicine in Brazil. "Nearly half of the patients in our ...

Researchers have found that adding genetic information to a former or current smoker's clinical risk profile results in a reclassification of their risk for lung cancer in about one in four patients. Preliminary findings from their lung cancer screening feasibility study also suggests that those whose genetic and clinical risk placed them in the highest risk category were more likely to adhere to follow-up computed tomography (CT) scans during screening. The results of this study, conducted at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA, follows on the heels of the National ...

ATS 2015, DENVER -- Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) treatment could be a valuable addition to comprehensive therapy in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome, according to a new study. The study was presented at the 2015 American Thoracic Society International Conference. "In our study with 40 newly diagnosed OSA patients and a control group, pulmonary rehabilitation helped reduce body mass index, certain body circumferences, and improve pulmonary function," said researcher Katerina Neumannova, MSc, PhD, Palacky University, Faculty of Physical Culture, Olomouc, ...

Studies have shown that both air pollution and impaired lung function can cause cognitive deficits, but it was unclear whether air pollution diminishes cognition by reducing breathing ability first or whether air pollution represents an independent risk factor for cognitive deficit. Now a new study conducted by German and Swiss researchers has answered that question: air pollution directly affects cognition and is not mediated by lung function. The researchers, who analyzed data from a study of 834 elderly German women, will present their findings at ATS 2015 in Denver, ...

ATS 2015, DENVER--Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), being female, and certain scores on the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) were associated with exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in subjects using long-acting controller medication, according to a study presented at the 2015 American Thoracic Society International Conference. "Knowing these factors can help clinicians identify subjects at risk for acute exacerbations of their COPD," said Robert Busch, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Although inhaled medications ...

The overall suicide rate among children ages 5 to 11 was stable during the 20 years from 1993 to 2012 but that obscures racial differences that show an increase in suicide among black children and a decrease among white children, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics. Youth suicide is a major public health concern. However not much is known about childhood suicide because prior studies have typically excluded children younger than 10 years old and only investigated trends among older children, according to the study background. Jeffrey A. Bridge, ...

Patients with chest pain who are admitted to the hospital after an emergency department evaluation with negative findings and nonconcerning vital signs rarely had adverse cardiac events, suggesting that routine inpatient admission may not be a beneficial strategy for this group of patients, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. Patients with potentially ischemic (restricted blood flow) chest pain are commonly admitted to the hospital or observed after a negative evaluation in the emergency department because of concern about adverse events. ...

A preliminary study of retired National Football League (NFL) players suggests that history of concussion with loss of consciousness may be a risk factor for increased brain atrophy in the area involved with memory storage and impaired memory performance later in life, according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology. While most individuals recover completely from concussion within days or weeks, the potential association of concussion and the subsequent development of memory dysfunction with brain atrophy later in life remains poorly understood, according to ...

A team of New York University neuroscientists has identified a part of the brain exclusively devoted to processing speech. Its findings point to the superior temporal sulcus (STS), located in the temporal lobe, and help settle a long-standing debate about role-specific neurological functions. "We now know there is at least one part of the brain that specializes in the processing of speech and doesn't have a role in handling other sounds," explains David Poeppel, the paper's senior author, a professor in NYU's Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science. The ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Chest pain is a scary symptom that sends more than 7 million Americans to the emergency department each year. About half of them are admitted to the hospital for further observation, testing or treatment. Now, emergency medicine physicians at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Mount Carmel Health System believe that number can be significantly reduced. Their study, published in today's JAMA Internal Medicine, finds a very low short-term risk for life-threatening cardiac events among patients with chest pain who have normal cardiac blood ...

Researchers have developed a microfluidic chip that can capture rare clusters of circulating tumor cells, which could yield important new insights into how cancer spreads. The work was funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), part of the National Institutes of Health. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are cells that break away from a tumor and move through a cancer patient's bloodstream. Single CTCs are extremely rare, typically fewer than 1 in 1 billion cells. These cells can take up residence in distant organs, and researchers ...

TEMPE, Arizona -- Electricity generation and distribution infrastructure in the Western United States must be "climate-proofed" to diminish the risk of future power shortages, according to research by two Arizona State University engineers. Expected increases in extreme heat and drought events will bring changes in precipitation, air and water temperatures, air density and humidity, write Matthew Bartos and Mikhail Chester in the current issue of the research journal Nature Climate Change. The authors say the changing conditions could significantly constrain the energy ...

Suicide is a leading cause of death among children younger than 12 years. Suicide rates in this age group have remained steady overall for the past 20 years, but a study published today in JAMA Pediatrics from The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital is the first national study to observe higher suicide rates among black children compared to white children. "Little is known about the epidemiology of suicide in this age group," said Jeff Bridge, PhD, lead researcher of the study and principal investigator at the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice ...

A team led by UCSF researchers has discovered how a commonly administered vaccine protects against acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common type of childhood cancer. The Haemophilus influenzae Type b (Hib) vaccine not only prevents ear infections and meningitis caused by the Hib bacterium, but also protects against ALL, which accounts for approximately 25 percent of cancer diagnoses among children younger than 15 years, according to the National Cancer Society. The Hib vaccine is part of the standard vaccination schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - May 18, 2015 - New proof-of-concept research at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine suggests the potential for engineering replacement intestine tissue in the lab, a treatment that could be applied to infants born with a short bowel and adults having large pieces of gut removed due to cancer or inflammatory bowel disease. Lead researcher Khalil N Bitar, Ph.D., a professor at the institute, which is part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, reported the results this week at Digestive Diseases Week in Washington, D.C. He also updated ...

The MET-proto-oncogene is involved in the pathogenesis of several tumors and therefore represents an interesting target for future therapies currently tested in dozens of clinical trials. Veronica Finisguerra, Andrea Casazza, Max Mazzone and colleagues from VIB, KU Leuven and UZ Leuven now reveal that MET is needed for the recruitment of anti-tumoral neutrophils and puts a mechanism into action that promotes the killing of cancer cells. This means that the efficacy of a cancer therapy targeting MET in cancer cells will partly be countered by the pro-tumoral effect arising ...

Moonshiners and home-brewers have long used yeast to convert sugar into alcohol. New research shows that those methods could also be adapted for something with more significant ramifications: the production of drugs including opiates, antibiotics, and anti-cancer therapeutics. According to new studies by researchers from Concordia University in Montreal and the University of California, Berkeley, yeast can be engineered to convert sugar to alkaloids -- plant-derived compounds such as codeine and morphine, naturally produced in the opium poppy. Collaborating on synthesis ...