Findings and Significance: During breast-tissue development, a transcription factor called SLUG plays a role in regulating stem cell function and determines whether breast cells will mature into luminal or basal cells. Studying factors, such as SLUG, that regulate stem-cell activity and breast-cell identity are important for understanding how breast tumors arise and develop into different subtypes. Ultimately, this knowledge may help the development of novel therapies targeted to specific breast-tumor subtypes. Background: Stem cells are immature cells that can differentiate, ...

Case Western Reserve researchers have discovered that a protein previously implicated in disease plays such a positive role in learning and memory that it may someday contribute to cures of cognitive impairments. The findings regarding the potential virtues of fatty acid binding protein 5 (FABP5) — usually associated with cancer and psoriasis — appear in the May 2 edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry. "Overall, our data show that FABP5 enhances cognitive function and that FABP5 deficiency impairs learning and memory functions in the brain hippocampus region," ...

DARIEN, IL – A new study reports that sleep efficiency, a ratio of time asleep to time spent in bed, is predictive of survival time for women with advanced breast cancer. Results show that higher sleep efficiency was significantly associated with lower mortality over the ensuing six years, an effect that remained after adjusting for baseline prognostic factors such as age, estrogen receptor status and treatments received. Mean survival was 68.9 months for efficient sleepers compared with 33.2 months for participants with poor sleep efficiency. Further analysis found that ...

New research by scientists at the University of York sheds light on how bacteria exploit human proteins during infections. A research team led by Professor Jennifer Potts, a British Heart Foundation Senior Research Fellow in York's Department of Biology, studied how Staphylococcus aureus, which can cause life-threatening human infections, attach to two proteins fibronectin and fibrinogen found in human blood. The human proteins play important roles in clot formation and wound healing and the bacteria appear to exploit them during the process of infection. Scientists ...

Element 117, first discovered by Lawrence Livermore scientists and international collaborators in 2002, is one step closer to being named. The existence of element 117 and its decay chain to elements 115 and 113 have been confirmed by a second international team led by scientists at GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, an accelerator laboratory located in Darmstadt, Germany. The research will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal, Physical Review Letters. The next step is for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) to accept the confirmation. ...

Tampa, FL (May 2, 2014) -- Pregnant women with obstructive sleep apnea are more than five times as likely to die in the hospital than those without the sleep disorder, a comprehensive national study by the University of South Florida researchers found. Among delivery-related hospital discharges, sleep apnea was also associated with an increase in severe medical conditions that are top causes of maternal death, including preeclampsia, eclampsia, an enlarged heart and pulmonary blood clots, reported the study published online this month in the journal SLEEP. Sleep apnea ...

The UK has one of the highest rates of death for children under five in western Europe [1], according to new research published in The Lancet. The findings come from a new study coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Their figures provide a comprehensive new analysis of global progress towards reducing child mortality. Although, by international standards, the UK has very low rates of deaths in children, the figures show that within western Europe, the UK has a higher rate of deaths in children ...

Dartmouth Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (iQBS) researchers developed a new gene expression analysis approach for identifying cancer genes. The paper entitled, "How to get the most from microarray data: advice from reverse genomics," was published online March 21, 2014 in BMC Genomics. The study results challenge the current paradigm of microarray data analysis and suggest that the new method may improve identification of cancer-associated genes. Typical microarray-based gene expression analyses compare gene expression in adjacent normal and cancerous ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Stem cells made from the skin of adult, infertile men yield primordial germ cells — cells that normally become sperm — when transplanted into the reproductive system of mice, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Montana State University. The infertile men in the study each had a type of genetic mutation that prevented them from making mature sperm — a condition called azoospermia. The research suggests that the men with azoospermia may have had germ cells at some point in their early lives, but lost them as they ...

People bereaved by the suicide of a partner and mothers losing an adult child to suicide run a significantly higher risk of suicide compared to people bereaved after sudden deaths from other causes. The psychological impact on other members of the family is also serious: children who lose a mother to suicide have an increased risk of depression, while people who lose a child to suicide have an increased likelihood of psychiatric admission for mental illness. The findings come from a new Review, published to coincide with the launch of The Lancet Psychiatry journal, reviewing ...

In this Review, published to coincide with the launch of The Lancet Psychiatry journal, Professor Rory O'Connor from the University of Glasgow and Professor Matthew K. Nock from Harvard University review the key psychological factors that may contribute to, or protect against, suicidal behaviour including personality differences, cognitive factors, and negative life events such as serious physical illness, as well as current psychological treatments. Evidence suggests that about 60% of people struggling with suicidal thoughts or behaviour do not receive any help, and, surprisingly, ...

Heightened newspaper coverage after a suicide might have a significant impact on the initiation of some teenage suicide clusters, according to new research published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal. The study reveals that the content of media reports is also important, with more prominent stories (ie, published on the front page) and those that describe the suicide in considerable detail more likely to be associated with so-called copycat suicides. "Our findings indicate that the more sensational the coverage of the suicides, and the more details the story provides, ...

In this Review, published to coincide with the launch of The Lancet Psychiatry journal, Professor Kees van Heeringen from Ghent University in Belgium and John Mann from Columbia University in the USA discuss the stress-diathesis theory of suicide, in which a predisposition or diathesis interacts with stressful life experiences and acute psychiatric illness to cause suicidal behaviour. The theory explains why only a small minority of individuals are at risk of taking their own lives after exposure to such stressors. The authors discuss the causes of the diathesis, or ...

University of Rochester scientists have discovered a gene with a critical link to pancreatic cancer, and further investigation in mice shows that by blocking the gene's most important function, researchers can slow the disease and extend survival. Published online by Cell Reports, the finding offers a potential new route to intrude on a cancer that usually strikes quickly, has been stubbornly resistant to targeted therapies, and has a low survival rate. Most recent improvements in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, in fact, are the result of using different combinations ...

Stroke survivors should control their blood pressure, cholesterol and weight and do moderate physical activity regularly to avoid having another stroke, according to an American Heart Association/American Stroke Association scientific statement. They should also receive other evidence-based therapy specific to their individual health, which may include aspirin therapy or a surgical procedure to keep neck arteries open. The statement, "Guidelines for the Prevention of Stroke in Patients with Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)," is published in the American Heart ...

By hightailing it to nearby ponds and shallow waterways, frogs and salamanders have – until now – had a way to evade exotic trout introduced to the West's high-mountain lakes for recreational fishing. A warming climate, however, will dry up some of the places where amphibians and their young have found refuge. Researchers in the May 1 issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment write about this challenge and a novel combination of tools that could help land managers, biologists, fishing enthusiasts and other citizens weigh where amphibians are in the most need of ...

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have identified a key chemical that can repair the damage to cells which causes a rare but devastating disease involving accelerated ageing. As well as offering a promising new way of treating the condition, known as Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), the discovery could help in the development of drugs against cancer and other genetic diseases and might also suggest ways to alleviate diseases that we associate with normal ageing. The results are published in the journal Science. Around 150 people worldwide are known ...

WASHINGTON — A research team at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center reports that inhibiting a single protein completely shuts down growth of pancreatic cancer, a highly lethal disease with no effective therapy. Their study, to be published May 6th in Science Signaling, demonstrates in animal models and in human cancer cells that while suppressing Yes-associated protein (Yes) did not prevent pancreatic cancer from first developing, it stopped any further growth. "We believe this is the true Achilles heel of pancreatic cancer, because knocking out Yes crushes ...

Stanford, CA—Plants spend their entire lifetime rooted to one spot. When faced with a bad situation, such as a swarm of hungry herbivores or a viral outbreak, they have no option to flee but instead must fight to survive. What is the key to their defense? Chemistry. Thanks to this ongoing conflict, plants have evolved into amazing chemists, capable of synthesizing tens of thousands of compounds from thousands of genes. These chemicals, known as specialized metabolites, allow plants to withstand transient threats from their environment. What's more, some of the same compounds ...

HOUSTON – (May 1, 2014) -- A team of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine have identified the gene underlying a newly recognized genetic syndrome that has symptoms of sleep apnea, delayed speech and hyptonia, or generalized upper body weakness. The study published online today in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The Baylor researchers first studied a patient from Australia with these symptoms who had been seen by many doctors and had multiple diagnostic tests, without any diagnosis. Although there was no family history of the disease, the researchers ...

'Cell migration' is a broad term for all the processes associated with the movement of cells from one location to another. It lies at the core of biological processes like embryonic development, immune responses and wound healing, but also autoimmune diseases and metastasis of cancerous cells. Cell migration is achieved through the movement of the cell's membrane, which is powered by the action of a protein network inside the cell. However, this interaction is affected by the cell's overall shape, but exactly how this takes place is unclear. Publishing in Current Biology, ...

Babies who have skull deformation because they lie in the same position most of the time do not benefit from wearing a corrective helmet, finds research published today on bmj.com. There was no meaningful difference in skull shape at the age of two years between children treated with therapy helmet and those who received no active treatment. Both groups showed similar improvements although only a quarter made a full recovery to a normal head shape, according to the team of researchers based in The Netherlands. Around one baby in five under the age of six months develops ...

Researchers have identified a section of the anthrax toxin Lethal Factor that could help produce a more effective vaccine. Anthrax is a potentially lethal disease caused by a bacterium called Bacillus anthracis. The bacteria produce spores that when inhaled, ingested or absorbed into the skin release toxins. When anthrax affects the lungs or intestines it can cause death within a few days whilst infection of the skin (cutaneous anthrax) is less dangerous. Infection can occur from contact with infected livestock, meat or hides, but most people know about anthrax from ...

Natural gas (methane) can be converted into hydrogen (H2), which is used in clean energy, synthetic fertilizers, and many other chemicals. The reaction requires water and a nickel catalyst. Methane and water molecules attach on the catalyst's surface, where they dissociate into their atomic components. These then recombine to form different compounds like H2 and CO. Previous research has focused mainly on understanding how methane dissociates, but experimental constraints have limited research into water dissociation. Publishing in Science, EPFL scientists have used lasers ...

Shrinking ice sheets and melting ice caps are well known consequences of climate change. But a new study reveals that impacts on biodiversity will be just as severe in other regions of the world. When multiple dimensions of climate change are analyzed, different regions emerge as threatened by different aspects of climate change. The tropics, for example, will be highly affected by local changes in temperature and precipitation, leading to novel climates with no current analogues in the planet. These results, recently published in Science, expose the complexities of climate ...