The new Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite is now in the hands of the engineers who will fly the spacecraft and ensure the steady flow of data on rain and snow for the life of the mission. The official handover to the Earth Science Mission Operations team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on May 29, marked the end of a successful check-out period. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Its Core Observatory launched on Feb. 27, 2014, ...

Conservative fuel treatments designed to reduce fire severity while still providing forest cover and wildlife habitat worked equally as well as more intensive treatments in allowing for the protection of homes during the 2011 Wallow Fire, a study published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management has found. The distance into the treated area where fire severity was reduced varied, however, between these different thinning approaches where fuels were reduced. The findings suggest that there may be multiple paths to fuel treatment design around the wildland-urban interface ...

VIDEO: A coronal mass ejection burst off the side of the sun on May 9, 2014. The giant sheet of solar material erupting was the first CME seen by NASA's Interface... Click here for more information. A coronal mass ejection, or CME, surged off the side of the sun on May 9, 2014, and NASA's newest solar observatory caught it in extraordinary detail. This was the first CME observed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, which launched in June 2013 to peer into ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 30, 2014 – Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN), a global leader in molecular diagnostics, announced the presentation of new data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting this week that supports the clinical efficacy of its BRACAnalysis CDx™ and HRD™ tests in predicting platinum based therapy response for breast cancer patients. Additionally, the company is providing an update on key commercial milestones that underscore its commitment to the field of companion diagnostics. "Myriad is committed to advancing the science of companion ...

Next time you spot an earthworm sliding through fresh dirt, take a closer look. What you're seeing is an organic movement called peristaltic locomotion that has been meticulously refined by nature. Jarod Gregory, an undergraduate student in the University of Cincinnati's College of Engineering and Applied Science, used a worm's contracting and expanding motion to provide a way for gels to swim in water. This is a product of work by the interdisciplinary team consisting of Jarod Gregory, a chemical engineering major, and his two advisers, Lilit Yeghiazarian, assistant ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. (May 30, 2014) – Among young women treated for breast cancer, one of the most distressing side effects of chemotherapy is early menopause. But a major clinical trial has found that the risk of early menopause can be significantly reduced by adding a drug called goserelin to the chemotherapy regimen. Also, women who took goserelin and wanted to have children were more likely to get pregnant and deliver a healthy baby. Results were released during the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology 50th Annual Meeting in Chicago. Kathy Albain, MD, of Loyola University ...

Results presented today at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and June 6 at the European Association of Palliative Care Research Conference show that stopping statins for cholesterol management in the late stages of cancer or other terminal illnesses may offer quality-of-life and even life-extending benefits. The results highlight the larger question of when, if ever, it is appropriate in patients with life-limiting illnesses to discontinue medications prescribed for other conditions that will likely not lead to their death. Researchers ...

CHICAGO – Women with metastatic breast cancer to the bone may be able to receive bisphosphonates, the bone-targeting class of drugs like zoledronic acid, less often after the first year of monthly administration. With that practice change, women may also reduce their risk of serious side effects, according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The research was presented today on the press program of the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2014 Annual Meeting by MD Anderson's Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD, professor, Breast Medical ...

A study presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) describes the results of a phase I clinical trial of the investigational agent DMOT4039A against pancreatic and ovarian cancers. In this early clinical trial with the goal of identifying possible risks and defining likely dosages, the drug was well tolerated and in some patients showed initial evidence of anti-cancer activity. The drug is in fact a combination of a chemotherapeutic agent with an antibody, technically called an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Just as cells ...

CHICAGO, IL (May 30, 2014)—Three genetic changes can predict whether a patient will benefit from chemotherapy before surgery to remove bladder cancer, according to new findings presented by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers during the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. During the study, 36 patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer received chemotherapy before surgery, consisting of an accelerated regimen of methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin (AMVAC). By the time surgery rolled around, 14 patients appeared cancer-free. ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The gap between stem cell research and regenerative medicine just became a lot narrower, thanks to a new technique that coaxes stem cells, with potential to become any tissue type, to take the first step to specialization. It is the first time this critical step has been demonstrated in a laboratory. University of Illinois researchers, in collaboration with scientists at Notre Dame University and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, published their results in the journal Nature Communications. "Everybody knows that for an embryo ...

CHICAGO, IL (May 30, 2014)—Patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer often benefit from chemotherapy before surgery to remove the tumor, but a test of one regimen by researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center was halted when too many people experienced serious side effects such as heart attacks and blood clots in the legs and lungs. All of the 31 patients included in the study received a combination of gemcitabine and cisplatin, two drugs normally administered for 12 weeks before surgery to remove the tumors. This became the standard of care after one study looked back, ...

Structural biologists have made important progress towards better understanding the functioning of the circadian clock. The circadian or inner clock coordinates the sleep-wake rhythm and many other body processes that regulate, for example, metabolism, blood pressure, and the immune system. A research team led by Professor Eva Wolf, recently appointed Professor of Structural Biology at the Institute of General Botany of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Adjunct Director at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), has for the first time identified the molecular ...

STANFORD, Calif. — For many scientists, the clinical promise of stem cells has been dampened by very real concerns that the immune system will reject the transplanted cells before they could render any long-term benefit. Previous research in mice has suggested that even stem cells produced from the subject's own tissue, called iPS cells, can trigger an immune attack. Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that coaxing iPS cells in the laboratory to become more-specialized progeny cells (a cellular process called differentiation) before ...

Dr Mwenza T. Blell of the University of Bristol interviewed 257 British Pakistani women aged 39-61 living in West Yorkshire and found that the standard checklist approach to studying menopause symptoms, which ignores women's understanding of their own experience, leaves researchers and clinicians with gaps in their knowledge of the 'true' symptoms of menopause. Many previous studies into the menopause have relied on standardised checklists, such as the Blatt-Kupperman index and the Menopause Symptom Checklist, that were derived from the clinical experiences of women living ...

HOUSTON-Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and other institutions have applied a newly developed software tool to identify genetic mutations that contribute to a person's increased risk for developing common, complex diseases, such as cancer. The research is published in the May 2014 edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology. The technology, known as pVAAST (pedigree Variant Annotation, Analysis and Search Tool), combines two different statistical methods used for identifying disease-causing gene mutations. This combination approach outperforms ...

TEMPE, Ariz. – Phoenix stands at a parched crossroads. Global scale climate change is forecast to bring hotter summers and more extreme heat to the Valley, but regional urbanization also will impact temperatures experienced by residents. So how should Phoenix grow knowing that such growth could cause temperatures to increase in the future and bring added health risks? Should the city deploy mitigating technologies to help fight summer's heat? Would adopting a low-growth strategy reduce the adverse health consequences of hot weather? New Arizona State University research ...

New Rochelle, NY, May 30, 2014—High throughput screening of compounds in live cells is a powerful approach for discovering new drugs, but the potential for cell toxicity must be considered. A novel technique that uses DNA-binding fluorescent dyes to evaluate the cytotoxicity of an experimental compound in real-time during screening, saving time and resources, is described in ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies website. Lucius Chiaraviglio ...

LOS ANGELES – (May 30, 2014) – Green tea and its extracts have been widely touted as potential treatments for cancer, as well as several other diseases. But scientists have struggled to explain how the green tea and its extracts may work to reduce the risk of cancer or to slow the growth of cancer cells. A study recently published online by the journal, Metabolomics, offers an explanation that researchers say could open a new area of cancer-fighting research. The study reports that EGCG, the active biologic constituent in green tea, changed the metabolism of pancreatic ...

CHICAGO, IL (May 30, 2014)—Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers have carried out the first retrospective analysis of adjuvant chemotherapy's impact on overall survival in patients with stage III soft tissue sarcomas (STS), adjusted for socioeconomic status and other variables. The findings show that regardless of socioeconomic status and comorbidities, adjuvant chemotherapy improved survival by approximately 23 percent in stage III STS. Study leader Sujana Movva, MD, Medical Oncologist at Fox Chase, will present the findings the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society ...

CHICAGO, IL (May 30, 2014)—The use of chemotherapy before surgery to remove ovarian cancer has increased dramatically in recent decades, particularly among certain patients, according to a new analysis from Fox Chase Cancer Center that will be presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Looking back at medical records from more than 58,000 women, Fox Chase's Angela Jain, MD, Medical Oncologist and co-investigator Elizabeth Handorf, PhD, member of the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Facility, found that only 8.94% received chemotherapy ...

A compound in saliva, along with common proteins in blood and muscle, may protect human cells from powerful toxins in tea, coffee and liquid smoke flavoring, according to results of a new study led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. The findings, reported online May 19 in Food and Chemical Toxicology, suggest that people naturally launch multiple defenses against plant chemicals called pyrogallol-like polyphenols or PLPs found in teas, coffees and liquid smoke flavoring. The presence of these defenses could help explain why PLPs are not crippling ...

VIDEO: This animation of visible and infrared imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite shows the weakening of Hurricane Amanda from May 28 to its dissipation on May 30. Click here for more information. A new animation of visible and infrared imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite shows the weakening and dissipation of the Eastern Pacific Ocean's Hurricane Amanda. The animation that runs from from May 28 to May 30 was created at NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space ...

CHICAGO, IL (May 30, 2014)—More than a quarter of HIV+ patients are also infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV), which may complicate treatment and care decisions after a cancer diagnosis. The specifics of those complications haven't been well-researched in the past. Results from a new Fox Chase Cancer Center study on this patient population may start filling in that gap. Fox Chase Hematologist and Medical Oncologist Stefan K. Barta, MD, MS, MRCP – who led the study – analyzed data from HIV+ patients diagnosed with lymphoma, collected over 17 years, to better understand ...

CHICAGO, IL (May 30, 2014)—Patients with AIDS-related lymphomas (ARL) may face an increased risk of central nervous system involvement (CNSi) compared to other lymphomas. The effect of CNSi on survival outcomes, however, hasn't been thoroughly examined until now. In a new study led by Fox Chase Cancer Center Hematologist and Oncologist Stefan K. Barta, MD, MS, MRCP, researchers report that CNSi – identified at the time of an ARL diagnosis – does not appear to have an impact on overall survival. Dr. Barta's collaborators will present the findings at the 50th Annual Meeting ...