A Jackson Laboratory research team led by Professor Lenny Shultz, Ph.D., reports that a protein involved in wound healing and tumor growth could be a potential therapeutic target. In one of nature's mixed blessings, the mechanisms that work to heal cuts and wounds, rebuilding damaged cells, can also go out of control and cause cancer. But understanding those mechanisms could lead to new ways of stimulating healing in wound patients and dialing back cancerous proliferation. An inactive rhomboid protease, iRhom2, is normally a short-lived protein that controls a cascade ...

National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded researchers at the University of Washington have concluded that Antarctica's fast-moving Thwaites Glacier will likely disappear in a matter of centuries, potentially raising sea level by more than a half-a-meter (two feet). Data gathered by NSF-funded airborne radar, detailed topography maps and computer modeling was used to make the determination. The glacier acts as an ice dam, stabilizing and regulating movement toward the sea of the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The ice sheet contains enough ice to cause another 3 to ...

DETROIT – A Henry Ford Hospital research team has identified specific genes that may lead to improved survival of glioblastoma, the most common and deadly form of cancerous brain tumor. The molecular data is expected to aid further research into genes that either help or impede the survival of patients diagnosed with the tumor, which can invade and rapidly grow in any part of the human brain. "Studies such as ours that help define molecular alterations associated with short-term survival likely will help define the reasons why our current treatments don't succeed in these ...

MANHATTAN, Kan. — A collaborative study involving Kansas State University researchers has discovered a new gene expression mechanism in porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, or PRRS, virus — an important swine pathogen that costs the U.S. pork industry more than $600 million a year. The discovery provides a new avenue for scientists to explore strategies to control and prevent the disease. Ying Fang, Ph.D., associate professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology at Kansas State University, led a study that looked at the unique gene expression mechanism of ...

With an aging population comes an increase in hip and knee joint replacement surgeries, totaling almost one million procedures per year in the United States. To provide better information on the outcomes of these surgeries, help inform patient choice, and improve the quality of the nation's hospitals, a team of Yale School of Medicine researchers have developed a measure for hospitals based on the complications following their patients' hip and knee replacements. The team published an article in the May issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery showing there are ...

Using next generation DNA sequencing, Dartmouth scientists have identified potentially actionable mutations in cancers of the appendix. Their study, "Molecular Profiling of Appendiceal Epithelial Tumors Using Massively Parallel Sequencing to Identify Somatic Mutations," was published in the journal Clinical Chemistry today. When specific mutations for a cancer type are identified, patients can be treated with chemotherapy or other targeted agents that work on those mutations. Little is known about the molecular biology of two types of appendix tumors, low-grade appendiceal ...

The U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory has created a faster, cleaner biofuel refining technology that not only combines processes, it uses widely available materials to reduce costs. Ames Laboratory scientists have developed a nanoparticle that is able to perform two processing functions at once for the production of green diesel, an alternative fuel created from the hydrogenation of oils from renewable feedstocks like algae. The method is a departure from the established process of producing biodiesel, which is accomplished by reacting fats and oils with alcohols. "Conventionally, ...

A research team from the Friedman Brain Institute of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has published evidence that shows that subtle changes of inhibitory signaling in the reward pathway can change how animals respond to drugs such as cocaine. This is the first study to demonstrate the critical links between the levels of the trafficking protein, the potassium channels' effect on neuronal activity and a mouse's response to cocaine. Results from the study are published in the peer-reviewed journal Neuron on May 7, 2014. The authors investigated the role of ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Lowering temperatures for two hours each day reduces the height of corn without affecting its seed yield, a Purdue study shows, a technique that could be used to grow crops in controlled-environment facilities in caves and former mines. Raising the crops in isolated and enclosed environments would help prevent genetically modified pollen and seed from escaping into the ecosystem and crossing with wild plants. Cary Mitchell, professor of horticulture, said the technique could be particularly useful for growing transgenic crops to produce high-value ...

Companies can significantly improve the forecasting accuracy of forthcoming products' performance by mining online consumer buzz prior to product release, according to a study being published by Marketing Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Social media attention to a firm's forthcoming products also influences its stock price, the study shows. Pre-Release Buzz Evolution Patterns and New Product Performance is by Guiyang Xiong and Sundar Bharadwaj, professors at Terry College of Business at the University ...

Researchers at Vanderbilt University have identified an alternative to a sometimes toxic therapy that protects frogs in zoos from a deadly fungal infection that has been destroying the amphibian populations worldwide. Their research is published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, has been decimating frogs all over the world. At present, nothing can help amphibians in the wild, but zoos currently rely on the often-toxic itraconazole to eradicate the disease from infected amphibians they wish to acquire. To ...

University of British Columbia scientists have uncovered an intricate chain reaction in the body's immune system and have used the knowledge to develop a new treatment against harmful viruses. Viral pandemics, such as the coronavirus that caused the deadly SARS outbreak in 2002, have caused hundreds of deaths in Canada, yet effective anti-viral drugs are rare. A key element to this natural immune response is an antiviral protein in the blood called Interferon alpha. Like soldiers, Interferon alpha is quickly deployed by the body to fight viruses and removed just as ...

Unlike modern Man, the prehistoric people of Europe did not use mind-altering substances simply for their hedonistic pleasure. The use of alcohol and plant drugs – such as opium poppies and hallucinogenic mushrooms – was highly regulated and went hand-in-hand with the belief system and sacred burial rituals of many preindustrial societies. Elisa Guerra-Doce of the Universidad de Valladolid in Spain contends that their use was an integral part of prehistoric beliefs, and that these substances were believed to aid in communication with the spiritual world. Guerra-Doce's research ...

Viruses are the enigma of the biological world – despite having their own DNA and being able to adapt to their environment and evolve, they are not considered to be alive like cells. In order to reproduce and multiply – a requirement of "life" - a virus must invade a living cell, eject its DNA into that of the cell, and commandeer the cell's biological machinery. While a virus, essentially, may be nothing more than a dollop of DNA packed into a protective coating of protein called a capsid, the packaging of that DNA is critical. The molecular motors that drive this DNA ...

Teenagers and their foster families often say they don't feel connected and have trouble communicating, but few resources exist that nurture their bonding. In a research paper being published in the June issue of Children and Youth Services Review, researchers affiliated with the University of Washington's School of Social Work describe how they tailored a parenting program known to improve communication in non-foster families for use in foster families. "Every family has its own unique dynamics, such as different rules or expectations. When teens are placed into a foster ...

NEW YORK, NY (May 12, 2014) —Two genes work together to drive the most lethal forms of prostate cancer, according to new research from the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). These findings could lead to a diagnostic test for identifying those tumors likely to become aggressive and to the development of novel combination therapy for the disease. The two genes—FOXM1 and CENPF—had been previously implicated in cancer, but none of the prior studies suggested that they might work synergistically to cause the most aggressive ...

AURORA, Colo. (May 5, 2014) - The Journal of Clinical Oncology reports the case of a woman diagnosed with advanced, incurable lung cancer, whose disease was in fact early stage, curable lung cancer with additional lung lesions due to a rare antibiotic side effect. When her primary lung tumor was surgically removed, and the antibiotic stopped, the 62-year-old woman recovered and may now be cured. "In a good example of collaboration with our local oncology community, my colleague wanted a second opinion to ensure his patient got the best possible treatment plan established ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Growing numbers of researchers are making the data and software underlying their publications freely available online, largely in response to data sharing policies at journals and funding agencies. But in the age of open science, improving access is one thing, repurposing and reproducing research is another. In a study in the Journal of Ecology, a team of researchers experienced this firsthand when they tried to answer a seemingly simple question: what percentage of plants in the world are woody? They thought the answer would be easy to find. After all, ...

For more than two decades, members of the United Nations have sought to forge an agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. But so far, these international climate negotiations have had limited success. What's more, game theoretical modeling of the negotiations suggests that there are feasible solutions to the problem. That is, there are commitments that the countries participating in the negotiations could agree to that would accomplish the targeted global emissions reductions. "So, if these solutions are there, the question is why negotiations have not yet ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (May 12, 2014) – Parents' attitudes toward substance use may help to explain observed racial/ethnic variations in prescription drug misuse among teens, reports a study in the May Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. "Our findings add support to growing evidence that parents continue to remain a vital part of adolescents' decision-making, particularly regarding potentially ...

Irvine, Calif., May 12, 2014 – A rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in irreversible decline, with nothing to stop the entire glacial basin from disappearing into the sea, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine and NASA. The new study presents multiple lines of evidence – incorporating 40 years of observations – that six massive glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector "have passed the point of no return," according to glaciologist Eric Rignot, a UC Irvine Earth system science professor who is also with NASA's Jet ...

West Orange, NJ. May 12, 2014. Elaine E. Katz, MS, CCC-SLP, of Kessler Foundation is the author of "Social enterprise businesses: A strategy for creating good jobs for people with disabilities" (DOI: 10.3233/JVR-140670) epublished ahead of print on May 5 by the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation. Katz, an expert in disability employment funding, is senior VP of Grants & Communications. Kessler Foundation conducts rehabilitation research that improves function and long-term outcomes including employment for people with neurological disabilities. "Despite the gains ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Surgery patients covered by Medicaid come into their operations with worse health, do worse afterward, stay in the hospital longer and find themselves back in the hospital more often than those covered by private insurance, a new analysis by University of Michigan Medical School researchers finds. In fact, people with Medicaid coverage were twice as likely as other patients to have certain health risk factors before they had surgery, the researchers report in JAMA Surgery. They also had many more emergency operations, experienced two-thirds more complications ...

Almost every biological process involves sensing the presence of a certain chemical. Finely tuned over millions of years of evolution, the body's different receptors are shaped to accept certain target chemicals. When they bind, the receptors tell their host cells to produce nerve impulses, regulate metabolism, defend the body against invaders or myriad other actions depending on the cell, receptor and chemical type. Now, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have led an effort to create an artificial chemical sensor based on one of the human body's most important ...

Feeling that you have a sense of purpose in life may help you live longer, no matter what your age, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The research has clear implications for promoting positive aging and adult development, says lead researcher Patrick Hill of Carleton University in Canada: "Our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose," ...