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Medicine5 Oct 2014

Scientists develop barcoding tool for stem cells

A 7-year-project to develop a barcoding and tracking system for tissue stem cells has revealed previously unrecognized features of normal blood production: New data from Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists at Boston Children's Hospital suggests, surprisingly, that the billions of blood cells that we produce each day are made not by blood stem cells, but rather their less pluripotent descendants, called progenitor cells. The researchers hypothesize that blood comes from stable populations of different long-lived progenitor cells that are responsible for giving rise to ...

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Medicine5 Oct 2014

Discovery of a novel heart and gut disease

This news release is available in French and German. Physicians and researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine, Université de Montréal, CHU de Québec, Université Laval, and Hubrecht Institute have discovered a rare disease affecting both heart rate and intestinal movements. The disease, which has been named "Chronic Atrial Intestinal Dysrhythmia syndrome" (CAID), is a serious condition caused by a rare genetic mutation. This finding demonstrates that heart and guts rhythmic contractions are closely linked by a single gene in the human body, as shown in a study published on October ...

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Science5 Oct 2014

Breakthrough allows researchers to watch molecules 'wiggle'

A new crystallographic technique developed at the University of Leeds is set to transform scientists' ability to observe how molecules work. A research paper, published in the journal Nature Methods on October 5, describes a new way of doing time-resolved crystallography, a method that researchers use to observe changes within the structure of molecules. Although fast time-resolved crystallography (Laue crystallography) has previously been possible, it has required advanced instrumentation that is only available at three sites worldwide. Only a handful of proteins ...

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Environment5 Oct 2014

Air pollution increases river-flows

A study published in Nature Geoscience shows that air pollution has had a significant impact on the amount of water flowing through many rivers in the northern hemisphere. The paper shows how such pollution, known as aerosols, can have an impact on the natural environment and highlights the importance of considering these factors in assessments of future climate change. The research resulted from a collaboration between scientists at the Met Office, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, University of Reading, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in France, and the University ...

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Medicine5 Oct 2014

'Programmable' antibiotic harnesses an enzyme to attack drug-resistant microbes

The multitude of microbes scientists have found populating the human body have good, bad and mostly mysterious implications for our health. But when something goes wrong, we defend ourselves with the undiscriminating brute force of traditional antibiotics, which wipe out everything at once, regardless of the consequences. Researchers at Rockefeller University and their collaborators are working on a smarter antibiotic. And in research to be published October 5 in Nature Biotechnology, the team describes a 'programmable' antibiotic technique that selectively targets the ...

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Medicine5 Oct 2014

Attacking type 2 diabetes from a new direction with encouraging results

Type 2 diabetes affects an estimated 28 million Americans according to the American Diabetes Association, but medications now available only treat symptoms, not the root cause of the disease. New research from Rutgers shows promising evidence that a modified form of a different drug, niclosamide – now used to eliminate intestinal parasites – may hold the key to battling the disease at its source. The study, led by Victor Shengkan Jin, an associate professor of pharmacology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has been published online by the journal Nature ...

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Medicine3 Oct 2014

A discovery could prevent the development of brain tumors in children

Montréal, October 2, 2014 – Scientists at the IRCM discovered a mechanism that promotes the progression of medulloblastoma, the most common brain tumour found in children. The team, led by Frédéric Charron, PhD, found that a protein known as Sonic Hedgehog induces DNA damage, which causes the cancer to develop. This important breakthrough will be published in the October 13 issue of the prestigious scientific journal Developmental Cell. The editors also selected the article to be featured on the journal's cover. Sonic Hedgehog belongs to a family of proteins that gives ...

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Science3 Oct 2014

LGBT bioethics: Visibility, disparities, and dialogue

Despite the legalization of same-sex marriage in 19 states and the District of Columbia and an executive order to prohibit federal contractors from discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees, LGBT individuals face tremendous hurdles in access to health care and basic human rights. A special report published by The Hastings Center, LGBT Bioethics: Visibility, Disparities, and Dialogue, is a call to action for the bioethics field to help right the wrongs in the ways that law, medicine, and society have treated LGBT people. The editors are Tia ...

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Medicine3 Oct 2014

New study finds lack of adherence to safe handling guidelines for administration of antineoplastic drugs

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (October 3, 2014) — A new National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) study, published online in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, found that recommended safe handling practices for workers who administer antineoplastic drugs in healthcare settings are not always followed. Results are derived from the 2011 Health and Safety Practices Survey of Healthcare Workers, the largest federally-sponsored survey of healthcare workers in the U.S., which addresses safety and health practices relative to use of hazardous chemicals. ...

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Medicine3 Oct 2014

Alcohol consumption associated with increased risk of HPV infection in men, say Moffitt researchers

Men who consume more alcohol have a greater risk of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, according to a recent study by Moffitt Cancer Center researchers. HPV is a common sexually transmitted virus, with more than six million new infections in the United States each year. HPV causes genital warts in both men and women and is a contributing factor to a number of different cancers in women, including cervical, vaginal and anal cancers. More recent studies have shown that HPV can also cause penile, anal and oropharyngeal cancer in men. However, there is limited data regarding ...

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Space3 Oct 2014

NASA's SDO watches giant filament on the sun

A snaking, extended filament of solar material currently lies on the front of the sun-- some 1 million miles across from end to end. Filaments are clouds of solar material suspended above the sun by powerful magnetic forces. Though notoriously unstable, filaments can last for days or even weeks. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, which watches the sun 24 hours a day, has observed this gigantic filament for several days as it rotated around with the sun. If straightened out, the filament would reach almost across the whole sun, about 1 million miles or 100 times ...

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Medicine3 Oct 2014

Study questions the prescription for drug resistance

In response to the rise of drug-resistant pathogens, doctors are routinely cautioned against overprescribing antimicrobials. But when a patient has a confirmed bacterial infection, the advice is to treat aggressively to quash the infection before the bacteria can develop resistance. A new study questions the accepted wisdom that aggressive treatment with high drug dosages and long durations is always the best way to stem the emergence and spread of resistant pathogens. The review of nearly 70 studies of antimicrobial resistance, which was authored by researchers at Princeton ...

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Space3 Oct 2014

Two NASA satellites stare at Typhoon Phanfone's large eye

Two NASA satellites captured data on Typhoon Phanfone as it continues to strengthen as it moves through the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite flew over Typhoon Phanfone on Oct. 2, 2014 at 0939 UTC (5:39 a.m. EDT). The rainfall pattern observed using TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data showed that Phanfone was much better organized than a day earlier. This precipitation analysis revealed that intensifying typhoon Phanfone had formed a large eye. The heaviest rainfall was shown falling at a ...

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Space3 Oct 2014

NASA's Terra satellite sees birth of Tropical Storm Vongfong in Western Pacific

NASA's Terra satellite spotted the birth of Tropical Storm Vongfong in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean on Oct. 3. Vongfong is the nineteenth tropical storm of the Northwestern Pacific typhoon season. The MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Vongfong on Oct. 3 at 00:30 UTC (Oct. 2 at 8:30 p.m. EDT). At the time of the image, the center of Tropical Storm Vongfong was located just to the northeast of Pohnpei, one of four states in the Federated States of Micronesia. ...

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Space3 Oct 2014

Satellite sees Tropical Storm Simon crawling up Western Mexico's coastline

Tropical Storm Simon is following the path of several other tropical storms that formed in the Eastern Pacific Ocean by crawling northward along the western coastline of Mexico. NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an infrared image of Simon on Oct. 3 that showed the eastern side of the storm over Mexico. An infrared image taken from NOAA's GOES-West satellite on Oct .3 at 7:45 a.m. EDT showed strong thunderstorms circling Tropical Storm Simon's center and a fragmented band of thunderstorms in Simon's eastern quadrant bringing rainfall to western Mexico. Simon's center ...

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Environment3 Oct 2014

Argonne researchers create more accurate model for greenhouse gases from peatlands

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have created a new model to more accurately describe the greenhouse gases likely to be released from Arctic peatlands as they warm. Their findings, based on modeling how oxygen filters through soil, suggest that previous models probably underestimated methane emissions and overrepresented carbon dioxide emissions from these regions. Peatlands, common in the Arctic, are wetlands filled with dead and decaying organic matter. They are the result of millions of years of plants dying and breaking down ...

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Medicine3 Oct 2014

Massachusetts General study suggests neurobiological basis of human-pet relationship

It has become common for people who have pets to refer to themselves as "pet parents," but how closely does the relationship between people and their non-human companions mirror the parent-child relationship? A small study from a group of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers makes a contribution to answering this complex question by investigating differences in how important brain structures are activated when women view images of their children and of their own dogs. Their report is being published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. "Pets hold a special ...

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Science3 Oct 2014

Stroke researchers explore implications of ipsilateral spatial neglect after stroke

West Orange, NJ. October 3, 2014. Stroke researchers have confirmed that damage to the right frontal-subcortical network may cause ipsilateral spatial neglect. Among individuals with ipsilateral neglect, a much greater proportion had frontal subcortical damage than anticipated by the investigators – 83% vs the expected 27%. A difference was also seen in spatial bias, ie, the type of spatial errors among this group tended to be 'where' (perceptual-attentional) rather than 'aiming' (motor-intentional) errors. Ipsilesional Neglect: Behavioral and Anatomical Correlates (doi: ...

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Medicine3 Oct 2014

RCas9: A programmable RNA editing tool

A powerful scientific tool for editing the DNA instructions in a genome can now also be applied to RNA, the molecule that translates DNA's genetic instructions into the production of proteins. A team of researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of California (UC) Berkeley has demonstrated a means by which the CRISPR/Cas9 protein complex can be programmed to recognize and cleave RNA at sequence-specific target sites. This finding has the potential to transform the study of RNA function by paving the way for direct RNA transcript detection, analysis and manipulation. A ...

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Medicine3 Oct 2014

Drexel engineers use 3-D gaming gear to give eye-opening look at cells in action

VIDEO: A software program developed by engineers at Drexel University, called Lineage Editing and Validation (LEVER), allows biologists to tag and track cell proliferation to validate lineage trees. Click here for more information. For hundreds of years biologists have studied cells through the lens of a microscope. With a little help from a team of engineers at Drexel University, these scientists could soon be donning 3-D glasses in a home-theater-like lab to take their own ...

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Science3 Oct 2014

New study finds lack of adherence to safe handling guidelines for administration of antineopla

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (October 3, 2014) — A new National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) study, published online in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, found that recommended safe handling practices for workers who administer antineoplastic drugs in healthcare settings are not always followed. Results are derived from the 2011 Health and Safety Practices Survey of Healthcare Workers, the largest federally-sponsored survey of healthcare workers in the U.S., which addresses safety and health practices relative to use of hazardous chemicals. ...

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Medicine3 Oct 2014

Experts recommend against diagnosing testosterone deficiency in women

Washington, DC—The Endocrine Society today issued a Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) advising against the use of testosterone therapy in healthy women. The CPG, entitled "Androgen Therapy in Women: A Reappraisal: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline," was published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM), a publication of the Endocrine Society. The Society updated its 2006 recommendations to address new research concerning testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) therapy in women as well as advances in testosterone testing ...

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Engineering3 Oct 2014

Fast, cheap nanomanufacturing

Luis Fernando Velásquez-García's group at MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) develops dense arrays of microscopic cones that harness electrostatic forces to eject streams of ions. The technology has a range of promising applications: depositing or etching features onto nanoscale mechanical devices; spinning out nanofibers for use in water filters, body armor, and "smart" textiles; or propulsion systems for fist-sized "nanosatellites." In the latest issue of the IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Velásquez-García, his graduate students Eric ...

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Medicine3 Oct 2014

A family meal a day may keep obesity away

Cincinnati, OH, October 3, 2014 -- Increasing rates of adolescent obesity and the likelihood that obesity will carry forward into adulthood, have led to various preventive initiatives. It has been suggested that family meals, which tend to include fruits, vegetables, calcium, and whole grains, could be protective against obesity. In a new study scheduled for publication in the Journal of Pediatrics, researchers studied whether frequent family meals during adolescence were protective for overweight and obesity in adulthood. Jerica M. Berge, PhD, MPH, LMFT, CFLE, and ...

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Medicine3 Oct 2014

Discussing alternative medicine choices for better health outcomes

In the field of medicine there has often been a divide between those who focus on modern medicine and those who prefer alternative practices. But pediatrician Sunita Vohra is a firm believer there should be room for both. A new study from Vohra, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry's Department of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta, and a pediatric physician for Clinical Pharmacology with Alberta Health Services, is giving insight into the use of alternative medicines by pediatric cardiac patients and how effective they are seen to be. "We wanted to ...

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