CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Rett syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes mental retardation, autism, and physical deformities, has no cure. However, a small clinical trial has found that a growth factor known as IGF1 can help treat some symptoms of the disease. Children who received the drug for four weeks showed improvements in mood and anxiety, as well as easier breathing, in a trial led by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital. MIT scientists first identified IGF1 as a possible treatment for Rett syndrome in 2009. "This trial shows that IGF1 is safe in the cohort ...

MBL, WOODS HOLE, MA—A new computational method for analyzing bacterial communities has uncovered closely related, previously indistinguishable bacteria living in different parts of the human mouth. The technique, developed by Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) scientists, provides high taxonomic resolution of bacterial communities and has the capacity to improve the understanding of microbial communities in health and disease. The study will be published in PNAS Online Early Edition the week of June 23-27, 2014. An important step in understanding the role of oral bacteria ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 23, 2014—Scientists have applied a new technique to comprehensively analyze the human oral microbiome—providing greater knowledge of the diversity of the bacteria in the mouth. For the first-time, scientists can provide high-resolution bacterial classification at the sub-species level. This work will enable researchers to more closely examine the role of bacterial communities in health and disease. The study, "Oligotyping analysis of the human oral microbiome," will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and available ...

June 23, Boston -- Current drug-delivery systems used to administer chemotherapy to cancer patients typically release a constant dose of the drug over time - but a new study challenges this "slow and steady" approach and offers a novel way to locally deliver the drugs "on demand," as reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Led by David J. Mooney, Ph.D., a Core Faculty member at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering ...

CHICAGO, IL — A new study shows that for at least two years after bariatric surgery, patients continue to lose bone, even after their weight stabilizes. The results—in patients undergoing gastric bypass, the most common type of weight loss surgery—were presented Monday at the joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society: ICE/ENDO 2014 in Chicago. "The long-term consequences of this substantial bone loss are unclear, but it might put them at increased risk of fracture, or breaking a bone," said Elaine Yu, MD, MSc, the study's principal ...

The symptoms of Cushing disease are unmistakable to those who suffer from it – excessive weight gain, acne, distinct colored stretch marks on the abdomen, thighs and armpits, and a lump, or fat deposit, on the back of the neck. Yet the disorder often goes misdiagnosed. To help combat misdiagnosis, Saleh Aldasouqi, an associate professor in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University, is drawing more attention to the rare disease through a case study, which followed a young patient displaying classic, yet more pronounced signs of the condition. Caused ...

Date labeling variations on food products contribute to confusion and misunderstanding in the marketplace regarding how the dates on labels relate to food quality and safety, according to a scientific review paper in the July issue of Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety. This confusion and misunderstanding along with different regulatory date labeling frameworks, may detract from limited regulatory resources, cause financial loss, and contribute to significant food waste. In the United States, the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research ...

The Greenland Ice Sheet is a 1.7 million-square-kilometer, 2-mile thick layer of ice that covers Greenland. Its fate is inextricably linked to our global climate system. In the last 40 years, ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet increased four-fold contributing to one-quarter of global sea level rise. Some of the increased melting at the surface of the ice sheet is due to a warmer atmosphere, but the ocean's role in driving ice loss largely remains a mystery. Research by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Univ. of Oregon sheds new light ...

A new report from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) calls for completing the legacy of Wilderness lands on the Flathead National Forest in Montana. The report identifies important, secure habitats and landscape connections for five species—bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, grizzly bears, wolverines, and mountain goats. These iconic species are vulnerable to loss of secure habitat from industrial land uses and/or climate change. Located in northwest Montana adjacent to Glacier National Park, the 2.4 million-acre Flathead Forest is a strategic part of the stunning ...

Measurements taken at the molecular scale have for the first time confirmed a key property that could improve our knowledge of how the heart and lungs function. University of Washington researchers have shown that a favorable electrical property is present in a type of protein found in organs that repeatedly stretch and retract, such as the lungs, heart and arteries. These findings are the first that clearly track this phenomenon, called ferroelectricity, occurring at the molecular level in biological tissues. The researchers published their findings online June 23 ...

Tulsa, Ok. – The Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) announces an unusual paper in their journal PALAIOS that combines 'forensic' paleontology and archeology to identify origins of the millstones commonly used in the 1800's. While all millstones were used similarly, millstones quarried in France were more highly valued than similar stones quarried in Ohio, USA. Over four years the scientific team located millstones by visiting historical localities in Ohio, then studied them and identified unique characteristics between the coveted French buhr and the locally sourced ...

After their hectic experience of delivery, newborns are almost immediately stretched out on a measuring board to assess their length. Medical staff, reluctant to cause infants discomfort, are tasked with measuring their length, because it serves as an indispensable marker of growth, health and development. But the inaccuracy and unreliability of current measurement methods restrict their use, so routine measurements are often not performed. Now Tel Aviv University researchers have taken a 21st century approach to the problem, using new software that harnesses computer ...

Irvine, Calif., June 23, 2014 — When learning, practice doesn't always make perfect. UC Irvine neurobiologists Zachariah Reagh and Michael Yassa have found that while repetition enhances the factual content of memories, it can reduce the amount of detail stored with those memories. This means that with repeated recall, nuanced aspects may fade away. In the study, which appears this month in Learning & Memory, student participants were asked to look at pictures either once or three times. They were then tested on their memories of those images. The researchers found ...

PASADENA, Calif., June 20, 2014 – Non-Hispanic white patients who underwent a gastric bypass procedure lost slightly more weight over a three-year period than Hispanic or black patients, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the journal Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases. The study also examined two types of bariatric surgery and found that patients who underwent the now common gastric bypass procedure lost more weight over the same period than patients who underwent the more recently developed vertical sleeve gastrectomy procedure. Researchers examined ...

Focal therapy for prostate cancer, in which only the tumor tissue is treated with cryoablation (freezing), can prolong life, result in less complications such as incontinence, and improve post-treatment quality of life. But the long-term effectiveness of focal treatments has not been well-studied. A new analysis that followed patients treated with optimized cryoablation of prostate cancer for an average of 10 years post-treatment is published in Journal of Men's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on ...

Antiviral Therapy Can Prevent Liver Cancer in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients Bethesda, MD (June 23, 2014) — One of the most severe complications of hepatitis B is the development of liver cancer, which is responsible for approximately 745,000 deaths worldwide each year. Two new studies appearing in the June issue of Gastroenterology provide strong evidence that antiviral therapy can reduce the risk of liver cancer in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection. Gastroenterology is the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. In the first paper,1 ...

Contrary to recent well-publicized research, habitat loss, not insecticide use, continues to be the best explanation for the declines in grassland bird populations in the U.S. since the 1980s, according to a new study by ecologists. Last year, a pair of researchers linked the drop in the populations of grassland bird species, such as the upland sandpiper and the Henslow's sparrow, to insecticide use, rather than to a rapid decline of grasslands, a more commonly accepted theory. However, after re-examining the data, Penn State and U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers ...

CHICAGO, IL — A new "smart pill" called Gelesis100 safely leads to greater weight loss in overweight and obese individuals compared with those who receive an active comparator/placebo capsule, while all subjects have similar diet and exercise instructions, an international multicenter study finds. The three-month results of the First Loss Of Weight (FLOW) study were presented Sunday June 22, 2014 at the joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society: ICE/ENDO 2014 in Chicago. Gelesis100 (formerly Attiva) is an orally administered ...

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. – June 23, 2014 – The June issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), features a study reporting that the annual incidence rate of esophageal cancer among patients with Barrett's esophagus with low-grade dysplasia is 0.54 percent; a study showing that metabolic syndrome and smoking heighten concerns regarding colorectal cancer screening in men with these risk factors; and a new ASGE guideline on endoscopy in patients with lower gastrointestinal ...

"Goodnight room, goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon..." A children's classic that already is a candidate for the all-time best feel-good book, "Goodnight Moon," has gotten a boost: A University of Colorado Boulder team printed the first 3D version of it, allowing visually impaired children and their families to touch objects in the story -- like the cow jumping over the moon -- as it is read aloud. The story by Margaret Wise Brown of a bunny in bed wishing good night to his surroundings, "Goodnight Moon" was a logical first choice for CU-Boulder's Tactile ...

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have unveiled the first glycosyltransferase clone collection specifically targeted for the study of the biosynthesis of plant cell walls. The idea behind what is being called "the JBEI GT Collection" is to provide a functional genomic resource for researchers seeking to extract the sugars in plant biomass and synthesize them into clean, green and renewable transportation fuels. Glycosyltransferases (GTs) are enzymes that catalyze the connection of simple monosaccharide sugars into the ...

CHICAGO, IL — Short, otherwise healthy children who are treated with growth hormone (GH) may become taller, but they may also become more depressed and withdrawn over time, compared to children the same age and height who are not treated with GH, a new study finds. The results were presented in a poster Monday, June 23 at ICE/ENDO 2014, the joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society in Chicago. "Daily injections, frequent clinic visits and repeated discussions about height might exacerbate instead of improve psychosocial concerns ...

CHICAGO, IL — Adults with Type 2 diabetes achieve better blood glucose (sugar) control two years after undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy than do patients who receive standard medical diabetes care without this weight loss surgery, a new study finds. The results were presented Monday at the joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society: ICE/ENDO 2014 in Chicago. In addition, 76 percent of surgery patients were able to reduce their use of diabetes medications, compared with only 26 percent of patients in the nonsurgical group, ...

NEW YORK — It's a historic year for Major League Baseball, as the organization introduces its expanded use of instant replay, allowing umpires to review home run calls, forced plays, foul balls and more. But the one decision still left fully in the hands of umpires is the calling of the strike zone. Should the rules be expanded for review of those calls? A new study from Columbia Business School's professor Jerry Kim says reviewing strike zone calls may be the one call All-Stars pitchers would want reversed. "Instant replay will become public enemy no. 1 for All-Star ...

Cambridge, Mass. – June 23, 2014 – Individual electrons in graphene are massless, but when they move together, it's a different story. Graphene, a one-atom-thick carbon sheet, has taken the world of physics by storm—in part, because its electrons behave as massless particles. Yet these electrons seem to have dual personalities. Phenomena observed in the field of graphene plasmonics suggest that when the electrons move collectively, they must exhibit mass. After two years of effort, researchers led by Donhee Ham, Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied ...