Biologists of the University of Zurich have developed a method to visualize the activity of genes in single cells. The method is so efficient that, for the first time, a thousand genes can be studied in parallel in ten thousand single human cells. Applications lie in fields of basic research and medical diagnostics. The new method shows that the activity of genes, and the spatial organization of the resulting transcript molecules, strongly vary between single cells. Whenever cells activate a gene, they produce gene specific transcript molecules, which make the function ...

Scientists have discovered huge ice channels beneath a floating ice shelf in Antarctica. At 250 metres high, the channels are almost as tall as the Eiffel tower and stretch hundreds of kilometres along the ice shelf. The channels are likely to influence the stability of the ice shelf and their discovery will help researchers understand how the ice will respond to changing environmental conditions. Researchers from the University of Exeter, Newcastle University, the University of Bristol, the University of Edinburgh, the British Antarctic Survey and the University of ...

A unique study of 16 pairs of identical twins in which one twin is obese and the other lean has yielded some surprising results. In 8 of the pairs of twins, the obese twin was as 'metabolically healthy' as his or her lean co-twin, while in the other 8 pairs, the obese twin had a poorer blood fat profile, higher liver fat and increased insulin production and resistance, and higher blood pressure -- all hallmarks of unhealthy obesity that can lead to diabetes, heart problems and other complications. The study is by Dr Kirsi Pietiläinen, Dr Jussi Naukkarinen and colleagues ...

MANHASSET, NY – Investigators at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have discovered a protein in the human body that can trigger and mediate inflammation in patients suffering from hemorrhage and sepsis. The findings were published in the online version of Nature Medicine on October 6, 2013. Thirty-seven million people are admitted to the emergency room with traumatic injury each year, and these injuries are a leading cause of death in the US. Two major reasons why traumatic injury is so deadly are loss of blood (hemorrhage) and a clinical condition called sepsis. ...

Cold Spring Harbor, NY – The cerebral cortex contains two major types of neurons: principal neurons that are excitatory and interneurons that are inhibitory, all interconnected within the same network. New research now reveals that one class of inhibitory neurons – called VIP interneurons -- specializes in inhibiting other inhibitory neurons in multiple regions of cortex, and does so under specific behavioral conditions. The new research finds that VIP interneurons, when activated, release principal cells from inhibition, thus boosting their responses. This provides ...

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oct. 6, 2013 — With the completion of the first genome-wide association study for Sjögren's syndrome, an international coalition of researchers led by scientists at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation has identified six new disease-related genes. Their work appears in the journal Nature Genetics. Sjögren's syndrome is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system becomes confused and turns against the body's moisture-producing glands, damaging the ability to produce saliva or tears. Common symptoms include dry eyes and dry mouth, but the disease ...

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) found insufficient evidence to recommend for or against routine screening for primary hypertension in asymptomatic children and adolescents. Hypertension in children and adolescents has increased over the past several decades, which may be attributable to the climb in childhood overweight and obesity rates. An estimated 11 percent of obese children in the United States suffer from hypertension, putting them at increased risk for hypertension in adulthood. One rationale for screening young patients is that it could ...

Maternal psychological distress combined with exposure to air pollution during pregnancy have an adverse impact on the child's behavioral development, according to researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health. The study, which appears in the journal Pediatrics, reports that maternal demoralization, a measure of psychological distress capable of affecting a mother's ability to cope with stressful situations, was linked with a number of behavioral problems, including anxiety, depression, attention problems, ...

Ideologues on both ends of the political spectrum are equally likely to believe their opinions are superior to others', but their feelings of superiority emerge for distinct political issues, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. These findings suggest that, while people with moderate attitudes tend to be more evenhanded, those on the extreme ends of the political spectrum seem especially convinced that their viewpoints are the only "correct" ones. Psychology researcher Kaitlin Toner, a postdoctoral ...

VIDEO: Spotting fungal infections can be hard and treating serious cases can be difficult. Thanks to the work of Chad Rappleye, Ph.D., of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, that... Click here for more information. On a molecular level, you have more in common with shower curtain mold or the mushrooms on your pizza than you might think. Humans and fungi share similar proteins, a biological bond that makes curing fungal infections difficult and expensive. Current ...

Obesity increases a chronic kidney disease patient's risk of developing kidney failure. Obesity suppresses an important cellular process that prevents kidney cell damage, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The findings suggest that restoring the process could protect the kidney health of obese individuals. Obesity increases a chronic kidney disease patient's risk of developing kidney failure, but the mechanism underlying this connection has remained unclear. Kosuke Yamahara, Takashi Uzu, ...

DETROIT – A skin infection linked to exposure to contaminated water in home aquariums is frequently under-diagnosed, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. Researchers say diagnosing and managing Mycobacterium marinum infection is difficult because skin lesions don't appear for two to four weeks after incubation, leading to delayed treatment and unnecessary and ineffective use of antifungal and antibacterial agents. During the incubation period, patients also fail to remember the source of the exposure, which is often traced to them cleaning their aquarium. Infection ...

Arshad said a large majority of respondents said vaccination is effective for preventing diseases, and either had their child or themselves vaccinated. INFORMATION: The study was funded by Henry Ford Hospital. ...

CINCINNATI—University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have discovered a biomarker, known as phosphatidylserine (PS), for pancreatic cancer that could be effectively targeted, creating a potential therapy for a condition that has a small survival rate. These findings, being published in the Oct. 4, 2013, online edition of PLOS ONE, also show that the use of a biotherapy consisting of a lysosomal protein, known as saposin C (SapC), and a phospholipid, known as dioleoylphosphatidylserine (DOPS), can be combined into tiny cavities, or nanovesicles, to target and kill pancreatic ...

SAN FRANCISCO – Oct. 4, 2013 – Healthcare workers' use of disposable gowns and gloves upon entering all patient rooms on an intensive care unit (ICU), versus only in rooms on standard isolation protocol, helped reduce patient acquisition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by approximately 40 percent, according to new research co-led by the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Yale New Haven Health System Center for Healthcare Solutions. While the study did not show statistically significant results for preventing patient acquisition of another ...

The wearing of gloves and gowns by health care workers for all intensive care unit (ICU) patient contact did not reduce the rate of acquisition of a combination of the bacteria methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), although there was a lower risk of MRSA acquisition alone, according to a study published online by JAMA. The study is being released early to coincide with its presentation at IDWeek 2013. Antibiotic-resistance is associated with considerable illness, death, and costs. MRSA and VRE are primary causes ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana University cancer researcher and his colleagues have discovered new therapeutic targets and drugs that may someday benefit people with certain types of leukemia or blood cancer. Reuben Kapur, Ph.D., the Frieda and Albrecht Kipp Professor of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine and a researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, and colleagues discovered in pre-clinical and pharmacological models that cancer cells with a mutation in the KIT receptor -- an oncogenic/cancerous form of the receptor -- in mast cell ...

HOUSTON – Children of melanoma survivors were more likely to wear hats and re-apply sunscreen after receiving a multi-media informational program designed specifically for them. These new findings were included in research published in the journal of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention – a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research. A team of researchers led by Ellen R. Gritz, Ph.D., and Mary Tripp, Ph.D., M.P.H., both researchers of Behavioral Science at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, conducted a randomized trial to determine ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 4, 2013 -- Researchers in Japan have developed a new photodiode that can detect in just milliseconds a certain type of high-energy ultraviolet light, called UVC, which is powerful enough to break the bonds of DNA and harm living creatures. The researchers describe their new device in the journal Applied Physics Letters. Although this radiation doesn't normally reach the Earth's surface, it can leak through to just below the hole in the ozone layer. Monitoring this radiation is a way of tracking the hole in the ozone layer, and photodiodes that measure ...

University of Notre Dame researchers Shahriar Mobashery and Mayland Chang and their collaborators in Spain have published research results this week that show how methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) regulates the critical crosslinking of its cell wall in the face of beta-lactam antibiotics. The work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals the mechanistic basis for how the MRSA bacterium became such a difficult pathogen over the previous 50 years, in which time it spread rapidly across the world. Modern strains of MRSA ...

Understanding how genes act in specific tissues is critical to our ability to combat many human diseases, from heart disease to kidney failure to cancer. Yet isolating individual cell types for study is impossible for most human tissues. A new method developed by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Michigan called "in silico nano-dissection" uses computers rather than scalpels to separate and identify genes from specific cell types, enabling the systematic study of genes involved in diseases. The team used the new method to successfully identify ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (October 4, 2013) – Doctors who abuse prescription drugs often do so for "self-medication"—whether for physical or emotional pain or stress relief, reports a study in the October Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. Based on focus groups with physicians in treatment for substance abuse, the findings lend "unique insights" into the reasons why doctors abuse prescription medications—as well as important ...

NASA's footage of the first moon landing promised a future of sci-fi heroism that never came to pass, according to a new study. The paper, by Professor Steve Brown and Professor Martin Parker, of the University of Leicester's School of Management, and Dr Lewis Goodings, of the University of Roehampton, is published in the International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy. The first moon landing is overwhelmingly remembered as an exciting and important turning point in world history, which continues to inspire space exploration projects to Mars and beyond today. However, ...

SAN FRANCISCO – Swallowing pills containing a concentrate of fecal bacteria successfully stops recurrent bouts of debilitating Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection by rebalancing the bacteria in the gut, suggests a study being presented at the IDWeek 2013™ meeting today. Infection from C. diff bacteria is such a concern that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) named it one of the three most urgent threats in its recent landmark report on antibiotic resistance. C. diff sickens half a million Americans and kills 14,000 every year. C. diff infection ...

SAN FRANCISCO – A vast majority of people who see their doctors for sore throats or acute bronchitis receive antibiotics, yet only a small percentage should, according to analyses of two major national surveys being presented at IDWeek 2013™. Those illnesses usually are caused by viruses, and antibiotics – which only treat bacterial infections – do not help. Harvard University researchers analyzed the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and determined that doctors prescribed antibiotics in 60 percent of visits ...