A new study investigating racial disparities in birth outcomes shows that contrary to some theories Vitamin D is unlikely to play a role in differences in preterm birth and low birth weight between African-Americans and whites. "For years there has been this hypothesis that African-Americans have worse birth outcomes because they have more melanin in their skin which reflects the sun and therefore lowers levels of Vitamin D," said study author Zaneta Thayer, PhD, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Denver . "But in examining the relationship ...

VIDEO: This animation of NOAA's GOES satellite data shows the progression of the major winter storm over the US Mid-Atlantic and northeastern US on March 12 and 13. Click here for more information. Three days of satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-East satellite were compiled into an animation that showed the progression of the storm system that drastically changed temperatures in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. from spring-like warmth to the bitter cold of winter. A ...

MADISON — A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher has detected a higher rate of seizures among children with autism who were fed infant formula containing soy protein rather than milk protein. The study found excess seizures among girls and in the total sample of 1,949 children. The soy-seizure link reached borderline significance among boys, who comprised 87 percent of the children described in the database under study. Seizures — caused by uncontrolled electrical currents in the brain — occur in many neurological disorders including epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell University researchers report they have discovered direct genetic evidence that a family of genes, called MicroRNA-34 (miR-34), are bona fide tumor suppressors. The study is published in the journal Cell Reports, March 13. Previous research at Cornell and elsewhere has shown that another gene, called p53, acts to positively regulate miR-34. Mutations of p53 have been implicated in half of all cancers. Interestingly, miR-34 is also frequently silenced by mechanisms other than p53 in many cancers, including those with p53 mutations. The researchers ...

In biology, scientists typically conduct experiments first, and then develop mathematical or computer models afterward to show how the collected data fit with theory. In his work, Rob Phillips flips that practice on its head. The Caltech biophysicist tackles questions in cellular biology as a physicist would—by first formulating a model that can make predictions and then testing those predictions. Using this strategy, Phillips and his group have recently developed a mathematical model that accounts for the way genes compete with each other for the proteins that regulate ...

WASHINGTON, DC, March 13, 2014 — When it comes to Oscars and some other Hollywood movie awards, who your friends are affects whether you win, according to a new study. "Sociological theory suggests that the process of 'making it' in any field depends not only on individual merit, but also on the kind of audience that makes the judgments," said co-author Paul D. Allison, a sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "Specifically, our study found that peers are more likely to favor award candidates who are highly embedded in the field, whereas critics will not ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In the complex genomic and molecular conspiracy that gives rise to ovarian cancer, what if researchers have been missing a whole set of suspects because they've been hiding in plain sight? That's the argument made by Brown University biologists in a new paper that combines evidence from original research and prior studies to raise new suspicions about a set of proteins that assist in regulating gene expression. Scientists need such new leads in their investigation of ovarian cancer, the most deadly reproductive cancer. Mortality has ...

Using a cutting-edge research technique, UCLA researchers have reconstructed the temperature history of a region that plays a major role in determining climate around the world. The findings, published online Feb. 27 in the journal Nature Geoscience, will help inform scientists about the processes influencing global warming in the western tropical Pacific Ocean. The study analyzes how much temperatures have increased in the region near Indonesia, and how ocean temperatures affect nearby tropical glaciers in Papua New Guinea and Borneo. Researchers also evaluated ...

The brain drain of educated workers is still felt most severely in China's central and western provinces, since most knowledge-based industries are generally concentrated in its large coastal cities. However, low-educated migrant workers increasingly find jobs in their home provinces in the central and western regions because of changing economic and government policy. So says Ye Liu and his colleagues of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong and The University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, who carried out a systematic analysis of migration trends in China ...

New York, NY – A protein that normally protects cells from environmental stresses has been shown to interact Marburg virus VP24, allowing the deadly Marburg virus to live longer and replicate better, according to a cell culture study led by scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The investigators say that deciphering the molecular details of how Marburg virus and the host protein interact may help in developing inhibitors of the virus. Results from the study are published online March 13 in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Reports. Infections with Marburg ...

Some commonly used drugs that combat aches and pains, fever, and inflammation are also thought to have the ability to kill bacteria. New research appearing online on March 13 in the Cell Press journal Chemistry & Biology reveals that these drugs, better known as NSAIDs, act on bacteria in a way that is fundamentally different from current antibiotics. The discovery could open up new strategies for fighting drug-resistant infections and "superbugs." "We discovered that some anti-inflammatory drugs used in human and veterinary medicine have weak antibiotic activity and ...

Millions of years ago, the coast of California was home to a species of porpoise distinguished from its living relatives by a lower jaw that extended well beyond the upper, according to researchers who report their findings in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on March 13. In other words, the long-lost porpoise had a rather distinct and unusual underbite. Careful analysis of the fossilized Semirostrum ceruttii skull also shows that the porpoise's pronounced beak included innervated jaws, which the animal likely used to feel for prey along the ocean floor. "The ...

Most people lose the ability to digest the milk sugar lactose after weaning, but some populations retain high levels of an enzyme called lactase, which allows them to break down lactose in adulthood. In a study published March 13th in the American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers identified genetic factors associated with lactase persistence in African populations and found that this trait became more prevalent in recent history in conjunction with the introduction and spread of cattle domestication in Africa. The findings provide strong evidence that lactase persistence ...

Scientists from the UK and Australia have created a mouse that expresses a fluorescing 'biosensor' in every cell of its body, allowing diseased cells and drugs to be tracked and evaluated in real time and in three dimensions. This biosensor mimics the action of a target molecule, in this case a protein known as 'Rac', which drives cell movement in many types of cancer. Rac behaves like a switch, oscillating on the molecular level between two states – active or inactive. When Rac is active, the biosensor picks up chemical cues and glows blue. When Rac is inactive the ...

Babies are born with the ability to digest lactose, the sugar found in milk, but most humans lose this ability after infancy because of declining levels of the lactose-digesting enzyme lactase. People who maintain high levels of lactase reap the nutritive benefits of milk, however, offering a potential evolutionary advantage to lactase persistence, or what is commonly known as lactose tolerance. A new study led by University of Pennsylvania researchers — constituting the largest investigation ever of lactase persistence in geographically diverse populations of Africans ...

NEW YORK, NY – How does yoga improve your flexibility? In the Mar 13 cover story of Cell, Columbia University biological sciences professor Julio Fernandez and team report the discovery of a new form of mechanical memory that adjusts the elasticity of muscles to their history of stretching. Using highly sensitive atomic force microscopes, the researchers detected a chemical reaction that increases the elasticity of muscle proteins. Crucially, this reaction targets molecules that have been exposed to a stretching force. This finding changes our understanding of how muscles ...

In a series of experiments sparked by fruit flies that couldn't sleep, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have identified a mutant gene — dubbed "Wide Awake" — that sabotages how the biological clock sets the timing for sleep. The finding also led them to the protein made by a normal copy of the gene that promotes sleep early in the night and properly regulates sleep cycles. Because genes and the proteins they code for are often highly conserved across species, the researchers suspect their discoveries — boosted by preliminary studies in mice — could lead to new treatments ...

Your brain's ability to instantly link what you see with what you do is down to a dedicated information 'highway', suggests new UCL-led research. For the first time, researchers from UCL (University College London) and Cambridge University have found evidence of a specialized mechanism for spatial self-awareness that combines visual cues with body motion. Standard visual processing is prone to distractions, as it requires us to pay attention to objects of interest and filter out others. The new study has shown that our brains have separate 'hard-wired' systems to visually ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Cancer cells undergo extensive genetic alterations as they grow and spread through the body. Some of these mutations, known as "drivers," help spur cells to grow out of control, while others ("passengers") are merely along for the ride. MIT cancer biologists at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and geneticists from the Broad Institute have now performed the most comprehensive analysis to date of these changes in mice programmed to develop cancer. The team discovered mutations and other genetic disturbances that arise at certain stages ...

A portrait of prehistoric parenthood captured deep in the fossil record has been uncovered by an international team of scientists led by University of Leicester geologist Professor David Siveter. The 'nursery in the sea' has revealed a species new to science – with specimens preserved incubating their eggs together with probable hatched individuals. As a result, the team has named the new species Luprisca incuba after Lucina, goddess of childbirth, and alluding to the fact that the fossils are ancient and in each case the mother was literally sitting on her eggs. The ...

Scientists have identified a new species of ancient porpoise with a chin length unprecedented among known mammals and suggest the animal used the tip of its face to probe the seabed for food. Related to living crown porpoises, the extinct Californian porpoise, Semirostrum ceruttii, had an extension of its jaw called a symphysis — the analogue of the human chin — that measured 85 centimeters in the best-preserved specimen, researchers said. The typical symphysis of a crown porpoise measures one or two centimeters. "This is unique anatomy for a mammal," said Rachel Racicot, ...

Scientists have uncovered how inflammation and lack of oxygen conspire to cause brain damage in conditions such as stroke and Alzheimer's disease. The discovery, published today in Neuron, brings researchers a step closer to finding potential targets to treat neurodegenerative disorders. Chronic inflammation and hypoxia, or oxygen deficiency, are hallmarks of several brain diseases, but little was known about how they contribute to symptoms such as memory loss. The study used state-of-the-art techniques that reveal the movements of microglia, the brain's resident ...

In order to function properly, the human brain requires the ability not only to store but also to forget: Through memory loss, unnecessary information is deleted and the nervous system retains its plasticity. A disruption of this process can lead to serious mental disorders. Basel scientists have now discovered a molecular mechanism that actively regulates the process of forgetting. The renowned scientific journal "Cell" has published their results. The human brain is build in such a way, that only necessary information is stored permanently - the rest is forgotten over ...

DALLAS, March 13, 2014 – Heart attack and stroke are among the most serious threats to health. But novel research at UT Southwestern Medical Center has linked two major biological processes that occur at the onset of these traumatic events and, ultimately, can lead to protection for the heart. On one end of the cascade is the so-called Unfolded Protein Response (UPR), and at the other end are numerous proteins with modified glucose molecules attached to them. For years, researchers have made countless observations relating to these opposite ends of the spectrum. Now, ...

DETROIT— While Mother Nature continues to challenge drivers across the country, a team of traffic engineers is working hard on a new way to make rush-hour commutes safer and faster in any weather. "We can't do much about snow falling, but we can do something about road capacity and congestion," said Joseph Hummer, traffic engineering expert and Wayne State University College of Engineering chair of civil and environmental engineering. Hummer and a team of traffic engineers at the Regional Transportation Alliance and North Carolina State University believe metered roundabouts, ...