A worrisome increase in obesity levels in much of the world suggests that current methods of motivating people to eat healthier food and get more exercise are not all that successful. Much of today's research focuses on ways of delivering messages in order to obtain the best sustained adherence to these two key health behaviors. One such study by Abby King and colleagues from the Stanford School of Medicine in California looks at the timing of giving exercise and nutrition advice. The researchers found that a higher success rate might be possible when the advice is given ...

Cells are the basic unit of a living organism. The human body consists of a vast array of highly specialized cells, such as blood cells, skin cells and neurons. In total more than 250 different cell types exist. How are the different types related to each other? Which factors are unique for each cell type? And what in the end determines the development of a certain cell? To answer these questions, the research team designed a computer-based method that uses already existing biological data from research groups all over the world and analyses them in an entirely new way. ...

NEW YORK—A massive study analyzing gene expression data from 22 tumor types has identified multiple metabolic expression changes associated with cancer. The analysis, conducted by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, also identified hundreds of potential drug targets that could cut off a tumor's fuel supply or interfere with its ability to synthesize essential building blocks. The study was published today in the online edition of Nature Biotechnology. The results should ramp up research into drugs that interfere with cancer metabolism, a field that dominated ...

MADISON – For the first time, human embryonic stem cells have been transformed into nerve cells that helped mice regain the ability to learn and remember. A study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the first to show that human stem cells can successfully implant themselves in the brain and then heal neurological deficits, says senior author Su-Chun Zhang, a professor of neuroscience and neurology. Once inside the mouse brain, the implanted stem cells formed two common, vital types of neurons, which communicate with the chemicals GABA or acetylcholine. "These ...

BOSTON — When thousands of experimental biology researchers gather in Boston this weekend, many of them undoubtedly will be presenting work related to the hunt for the next generation of antibiotics and how to battle back existing and emerging superbugs. But for one scientist from Texas Rio Grande Valley, it's not about what the research of tomorrow holds: It's about the kind of action the people in communities like his need today. Subburaj Kannan, an instructor of microbiology at Southwest Texas Junior College, is passionate when he talks about how antibiotic resistance ...

BOSTON — Regular use of low-dose aspirin may prevent the progression of breast cancer, according to results of a study by researchers at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., and the University of Kansas Medical Center. The study found that aspirin slowed the growth of breast cancer cell lines in the lab and significantly reduced the growth of tumors in mice. The age-old headache remedy also exhibits the ability to prevent tumor cells from spreading. The lead author of the study, Gargi Maity, a postdoctoral fellow who works in the cancer research ...

A contact lens on the bathroom floor, an escaped hamster in the backyard, a car key in a bed of gravel: How are we able to focus so sharply to find that proverbial needle in a haystack? Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that when we embark on a targeted search, various visual and non-visual regions of the brain mobilize to track down a person, animal or thing. That means that if we're looking for a youngster lost in a crowd, the brain areas usually dedicated to recognizing other objects, or even the areas attuned to abstract thought, ...

DURHAM, N.C. – A three-dimensional image of one of the proteins that serves as an on-off switch as it binds to receptors on the surface of a cell suggests there may be a sort of main power switch that could be tripped. These surface receptors are responsible for helping cells discern light, set the heart racing, or detect pain. The finding, published online April 21, 2013, in the journal Nature by a research collaboration involving this year's Nobel laureates in chemistry, could help in the development of more effective drugs to switch on or off the cell receptors that ...

Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and their collaborators have tailor-made a new chemical compound that blocks a protein that has been linked to poor responses to treatment in cancer patients. The development of the compound, called WEHI-539, is an important step towards the design of a potential new anti-cancer agent. WEHI-539 has been designed to bind and block the function of a protein called BCL-XL that normally prevents cells from dying. The death and elimination of abnormal cells in the body is an important safeguard against cancer development. But ...

Number of cigarettes smoked a day and the number of years a person has smoked both increase the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), finds research in BioMed Central's open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy. The risk decreases after giving up smoking but, compared to people who have never smoked, this risk is still elevated 15 years after giving up. Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital analysed data from the Swedish Mammography Cohort, which included 34,000 women aged between 54 and 89, 219 of which had RA. Results of ...

Researchers have newly associated nine genetic regions with a rare autoimmune disease of the liver known as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). This brings the total number of genetic regions associated with the disease to 16. Approximately 70 per cent of people who suffer from PSC also suffer from IBD. The team showed that only half of the newly associated genetic regions were shared with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). For the first time, this definitively proves that PSC, although genetically related to IBD, is a distinct disease. PSC is a chronic, progressive ...

April 21, 2013, New York, NY and San Diego Calif. – Ludwig researchers Arshad Desai and Christopher Campbell, a post-doctoral fellow in his laboratory, were conducting an experiment to parse the molecular details of cell division about three years ago, when they engineered a mutant yeast cell as a control that, in theory, had no chance of surviving. Apparently unaware of this, the mutant thrived. Intrigued, Campbell and Desai began exploring how it had defied its predicted fate. As detailed in the current issue of Nature, what they discovered has overturned the prevailing ...

A new analysis has found that the loss or amplification of particular DNA regions contributes to the development of prostate cancer, and that patients with two of these DNA changes have a high likelihood of dying from the disease. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study provides valuable information on the genetics of prostate cancer and offers insights into which patients should be treated aggressively. Cells can become cancerous when they lose or amplify pieces of DNA containing important genes. Using a method ...

It is widely accepted that medical insurance helps older adults with chronic health problems to receive better care. But what about young adults between the ages of 18 and 25, a demographic that also tends to have the lowest levels of health insurance coverage? In what may be the first study to measure health care utilization patterns among young adults with chronic health problems—in this case asthma—a team of researchers at Harvard Medical School found that losing health insurance was a significant predictor of deteriorating patterns of health management. Other social ...

New research published as an abstract in The FASEB Journal and presented at Experimental Biology 2013 (EB 2013) on Monday, April 22 ties mushrooms to positive health outcomes in the area of weight management. A one-year, randomized clinical trial conducted by researchers at the Weight Management Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and funded by the Mushroom Council found that substituting white button mushrooms for red meat can be a useful strategy for enhancing and maintaining weight loss.1 Participants included obese adults (73 adults; 88% women; ...

Anyone who has spent time in the tropics knows that the diversity of species found there is astounding and the abundance and diversity of ants, in particular, is unparalleled. Scientists have grappled for centuries to understand why the tropics are home to more species of all kinds than the cooler temperate latitudes on both sides of the equator. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the higher species numbers in the tropics, but these hypotheses have never been tested for the ants, which are one of the most ecologically and numerically dominant groups of animals ...

Researchers from ETH Zurich, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the Politec-nico di Milano have jointly developed a manufacturing technique to render the semiconductor germanium laser-compatible through high tensile strain. In their article recently published in "Nature Photonics", they reveal how they can gen-erate the necessary tensile strain efficiently. The scientists demonstrate how to use their method to effectively alter the optical properties of germanium, which is naturally unsuitable for lasing: "With a strain of three per cent, the material emits around twenty-five ...

But an accompanying series of editorials points out some important limitations of the two studies—which can't completely overcome previous concerns about the safety of using nitrous oxide (N2O) as a surgical anesthetic. Is Nitrous Oxide Safe for Surgical Anesthesia? Nitrous oxide is the world's oldest general anesthetic, but there's a long history of debate regarding its appropriate role in modern surgical anesthesia. Although nitrous oxide provides effective sedation and pain control, it has known disadvantages and side effects. A previous study, called "ENIGMA-I," ...

Josh Hill, an experienced business-to-business marketer announced availability of the Marketing Rockstar's Guide to Marketo, an independent project aimed at marketers who are new to the marketing automation tool Marketo. Josh started the project to keep track of the many ways Marketo can be used as well as best practice setup techniques. Having gone through previous Marketo implementations with Salesforce.com, Josh believed there was a gap between Marketo documentation and marketers' technical skills. "I work at the nexus of technology, marketing, and sales to ...

Charles & Chubs Pet Furnishings aims to raise funding to manufacture their line of pet products through crowd-funding website, Kickstarter. The primary goal at this time is to get their line of pet beds manufactured out of high-grade plastic with a design that allows the beds to fold nearly flat for storage. Charles & Chubs Pet Furnishings is a startup company with a vision of creating unique pet furniture that not only allow your pet to sleep in style but also make for a decorative piece in your home. "I wanted to create a pet bed that was more than ...

Andre and Marina Soumiatin have officially put the relationship experts on notice: They have created an interactive, "Wiki-style" project in which people's feedback, commentary and questions directly affect the outcome of a book entitled "Timeless Love Pyramid- 5 Essential Steps to Keep Your Passion". This book teaches how to keep passion in a marriage for a life time. People are sharing their love stories and expressing their feelings on what they want to read. People are raving about their experiences: "I just read your first chapter on ...

Several new Stark law initiatives have recently gone into effect, yet the application of those provisions is unclear to many healthcare professionals and patients. "A common misunderstanding is that Stark law applies across the board to all patients, but it does not," says Dr. Carol Mahon, chief compliance officer of Minimally Invasive SpineCARE and CEO of Medical Business Institute. "Stark law only applies to government-funded entities - like Medicare and Medicaid. "There are safe harbors or exceptions to the law that could affect a lot of people ...

Many small online retailers understand the difficulty of building a brand and marketing. With limited budgets and fees eating in sales, store owners on sites like Etsy, eBay, and Amazon are seeking new and creative ways to attract customers. Picsity (www.picsity.com) is a new social shopping site that focuses on building a community of products lovers, while doubling as a cost-free showroom for merchants. Co-founder and CEO Kevin Chow stresses that his company can be a healthy complement to any retailer's marketing strategy. Unlike a traditional e-commerce site, there ...

greeNEWit, a Maryland company that provides energy and water saving upgrades to homeowners and businesses to reduce energy-related expenses, lower utility bills and reduce their carbon footprint, will participate in the Takoma Park Earth Day Festival Sunday, April 21, 2013 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Grant Avenue at Carroll Avenue in Takoma Park, Maryland. greeNEWit will attend this inaugural event as a vendor, joining more than 35 other green organizations and companies. Takoma Park Earth Day will provide consumers with an opportunity to speak to energy efficiency experts ...

Floor-to-ceiling murals depict streetscapes of the 1950s Jersey Shore in the 10-car garage of "Bayside Villa," an exceptional property being offered for sale at 5030 Gulf of Mexico Drive on Longboat Key. Painted by local artist Lori George, the murals portray the Jersey Shore city of Keansburg, New Jersey, hometown of the late Tony Pompliano, an auto enthusiast who commissioned the delightful works of art. "The murals were taken from old photos, books and Tony's memory," said his widow Irene, who has listed the home with Realtor Leslie Sharp of RoseBay ...