Striking Caribbean sunsets occur when particles in the air scatter incoming sunlight. But a particulate shadow over the sea may have effects underwater. A research team, including staff scientist Héctor Guzmán from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, linked airborne particles caused by volcanic activity and air pollution to episodes of slow coral-reef growth. Like tree rings, long-lived coral skeletons preserve a record of coral growth. Previously, scientists linked coral-growth patterns in the Caribbean to a phenomenon called the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation—fluctuations ...

Stanford scientists have discovered that some purple sea urchins living along the coast of California and Oregon have the surprising ability to rapidly evolve in acidic ocean water – a capacity that may come in handy as climate change increases ocean acidity. This capacity depends on high levels of genetic variation that allow urchins' healthy growth in water with high carbon dioxide levels. The study, co-authored by Stephen Palumbi, a Professor in marine sciences and the director of Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, reveals previously unknown adaptive variations that ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10) 202-872-6042 Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society New evidence that natural substances in green coffee beans help control blood sugar levels NEW ORLEANS, April 9, 2013 -- Scientists today described evidence that natural substances extracted from unroasted coffee beans can help control the elevated blood sugar levels and body weight that underpin type 2 diabetes. Their presentation ...

Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society Spring rains bring life to Midwest granaries but foster Gulf of Mexico 'Dead Zone' NEW ORLEANS, April 9, 2013 — The most serious ongoing water pollution problem in the Gulf of Mexico originates not from oil rigs, as many people believe, but rainstorms and fields of corn and soybeans a thousand miles away in the Midwest. An expert on that problem — the infamous Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone" — today called for greater awareness of the connections ...

Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society 'Chemistry of the Bar' symposium focuses on New Orleans' Hurricane Cocktail and more NEW ORLEANS, April 9, 2013 — Call their taste and effects appealing or appalling, no matter. In a city that claims credit for invention of the cocktail, the Hurricane, Sazerac, Pimm's Cup, Bayou Bash, Hand Grenade, Ramos Gin Fizz and other concoctions are the spirits of the French Quarter and its most famous thoroughfare, which happens to be named Bourbon ...

WASHINGTON, DC (April 9, 2013)—Head and neck cancers typically begin in squamous cells that line moist surfaces inside the mouth, nose and throat. Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) is the sixth most common type of cancer in the United States, and it is sometimes preceded by the appearance of changes inside the oral cavity called precancerous lesions. The most common type of change is a white patch known as a leukoplakia. Because it often takes decades for leukoplakias to develop into HNSCC, there is a window of opportunity to recognize and revert precancerous ...

WASHINGTON, DC (April 9, 2013)—A new chemotherapy regimen appears to produce minimal side effects in patients with lung cancer that has not responded to previous therapy, paving the way for additional research to determine if the new regimen also helps shrink tumors, according findings to be presented by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 on Tuesday, April 9. "I'm very optimistic that we will show this protocol helps lung cancer patients who have run out of other options," says study author Hossein Borghaei, MS, DO, director of Thoracic ...

WASHINGTON, DC (April 9, 2013)—Researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center have found that omega-3 fatty acids and their metabolite products slow or stop the proliferation, or growth in the number of cells, of triple-negative breast cancer cells more effectively than cells from luminal types of the disease. The omega-3s worked against all types of cancerous cells, but the effect was observed to be stronger in triple-negative cell lines, reducing proliferation by as much as 90 percent. The findings will be presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 on Tuesday, April 9. Omega-3 ...

Charlottesville, VA (April 9, 2013). Neurosurgeons at the University of Texas–Houston and Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital (Houston, Texas) report on the success they achieved when they removed a hypothalamic hamartoma (HH) from a 10-year-old girl to combat hyperphagia (excessive appetite and compulsive overeating) and consequent unhealthy weight gain. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time resection of an HH was performed for this particular reason. Findings in this case are reported and discussed in "Successful treatment of hyperphagia by resection ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Seemingly benign differences in genetic code from one person to the next could influence who develops side effects to chemotherapy, a Mayo Clinic study has found. The study identified gene variations that can predispose people to chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, a condition that is hard to predict and often debilitating enough to cause cancer patients to stop their treatment early. Results of the research were presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2013 in Washington, D.C. The study, which implicates ...

BOSTON (April 9, 2013) – Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), or the formation of scar tissue in the eye, is a serious, sight-threatening complication in people recovering from surgical repair of retinal detachment. PVR is difficult to predict, lacks effective treatment options, and substantially reduces an individual's quality of life. Each year 55,000 people are at risk for developing PVR in the United States alone. A new study carried out by scientists from The Schepens Eye Research Institute/Massachusetts Eye and Ear and the Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard ...

Believe it or not, while researchers have explored which genes are mutated in each type of tobacco-associated cancer, until now no one had thought to look across these types for common genes that might predict patient outcomes. Results presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 show that in lung and bladder cancers, genes related to the regulation of the cell cycle are associated with poor patient outcomes. "We ultimately envision this as a prognostic tool to predict survival rates for people with tobacco related cancers. Recognizing patients with high expression of these ...

Human osteosarcoma samples are hard to come by, making the disease difficult to study. However, K9 bone cancer is genetically indistinguishable from the human form of the disease, and over 10,000 canine patients develop the disease every year. Research from the University of Colorado Cancer Center and the Colorado State University Flint Animal Cancer Center presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 used easily available K9 osteosarcoma samples to discover a novel protein that governs metastasis and chemoresistance in pediatric osteosarcoma. "We have a pediatric osteosarcoma ...

Collaborative research presented by the University of Colorado Cancer Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard Medical School and the University of Pittsburgh, at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Conference, shows that the protein receptor Mer is overexpressed in melanoma and that the investigational drug UNC1062 blocks Mer survival signaling in these cells, killing them. "It's exciting in that Mer receptor expression correlates so perfectly with disease progression. It's tiered – you see a bump in expression as you transition ...

Results of a phase 1 clinical trial reported at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual conference show that orally administered Rigosertib is well tolerated in patients with advanced solid tumors. This is the first trial in which orally administered Rigosertib, a dual kinase inhibitor, was studied in solid tumors. Intravenously rigosertib is already in phase 3 clinical trials for myelodysplastic syndrome and pancreatic cancer and oral rigosertib is being studied in a pair of Phase II trials in lower-risk transfusion dependent MDS patients. The drug ...

In order to kill, bladder cancer must metastasize, most commonly to the lung – what are the differences between bladder cancers that do and do not make this deadly transition? Research presented by the Director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 shows that one big difference is a little molecule known as hsa-miR-146a. Messenger RNA or mRNA carries gene blueprints to sites where the plans are read and made into proteins, and to a large degree microRNA or miRNA tells mRNA what to do. Theodorescu's work shows that in 256 samples of ...

In results presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, researchers from the University of Colorado Cancer Center show that the Six2 homeoprotein, while not involved in primary tumor growth, allows cells to detach from substrate and survive their transition through the bloodstream to faraway sites of metastasis. "Here we show for the first time that Six2 causes breast cancer progression. It's this metastasis, especially to the lung, that can eventually be deadly and so perhaps even more so than affecting the size of the primary tumor, we are especially excited to present ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Researchers have discovered that using two kinds of therapy in tandem may be a knockout combo against inherited disorders that cause blindness. While their study focused on man's best friend, the treatment could help restore vision in people, too. Published in the journal Molecular Therapy, the study builds on earlier work by Michigan State University veterinary ophthalmologist András Komáromy and colleagues. In 2010, they restored day vision in dogs suffering from achromatopsia, an inherited form of total color blindness, by replacing the mutant ...

A major breakthrough in measuring the structure of nanomaterials under extremely high pressure has been made by researchers at the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN). Described in Nature Communications, the study used new advances in x-ray diffraction to image the changes in morphology of gold nanocrystals under pressures of up to 6.5 gigapascals. Under high pressures, imaging methods such as electron or atomic force microscopy are not viable, making x-ray diffraction imaging the only option. However, until recently, focusing an image created with this method ...

Washington, D.C.— A team of researchers has made a major breakthrough in measuring the structure of nanomaterials under extremely high pressures. For the first time, they developed a way to get around the severe distortions of high-energy X-ray beams that are used to image the structure of a gold nanocrystal. The technique, described in April 9, 2013, issue of Nature Communications, could lead to advancements of new nanomaterials created under high pressures and a greater understanding of what is happening in planetary interiors. Lead author of the study, Wenge Yang ...

With rates and deaths associated with Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) at historically high levels, many hospitals have taken extra steps to reduce these infections. New research finds that a dedicated daily cleaning crew who adequately clean and disinfect rooms contaminated by C. difficile using a standardized process can be more effective than other disinfection interventions. The study is published in the May issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), in a special topic issue focused ...

CHICAGO (April 9, 2013)– In rooms of patients with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), the outside of the packages containing sterile items can become contaminated. Unused medical supplies are often thrown away to prevent the items from becoming pathways for transmission of drug-resistant microbes, and in the process this leads to increased healthcare costs. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital found that hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV) is an effective way to sanitize the outside of the packages of these sterile supplies. In addition to protecting patients, use of ...

CHICAGO (April 9, 2013)– Placement of copper objects in intensive care unit (ICU) hospital rooms reduced the number of healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) in patients by more than half, according to a new study published in the May issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, in a special topic issue focused on the role of the environment in infection prevention. In the United States, HAIs result in 100,000 deaths annually and add an estimated $45 billion to healthcare costs. HAIs often contaminate ...

Terrestrial species on low-lying islands and coastal regions are vulnerable to sea level rise due to climate-change, the most vulnerable species being endemics with limited ranges and rare species that are endangered already. That is the key message of a study by Florian Wetzel and colleagues of the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology (KLIVV) of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna (Vetmeduni Vienna) and Walter Jetz of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, USA. The new study is the first of its kind in terms of geographic scope ...

IDRI (Infectious Disease Research Institute), a Seattle-based non-profit research organization that is a leading developer of adjuvants used in vaccines combating infectious disease, and Medicago Inc. (TSX: MDG; OTCQX: MDCGF), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing highly effective and competitive vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), today announced that they will be presenting positive interim Phase I clinical results for their H5N1 Avian Influenza VLP vaccine candidate "H5N1 vaccine" at the World Vaccine ...