Two children with an aggressive form of childhood leukemia had a complete remission of their disease—showing no evidence of cancer cells in their bodies—after treatment with a novel cell therapy that reprogrammed their immune cells to rapidly multiply and destroy leukemia cells. A research team from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania published the case report of two pediatric patients Online First today in The New England Journal of Medicine. It will appear in the April 18 print issue. One of the patients, 7-year-old Emily Whitehead, ...

Being exposed to arguments between parents is associated with the way babies' brains process emotional tone of voice, according to a new study to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study, conducted by graduate student Alice Graham with her advisors Phil Fisher and Jennifer Pfeifer of the University of Oregon, found that infants respond to angry tone of voice, even when they're asleep. Babies' brains are highly plastic, allowing them to develop in response to the environments and encounters they experience. ...

(BOSTON) -- A flame retardant removed from children's pajamas 30 years ago but now used in polyurethane foam is prevalent in office environments, especially in older buildings, where urine testing of workers turned up widespread evidence of its biomarker, a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health researchers has found. The study, published in the journal Environment International, found that the chemical known as TDCPP -- chlorinated tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate, or 'chlorinated tris' -- was present in 99 percent of dust samples taken from participants' ...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have released study results that show national treatment trends in the surgical management of patients with kidney disease. The study found that partial and complete kidney removal (total nephrectomy) and energy-based techniques to destroy tumors are all on the rise. Surprisingly, the patients most in need of kidney-sparing surgery are still more likely to undergo total nephrectomy. The findings recently published online in BJU International. "While the overall proportion of patients receiving kidney ...

NEW YORK (March 25, 2013) -- Two studies led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medical College shed light on the molecular biology of three blood disorders, leading to novel strategies to treat these diseases. The two new studies -- one published online March 17 by Nature Medicine and the other March 25 in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation -- propose two new treatments for beta-thalassemia, a blood disorder which affects thousands of people globally every year. In addition, they suggest a new strategy to treat thousands of Caucasians of Northern ...

New England is expected to experience a "moderate" red tide this spring and summer, report NOAA-funded scientists studying the toxic algae that cause blooms in the Gulf of Maine. The "red tide" is caused by an alga Alexandrium fundyense, which produces a toxin that can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). Red tide typically occurs annually along some portions of the Gulf of Maine coast. This year's outlook is similar to the 2012 red tide which was also classified as "moderate." As with the past five forecasts for this region, the 2013 outlook is based on the quantities ...

As the nation continues to grapple with the long-simmering issue of gun control, solutions are stymied by heated debates. To effectively influence a divided America, elected officials must take a broad perspective rather than focusing on specific incidents, according to a new psychology study from The University of Texas at Austin. The study, led by University of Texas at Austin psychology researchers Erin Burgoon and Marlone Henderson, is published in the March online issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. According to the findings, public officials ...

Scientists from the Nano-Science Center at the Niels Bohr Institut, Denmark and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, have shown that a single nanowire can concentrate the sunlight up to 15 times of the normal sun light intensity. The results are surprising and the potential for developing a new type of highly efficient solar cells is great. Due to some unique physical light absorption properties of nanowires, the limit of how much energy we can utilize from the sun's rays is higher than previous believed. These results demonstrate the great potential ...

Getting enough to eat is a basic human need – but at what cost to the environment? Research published in BioMed Central's journal Agriculture & Food Security demonstrates that as their crops on higher ground fail due to unreliable rainfall, people in countries like Uganda are increasingly relocating to wetland areas. Unless the needs of these people are addressed in a more sustainable way, overuse of wetland resources through farming, fishing, and hunting will continue. In 2009 it was estimated that about a third of Uganda's wetlands had been lost to growing crops and ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—March 24, 2013—Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered that a certain type of DNA damage long thought to be particularly detrimental to brain cells can actually be part of a regular, non-harmful process. The team further found that disruptions to this process occur in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease—and identified two therapeutic strategies that reduce these disruptions. Scientists have long known that DNA damage occurs in every cell, accumulating as we age. But a particular type of DNA damage, known as a double-strand break, or DSB, ...

LA JOLLA, Calif., March 24, 2013 – What is it about the extra chromosome inherited in Down syndrome—chromosome 21—that alters brain and body development? Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have new evidence that points to a protein called sorting nexin 27, or SNX27. SNX27 production is inhibited by a molecule encoded on chromosome 21. The study, published March 24 in Nature Medicine, shows that SNX27 is reduced in human Down syndrome brains. The extra copy of chromosome 21 means a person with Down syndrome produces less SNX27 protein, ...

Rapidly growing trees like poplars and willows are candidate "biofuel crops" from which it is expected that cellulosic ethanol and higher energy content fuels can be efficiently extracted. Domesticating these as crops requires a deep understanding of the physiology and genetics of trees, and scientists are turning to long-domesticated fruit trees for hints. The relationship between a peach and a poplar may not be obvious at first glance, but to botanists both trees are part of the rosid superfamily, which includes not only fruit crops like apples, strawberries, cherries, ...

A drug widely used to treat Parkinson's Disease can help to reverse age-related impairments in decision making in some older people, a study from researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging has shown. The study, published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, also describes changes in the patterns of brain activity of adults in their seventies that help to explain why they are worse at making decisions than younger people. Poorer decision-making is a natural part of the ageing process that stems from a decline in our brains' ability to learn from ...

A female great tits' (Parus major) appearance is shown to signal healthy attributes in offspring in a paper in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology. The black stripe across her breast and white patches on her cheeks correlate to a chick's weight at two weeks and immune strength respectively – though the former seems to signal a genetic benefit and the latter can affect an 'adopted' chick's health, suggesting nurture is involved. Taking two mothers with different patterning, and swapping their chicks, researchers from Palacky University in the Czech ...

BOSTON—During the past 30 years, the number of patients with cancers that originate near the junction of the esophagus and stomach has increased approximately 600 percent in the United States. The first extensive probe of the DNA of these esophageal adenocarcinomas (EACs) has revealed that many share a distinctive mix-up of letters of the genetic code, and found more than 20 mutated genes that had not previously been linked to the disease. The research, led by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Broad Institute, and other research centers, may offer clues ...

Stem cells taken from amniotic fluid were used to restore gut structure and function following intestinal damage in rodents, in new research published in the journal Gut. The findings pave the way for a new form of cell therapy to reverse serious damage from inflammation in the intestines of babies. The study, funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, investigated a new way to treat necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), where severe inflammation destroys tissues in the gut. NEC is the most common gastrointestinal surgical emergency in newborn babies, with ...

HOUSTON -- A key building block of life, actin is one of the most abundant and highly conserved proteins in eukaryotic cells. First discovered in muscle cells more than 70 years ago, actin has a well-established identity as a cytoplasmic protein that works by linking itself in chains to form filaments. Fibers formed by these actin polymers are crucial to muscle contraction. So it came as a surprise when scientists discovered actin in the nucleus. Labs have been working for the past few decades to figure out exactly what it's doing there. A new study published this ...

Abused or neglected teenage girls become teen mothers at nearly five times the national rate of teen motherhood. A new Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study, published in the eFirst pages of the journal Pediatrics, shows that teen childbirth rates are more than 20 percent for abused and neglected teens. This compares to the national teen childbirth rate of approximately 4 percent. The finding holds true even after taking into account such factors as race, family income and whether the family was a one- or two-parent household. "Teen victims of sexual ...

A new analysis has found that genetic alterations in a particular cellular pathway are linked with bladder cancer risk, recurrence, disease progression, and patient survival. Published early online in CANCER, a peer- reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings could help improve bladder cancer screening and treatment. Alterations in the regulators of G-protein signaling (RGS) pathway, which is important for various cellular processes, have been implicated in several cancers. Eugene Lee, MD, of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and his colleagues ...

The harm done by konzo – a disease overshadowed by the war and drought it tends to accompany – goes beyond its devastating physical effects to impair children's memory, problem solving and other cognitive functions. Even children without physical symptoms of konzo appear to lose cognitive ability when exposed to the toxin that causes the disease, researchers report in the journal Pediatrics. "That's what's especially alarming," said lead author Michael Boivin, a Michigan State University associate professor of psychiatry and of neurology and ophthalmology. "We found ...

Contact: Jamie Rosen jrosen@aeras.org 27-766-593-409 Aeras Contact: Alison September a.september@uct.ac.za SATVI Contact: Erna Balk Erna.Balk@tbvi.eu 31-320-277-552 TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative Global scientific experts convene in Cape Town to report on progress toward tuberculosis vaccines South Africa recognized as innovator in worldwide effort to address disease, as global concerns rise over drug-resistant strains CAPE TOWN – 25 March 2013 – At a time of growing global concern about the rising level of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis ...

During the Association Day 2013 conference and trade show, Wyndham Jade will introduce its mobile-friendly housing platform - RoomLogicTM - which helps associations maximize room blocks and enhance the hotel booking process for their customers. Hosted by Dallas Fort Worth Association Executives, Association Day will take place March 25 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Wyndham Jade will provide demonstrations of RoomLogicTM in booth #34 from 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. RoomLogicTM websites automatically redraw themselves, creating a streamlined, ...

Adagold Aviation will for the first time be exhibiting at the 2013 CQ Expo, held at Rockhampton Show Grounds on the 13-14 March. Now in its second year, the CQ Expo (Central Queensland Transport, Trades and Mining Expo) is fast becoming one of Central Queensland's key resources industry events. Adagold's Cairns-based Business Development Manager, Tracey Fisher will be onsite throughout the Expo to discuss your potential aircraft charter requirements, "This is the first time an aircraft charter solutions company such as Adagold has exhibited at the Expo, and we are ...

Raleigh Plastic Surgery Center, a leading provider of aesthetic and reconstructive excellence for over 35 years, is pleased to announce that Dr. Jeremy Pyle has successfully completed certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS). Dr. Pyle received his certification after completing six years of residency training in an accredited plastic surgery program, passing comprehensive written and oral exams, and undergoing a review by the Board of all the procedures performed during the first part of his career. Dr. Pyle has been a surgeon with Raleigh Plastic ...

Gurning, bog snorkelling, and even worm charming, the UK has its fair share of weird and wonderful competitions, and the annual Air Guitar UK Championships are no exception. Leave your musical pretensions at the door and prepare to be wowed by a crowd of oddball competitors from across the country who've raised this often frowned-upon dance floor compulsion in to an art form in its own right. Overseeing proceedings will be a line-up of top comedians, performers and musicians, including cult fantasy author Robert Rankin, and along with the glamour and glory, the winner ...