Stabilizing the cell's power-generating center protects against Parkinson's disease (PD) in a rat model, according to a report published online this week in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (www.jem.org). Mitochondria—the energy production center of cells—are damaged in PD, leading to loss of dopaminergic neurons and degeneration of brain function. Taking advantage of the fact that viruses often stabilize mitochondria in order to ensure survival of the cells they infect, a team led by John Sinclair and Roger Barker at the University of Cambridge injected a viral ...

The Doubletree Hotel in Grand Junction will be the venue for a Saturday, January 14, 2012 Bridal Fair produced by CUMULUS Radio. Moab Utah Travel Council cojoin wedding businesses in a booth for Moab Destination Weddings. Thus far a sample of wedding services will be at the booth to describe Moab for outdoor wedding ceremonies, highlight reception venues, local wedding planner capabilities, full wedding destination services like wedding cakes and relaxation treatments. Moab Utah is home to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. A National Park wedding venue is not the ...

A simple physician notification system can help prevent further fractures in osteoporotic patients who have had already had fractures, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Patients who have had a major fracture because of osteoporosis do not undergo testing for bone mineral density or receive medications to help prevent additional fractures. Recent 2010 Canadian clinical practice guidelines for osteoporosis care noted this "care gap" for patients at risk of additional fractures. Researchers from the University of Manitoba and Manitoba ...

Mel Campbell, president and founder of Campbell, Harrington & Brear Advertising Agency, of York, has been invited to serve as one of three judges for the AAF-Coastal Carolinas ADDY Awards competition in Myrtle Beach, SC, in January of 2012. Campbell will help to select the most outstanding of 150-plus entries for the local ADDY Awards competition (covering Florence, Georgetown and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Wilmington, North Carolina), the first of a three-tier, national competition conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The AAF ...

STANFORD, Calif. -- Stanford University School of Medicine investigators have shown that iPS cells, viewed as a possible alternative to human embryonic stem cells, can mirror the defining defects of a genetic condition — in this instance, Marfan syndrome — as well as embryonic stem cells can. An immediate implication is that iPS cells could be used to examine the molecular aspects of Marfan on a personalized basis. Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, can't do this because their genetic contents are those of the donated embryo, not the patient's. This proof-of-principle ...

Routine criminal prosecutions for not disclosing HIV status should be abolished, write three HIV/AIDS experts in an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "In Canada, despite remarkable medical advances that have made HIV/AIDS a manageable illness, recent years have seen an escalation in the number of people prosecuted for allegedly exposing sexual partners to the virus," write M-J Milloy, Thomas Kerr and Julio Montaner of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, BC. "An upcoming case being heard in February ...

After the launch of its brand new website in October the London based IT outsourcing company Flat Rock Technology is now launching it in two more languages German and Bulgarian. This event is the result of the recent efforts of Flat Rock team of experts. Two months ago the Flat Rock Technology website, blog and e-magazine were freshly redesigned and launched in English. The new design represents and reflects the direction the company is headed and that is, namely, innovation and creativity as well as reflection of the work done to date. The multi-language website ...

The tradition of fighting in hockey should be stopped, as research shows that repeated head trauma causes severe and progressive brain damage, states an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "The tragic story of Sidney Crosby's layoff due to concussions has not been sufficient for society to hang its head in shame and stop violent play immediately," writes Dr. Rajendra Kale, a neurologist and Interim Editor-in-Chief, CMAJ. A growing body of research on both hockey players and boxers indicates clearly that blows to the head cause irreversible damage, ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- In a major step that could revolutionize biomedical research, scientists have discovered a way to keep normal cells as well as tumor cells taken from an individual cancer patient alive in the laboratory — which previously had not been possible. Normal cells usually die in the lab after dividing only a few times, and many common cancers will not grow, unaltered, outside of the body. This new technique, described today online in the American Journal of Pathology, could be the critical advance that ushers in a new era of personalized cancer medicine, and ...

Philadelphia, PA -- The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has prepared a request to submit to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand coverage of medical nutrition therapy (MNT) for specific diseases, including hypertension, obesity, and cancer, as part of the CMS National Coverage Determination (NCD) Process. Most chronic health conditions can be controlled or treated with medical nutrition therapy, yet Medicare will only reimburse nutrition therapy services provided by a registered dietitian for individuals with diabetes and renal disease. "That's ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The impact of hatcheries on salmon is so profound that in just one generation traits are selected that allow fish to survive and prosper in the hatchery environment, at the cost of their ability to thrive and reproduce in a wild environment. These findings, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show a speed of evolution and natural selection that surprised researchers. They confirmed that a primary impact of hatcheries is a change in fish genetics, as opposed to a temporary environmental effect. "We've known for ...

New research shows 63% of women age 50 and older reported persistent, incident, or intermittent knee pain during a 12-year study period. Predictors for persistent pain included higher body mass index (BMI), previous knee injury, and radiographic osteoarthritis (OA). Details of this longitudinal study are available in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). According to the ACR more than 27 million Americans over age 25 suffer from OA—a leading cause of disability worldwide—with pain being ...

Drugs that enhance levels of small molecules derived naturally in the body from a major component of animal fats (small molecules known as epoxyeicosatrienoic acids [EETs]) are currently in clinical trials for the treatment of high blood pressure and diabetes. A team of researchers — led by Dipak Panigrahy and Mark Kieran, at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; Sui Huang, at the Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle; and Darryl Zeldin, at the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, Research Triangle Park — has now generated data in mice that raise concern ...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is among the most common causes of death in the US. It is a smoking-related disease for which there are currently no disease-altering therapies. However, hope that one could be developed is now provided by the work of Enid Neptune and colleagues, at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in a mouse model of lung disease caused by exposure to cigarette smoke. Neptune and colleagues found that lostartan, a drug used widely in the clinic (e.g., to treat high blood pressure), reduced lung disease in mice caused by exposure to cigarette ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Potential concern about drugs in clinical trial Drugs that enhance levels of small molecules derived naturally in the body from a major component of animal fats (small molecules known as epoxyeicosatrienoic acids [EETs]) are currently in clinical trials for the treatment of high blood pressure and diabetes. A team of researchers — led by Dipak Panigrahy and Mark Kieran, at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; Sui Huang, at the Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle; and Darryl Zeldin, at the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, Research ...

Overeating may cause brain aging while eating less turns on a molecule that helps the brain stay young. A team of Italian researchers at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Rome have discovered that this molecule, called CREB1, is triggered by "caloric restriction" (low caloric diet) in the brain of mice. They found that CREB1 activates many genes linked to longevity and to the proper functioning of the brain. This work was led by Giovambattista Pani, researcher at the Institute of General Pathology, Faculty of Medicine at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart ...

Cognitive function may be a better indicator of the impact of aging on an economy than age-distribution, with chronological age imposing less of a social and economic burden if the population is "functionally" younger, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study finds that one standardized indicator of cognitive ability - memory recall - is better in countries where education, nutrition, and health standards are generally higher. Aging populations are of concern to many countries as it is often assumed that ageing ...

A 125-year debate on how nitrogen-fixing bacteria are able to breach the cell walls of legumes has been settled. A paper to be published on Monday by John Innes Centre scientists reports that plants themselves allow bacteria in. Once inside the right cells, these bacteria take nitrogen from the air and supply it to legumes in a form they can use, ammonia. Whether the bacteria breach the cell walls by producing enzymes that degrade it, or the plant does the work for them, has been contested since an 1887 paper in which the importance of the breach was first recognised. "Our ...

Boston – Researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that in low-income neighborhoods, misinformation about access to emergency contraception is a common occurrence. These findings appear as a research letter in the Dec. 19 on-line issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration facilitated access to emergency contraception among adolescents by making it available over-the-counter to individuals age 17 years and older. From September to December 2010, ...

Boston, Mass. – A group of small molecules called EETs – currently under scrutiny as possible treatment targets for a host of cardiovascular diseases – may also drive the growth and spread of cancer, according to researchers at the Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center (DF/CHCC) and other institutions. Their findings also raise the possibility that drugs that block EETs could serve as a new avenue for cancer treatment. This study, led by Dipak Panigrahy, MD, of DF/CHCC and the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital Boston, appeared online December 19 ...

A North Carolina State University discovery of the unique chemical composition of a cockroach signal – a "Let's hook up" sex pheromone emitted by certain female wood cockroaches to entice potential mates – could have far-ranging benefits, including improved conservation of an endangered woodpecker. Dr. Coby Schal, Blanton J. Whitmire Professor of Entomology at NC State and the corresponding author of a paper describing the discovery, says that the study, published the week of Dec. 19 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, advances the knowledge of fundamental ...

Detroit - A Wayne State University researcher has shown that compounds found in soybeans can make radiation treatment of lung cancer tumors more effective while helping to preserve normal tissue. A team led by Gilda Hillman, Ph.D., professor of radiation oncology at Wayne State University's School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, had shown previously that soy isoflavones, a natural, nontoxic component of soybeans, increase the ability of radiation to kill cancer cells in prostate tumors by blocking DNA repair mechanisms and molecular survival ...

This press release is available in Spanish. The main problem associated with measuring the effects of fire on materials lies in the temperature of the flames, which reaches over 1000 ºC and can obscure the actual temperature of the material. In addition, there is the problem of the high concentration of gasses (CO2, H2O and others), which makes it difficult to obtain clear images of the sample being subjected to fire. In order to solve this problem, the UC3M scientists who developed this method used a measurement that utilizes the infrared spectrum. "To do this, ...

This press release is available in German.For years, Mrs. S. suffered from joint pain and headaches. After an odyssey through doctors' waiting rooms, one doctor diagnosed Lyme borreliosis – an infectious disease transmitted by ticks. With its bite, the parasite introduced bacteria that then spread throughout the entire body. Mrs. S. is not alone – very often, the disease is recognized too late or not at all, or is not properly treated. Doctors are provided with no clues if the characteristic redness around the bite area is missing. Left untreated, Lyme borreliosis can cause ...

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the results of a detailed investigation of how many 'ultra-compact dwarf galaxies' (UCDs) can be found in nearby galaxy clusters. UCDs were recognized as a populous and potentially distinct class of stellar systems about a decade ago. But they are still mysterious objects that are characterized by a compact morphology (30-300 light-years in size) and high masses (more than one million solar masses). More generally, their properties (e.g., their size, shape, or luminosity) are similar to those of both star clusters and dwarf galaxies. ...