Levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) are increased in response to acute inflammation, infection and tissue damage. There are also reports that CRP levels are elevated because of cancer. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research shows that elevated CRP levels are predictive of a poor prognosis for breast cancer sufferers. C-reactive protein is produced by the liver, in response to infection or injury, when stimulated by the cytokine IL-6. Tumor sites are often associated with inflammation and this inflammation contributes to tumor ...

Researchers at King's College London have identified a way of eliminating leukaemic stem cells, which could lead to new treatments that may enable complete remission for leukaemia patients. An early study in mice has shown that leukaemic stem cells can be abolished by suppressing two proteins found in the body. Leukaemic stem cells sustain the disease and are likely to be responsible for relapse, so elimination of these cells is believed to be key for achieving complete remission. These encouraging findings highlight the two proteins as potential therapeutic targets ...

Students overall performed better – and educationally disadvantaged students generally made even greater strides than everyone else – in an introductory biology course at a university where recent budget woes doubled class sizes for the course, cut lab times and reduced the number of graduate teaching assistants. The keys to success are instructors who guide learning rather than lecture, and who structure courses so students are more likely to come to class having read assignments and where they undergo intensive practice to develop critical thinking and problem solving ...

Until a decade, it was believed that differences between people were due solely to the existence of genetic changes, which are alterations in the sequence of our genes. The discoveries made during these last ten years show that beings with the same genetics like the twins and cloned animals may have different characteristics and disease due to epigenetic changes. Epigenetics involves chemical signatures that are added to DNA and proteins that package it, to regulate their activity. The more recognized epigenetic brand is DNA methylation, a process based on the addition ...

Mutations of DNA that lead to one base being replaced by another don't have to happen as single, independent events in humans and other eukaryotes, a group of Indiana University Bloomington biologists has learned after surveying several creatures' genomes. And, the scientists argue, if "point mutations" can happen in twos, threes -- even nines – large evolutionary jumps are possible, especially when problems caused by a single point mutation are immediately compensated for by a second or third. The work appears in the latest issue of Current Biology. "A similar phenomenon ...

NEW YORK — June 2, 2011 — A new study by Columbia Business School Professor Paul Ingram, Kravis Professor Business, Management and senior scholar at the Jerome A. Chazen Institute for International Business at Columbia Business School; Hayagreeva Rao, Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources, Stanford Graduate School of Business; and Qingyuan (Lori) Yue, Assistant Professor of Management and Organization, USC Marshall School of Business, found evidence of how firms engage in regulatory arbitrage and make decisions based on a state's regulatory ...

WASHINGTON (June 2, 2011) – New research suggests an effective recovery drink may already be in your refrigerator: lowfat chocolate milk. Grabbing lowfat chocolate milk after a tough workout helped give both trained and amateur athletes a post-exercise training advantage, according to three new studies presented at the American College of Sports Medicine and published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research this month. Athletes in the studies who had a post-exercise lowfat chocolate milk– with the right mix of carbs and high-quality protein – had improved ...

Last weekend saw the return of motor racing to the streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine for what is undoubtedly the sport's most prestigious and famous event, the F1 Monaco Grand Prix. This year, Fraser Yachts secured several trackside charter yachts for clients wishing to get close to the action as well as several other anchors within the bay. Following hot on the heels of the Cannes Film Festival, which drew to a close last Sunday, the weekend of the Monaco Grand Prix is widely regarded as the start of the Mediterranean yacht charter season and having experienced ...

NEW YORK CITY —Scientists have identified a drug combination, when used in advanced lung cancer patients, shows a survival advantage in patients who no longer respond to existing therapies. They found that bexarotene and erlotinib can each repress the critical cell cycle regulator: cyclin D1. The drug combination also broadened the reach to include a specific subset of patients, such as those resistant due to the presence of a ras mutation in their cancer. The study was published in the June issue of Cancer Prevention Research. "Erlotinib has been found to be most effective ...

New research into drag reduction has the potential to help industries such shipping to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. Professor Derek Chan from the University of Melbourne's Department of Mathematics and Statistics said the research demonstrates a new way to minimise drag of fast moving projectiles in water. A collaboration between the University of Melbourne and the King Abdulla University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, the research was based on the 255 year-old Leidenfrost effect. The Leidenfrost effect describes the phenomenon where a liquid ...

DALLAS – June 2, 2011 – In a multicenter clinical trial, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that higher doses of stereotactic radiation therapy requiring fewer treatments are safe and effective for patients with low-to-intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Results of the trial, available in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, showed that stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), which delivers ultra-precise radiation, was effective in treating patients with localized prostate cancer in five 30-minute sessions every other day over two weeks. That compares ...

While it is already known that breast cancer cells create the conditions for their own survival by communicating their needs to the healthy cells that surround them, Australian researchers have identified a new way of turning off that cellular cross talk. They have shown that a molecule known as 'hedgehog' sits at the centre of the switchboard in breast cancer, transmitting biochemical signals between the cancer cells and healthy cells. When this conversation is blocked – or hedgehog is 'silenced' – tumours shrink and stop their spread. While the finding applies ...

A paper published online today in Science provides evidence that the Methyl-CpG-Binding Protein 2 (MeCP2) is required throughout life to maintain healthy brain function. The findings are reported from the Baylor College of Medicine lab of Huda Zoghbi, HHMI investigator and Director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute. Mutations in MeCP2 cause the autism spectrum disorder Rett Syndrome, and have been seen in some cases of classic autism, childhood schizophrenia and milder neuropsychiatric conditions such as anxiety and learning disabilities. Rett ...

June 2nd, Shenzhen, China – The recent outbreak of an E. coli infection in Germany has resulted in serious concerns about the potential appearance of a new deadly strain of bacteria. In response to this situation, and immediately after the reports of deaths, the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf and BGI-Shenzhen began working together to sequence the bacterium and assess its human health risk. BGI-Shenzhen has just completed the sequence and carried out a preliminary analysis that shows the current infection is caused by an entirely new super-toxic E. coli strain. According ...

About 20 years ago, the late Thomas Gold, in his landmark concept paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, postulated that a "deep, hot biosphere" exists in the crust of the Earth [1]. Gold suggested that this biosphere is as deep as 6󈝶 km, and is supported by geological energy sources [2]. The Earth's "deep biosphere", as we know today, should include a variety of subsurface habitats, such as aquifers and sedimentary rocks in the continental regime, and sediments and igneous rock in the marine realm. ...

Innovative UK technology is contributing to the development of a revolutionary digital stethoscope that could make it easier for GPs to spot the first signs of heart disease. With Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funding, a Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) team has developed a computer-based technology that synchronises the various sounds collected by the new stethoscope and which make up a human heartbeat. The sounds can then be analysed by an existing technique called ICA (independent component analysis), with data presented on a laptop ...

A space flight by millions of microscopic worms could help us overcome the numerous threats posed to human health by space travel. The Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) have also given experts an insight into how to block muscle degradation in the sick and elderly. The worms — from The University of Nottingham — were flown into space onboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. They spent 11 days in orbit onboard the International Space Station more than 200 miles above the earth. Many of C. elegans' 20,000 genes perform the same functions as those in humans. Experts in human ...

A new study from North Carolina State University shows that talking about safer sex is a complicated process for individuals in the transgender community. The finding may help efforts to promote safer sex practices in a community facing high HIV rates – and also sheds light on broader questions related to safer sex for everyone. "The main reason for this study is the fact that we're seeing evidence of devastatingly high HIV prevalence rates in the transgender community," says Dr. Kami Kosenko, an assistant professor of communication at NC State and lead author of the ...

As the Mediterranean prepares for the summer season the yacht brokerage market is looking fairly healthy in contrast to this quarter in recent years. Supporting this resurgence are the annual boat shows that are beginning to see increased interest and enquiries through their continued efforts. Although all areas of the business are showing equal improvements this cannot be said to be spread across Fraser Yachts' entire network worldwide however with some regions recovering quicker than others it would seem. Most recently interest appears to be concentrated in the ...

A recent study has shown that cognitive impairment is evident early on in preschool children with epilepsy, consistent with results of similar studies in older children. Age of onset of first seizure is a significant predictor of cognitive impairment according to this study—the first to evaluate cognitive impairment in children age three to six. The report is available in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). Epilepsy is characterized by recurrent seizures that range from mild staring spells to ...

INDIANAPOLIS – When the demands of work and family conflict, is the job blamed, is the family role blamed or is blame placed on both? And what are the consequences? A new study by Elizabeth M. Poposki, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology in the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, is the first to explore day-to-day experiences in attributing this type of blame. The work examines individual incidents of work-family conflict and tracks how blame for this conflict is attributed. Only three percent of those surveyed blamed both work ...

New technologies can improve agricultural sustainability in developing countries, but only with the engagement of local farmers and the social and economic networks they depend on, say Stanford University researchers. Their findings are published in the May 23 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "Most people tend to think that technology information flows to farmers through a direct pipeline from scientists, but that isn't true," said lead author Ellen McCullough, a former research fellow at Stanford's Program on Food Security ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Scientists may have a way to make the powerful cancer drug cisplatin less toxic to the kidneys and more effective against some cancers. The chemotherapeutic agent used in combination with other drugs for a variety of cancers, results in kidney damage or failure in about 30 percent of users, although the mechanism has been unclear. The most physicians can do today to protect the kidneys is advise patients to drink more water. The relatively simple, highly reactive compound tends to accumulate in the kidneys, said Dr. Navjotsingh Pabla, postdoctoral fellow ...

Brain cancer therapy may be more effective if the expression of an iron-storing protein is decreased to enhance the action of therapeutic drugs on brain cancer cells, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. Malignant glioblastoma multiforme is a deadly brain tumor for which no long-term effective cure exists. Because drugs in the blood do not pass from the blood vessels to the brain, effective amounts of chemotherapy drugs do not reach the tumor. Increasing dosages damage normal brain tissue and cause significant neurological damage. These dosages also ...

This release is available in French and Spanish. A gesture as simple as allowing children to freely choose the vegetables they want to eat helps to increase the consumption of these foods in children, as University of Granada has found. Moreover, his work suggests that the bitter taste of calcium, present in vegetables such as spinach, collard greens, cabbage, onions, chard or broccoli, can be a factor negatively influencing children's consumption of vegetables. To carry out this experimental study, the authors analyzed the main factors determining vegetable consumption ...