FINDINGS: Certain differentiated cells in breast tissue can spontaneously convert to a stem-cell-like state, according to Whitehead Institute researchers. Until now, scientific dogma has stated that differentiation is a one-way path; once cells specialize, they cannot return to the flexible stem-cell state on their own. These findings hold true for normal mammary cells as well as for breast cancer cells. RELEVANCE: These findings may redefine how researchers view cancer stem cells – the cells capable of seeding new tumors at primary and distant sites in the body. Therapies ...

This release is available in German. FRANKFURT. Creating artificial structures from DNA is the objective of DNA nanotechnology. This new discipline, which combines biology, physics, chemistry and material science makes use of the ability of the natural DNA-strains' capacity for self assembly. Smileys or small boxes, measuring only 10s of nanometers (10 one-billionths of a meter) were created from DNA in a drop of water. Prof Alexander Heckel and his doctoral student Thorsten Schmidt from the "Cluster of Excellence for Macromolecular Complexes" at Goethe University were ...

Patience may be a virtue in a person, but in an infectious disease, it is insidious. Witness tuberculosis, which can lie dormant in a human host for decades before bursting forth into infection. TB's stealthy nature has made it difficult to decipher how it spreads, seriously hampering efforts to control it. The World Health Organization estimates that a third of the people on Earth are infected. Now, a study led by Stanford scientists has provided new insights into the behavior of tuberculosis by tracing the travels of a particular strain of the disease that was unintentionally ...

Although nearly 80 percent of ambulatory providers that have purchased an EMR are confident they will qualify for meaningful use (MU) in 2011, a closer look at what functionalities they have actually implemented reveals that most still have significant holes to fill, according to a KLAS report. Over two thirds of the surveyed providers are not sharing medical records electronically with patients, and nearly half have not implemented clinical decision support (CDS) rules, two key MU requirements. The report, "Ambulatory EMR: A KLAS Guide to Meaningful Use Success," presents ...

A major new study finds that nitrogen pollution is costing each person in Europe around £130 - £650 (€150 – €740 Euros) a year. The first European Nitrogen Assessment (ENA) is launched at a conference today in Edinburgh, Scotland. The study, carried out by 200 experts from 21 countries and 89 organizations, estimates that the annual cost of damage caused by nitrogen across Europe is £60 - £280 billion (€70 -320 billion), more than double the extra income gained from using nitrogen fertilizers in European agriculture. Professor Bob Watson Chief Scientific Advisor to ...

In a development that holds intriguing possibilities for the future of industrial catalysis, as well as for such promising clean green energy technologies as artificial photosynthesis, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have created bilayered nanocrystals of a metal-metal oxide that are the first to feature multiple catalytic sites on nanocrystal interfaces. These multiple catalytic sites allow for multiple, sequential catalytic reactions to be carried out selectively and in tandem. "The demonstration ...

Pop Cult Studio's Mark Mushkin is currently producing TV shows as content for a new wave of media headed for America's living room. The Internet and TV are engaged to be married and there are big name companies scheduled to attend. Google and YouTube are looking to purchase TV shows to distribute on a network of channels being set up in preparation for the next generation of TV's that will connect to the Internet. Pop Cult Studios' Executive Producer Mark Mushkin says, "We plan to take advantage of this opportunity to get our new TV shows seen by these major distributors." ...

Many scientists are concerned that plant and animal species may face extinction due to global warming, but biologists at Washington University in St. Louis are trying to predict exactly what will happen to them. Which species will migrate? Which evolve? Which change their behavior? Which become extinct? Rather than peer into the future, they are looking backward, exploring how species alive today survived global warming at the end of the Pleistocene and asking whether their responses provide any guidance for us today. For his dissertation Brad Oberle, a doctoral candidate ...

MedWOW.com, the global online marketplace for medical equipment, announces the promotion of their upgraded business leads program. Any medical equipment professional in the world can claim a gift of 10 free business leads. All of the business leads generated are highly verified, pre-qualified, registered buyers who are looking for medical equipment, as well as devices and related services. Leads' types include: buying leads (available for complete systems, as well as parts and accessories), leasing & financing leads and shipping leads. Leads are kept fresh and current, ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Women under the age of 75 with high vitamin D status were less likely to have early age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in adults, a University at Buffalo study has shown. The disease affects approximately 9 percent of Americans aged 40 and older. The paper is published in the April issue of "Archives of Ophthalmology," one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Vitamin D status was assessed using the blood measure of 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25 (OH) D. The 25 (OH) D level is generally considered the means by which ...

AMES, Iowa – Solving problems for clients in any field usually requires gathering information and creative thinking that leads to practical and inventive solutions. A new computer interface developed at Iowa State University is helping students use what they've learned in the horticulture classroom and apply it to problems they'll face when they are on the job site. The project, called ThinkSpace, is led by a group of ISU faculty including Ann Marie VanDerZanden, professor of horticulture and associate director of ISU's Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. ThinkSpace ...

What can be more intriguing than a furniture item that seemingly has come straight out of the house of a fashion stylist? If you love the planet, you will want to explore the new modern designs of the collection from Emco, now available at Spacify. Such is the creation of Emco and its Icon Bar/Counter stool is known to be an avant garde design amongst all the modern bar stools and contemporary counter stools. But this is not the only design that is intriguing. You may pick up any designer bar stool from Emco and you will find that all the stools have been created keeping ...

PHILADELPHIA (April 11, 2011) – Swallow the good, spit out the bad. A new study from the Monell Center highlights the vital role taste plays as the body's gatekeeper. The research shows that strong bitter taste in and of itself can cause people to both report the sensation of nausea and display a pattern of stomach activity characteristic of actual nausea. "Nausea is a huge negative modulator of quality of life for many people, including pregnant women, patients undergoing chemotherapy, and virtually all types of GI patients," said senior author Paul A.S. Breslin, Ph.D., ...

A study appearing in the journal Investigational New Drugs and conducted by researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital, discovered that two new small molecule inhibitors are showing promise in blocking STAT3, a protein linked to the most common malignant bone tumor, osteosarcoma. These small molecule inhibitors – one derived from a portion of the turmeric spice – may serve as a new, non-toxic treatment for these deadly tumors. Osteosarcoma is aggressive and its treatment outlook has not changed significantly over the last 20 years. Treatment consists of a combination ...

New research published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) details research in rats and mice that offers hope for stopping the devastating, and often fatal, effects of sepsis in humans. In the study, University of Michigan researchers show how neutralizing the effects of a key protein fragment, called C5a, used by the immune system to attract white blood cells may ultimately prevent heart failure. "During sepsis, heart failure is a common feature of the later stages of the syndrome," said Peter A. Ward, M.D., a senior scientist involved in the work from ...

Ann Arbor, Mich. — In the first clinical trial of gene therapy for treatment of intractable pain, researchers from the University of Michigan Department of Neurology observed that the treatment appears to provide substantial pain relief. In a study published online in the Annals of Neurology last week, the researchers showed that the novel agent NP2 is safe and well-tolerated. In addition, measures of pain in the treated patients suggested that NP2 may provide a substantial analgesic effect. NP2 is a gene transfer vector that expresses the naturally-occurring opioid ...

A new discovery published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) promises to help physicians identify patients most likely to benefit from breast cancer drug therapies. If the compound, called "Nanobody," proves effective in clinical trials, it would represent a significant advance for breast cancer drug therapy because some drugs are effective only in some people. In addition, some drugs have side effects that may cause damage to vital organs, making it more crucial for physicians to get the right treatment to the right patient the first time around. "What ...

Taking a statin before having major elective surgery reduces potentially serious kidney complications, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). Each year, more than 230 million major elective surgeries are performed around the world. Unfortunately, many patients who undergo major operations develop kidney injury soon after surgery, often due to decreased blood flow to the kidneys and/or the effects of inflammation. Animal studies suggest that the cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins protect the ...

Atlanta shredding company Shred-Green is partnering with Atlanta Recycling Solutions for a free shredding and electronics recycling event on April 16 for residents in Gwinnett and neighboring counties. Shred-Green will be on site to shred documents and collect electronics for recycling. Shred-Green and Atlanta Recycling Solutions will be holding their free Atlanta paper shredding day from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on April 16 at Gwinnett Bible Chapel. The chapel is located at 3819 Five Forks Trickum Road in Lilburn. As with all of its free shredding events, Shred-Green ...

Oestrogen treatment for osteoporosis has often been associated with serious side-effects. Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have now, in mice, found a way of utilising the positive effects of oestrogen in mice so that only the skeleton is acted on, current research at the Academy shows. The study is presented in the respected journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). Many women are affected by osteoporosis after the menopause, when the body's production of oestrogen decreases. Oestrogen is the hormone that ...

Although it has been many years since the human genome was first mapped, there are still many genes whose function we do not understand. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and the University of Toronto, Canada, have teamed up to produce and characterize a collection of nearly 800 strains of yeast cells that make it possible to study even the most complicated of genes. One common way of studying the role of genes in cells is to remove a gene and investigate the effect of the loss. Genes are very similar in both yeast and people, which is one reason ...

Sometimes just when you think you've got it handled, you realize every month you're sinking deeper and deeper. This is how Juan (Freemont, TX) felt when he finally called Blue Tax to assist him with an existing payment plan to the IRS that was proving to be too high for him. When Juan came to Blue Tax, he had an outstanding balance of $3,197 owed to the IRS for his 2007 tax returns. Juan still needed to file his 2008 and 2009 returns, having neglected to do so after being overwhelmed with the debt he still owed. For this 2007 debt, he was on a payment plan of $500 a ...

The part of bacterial DNA that often carries antibiotic resistance is a master at moving between different types of bacteria and adapting to widely differing bacterial species, shows a study made by a research team at the University of Gothenburg in cooperation with Chalmers University of Technology. The results are published in an article in the scientific journal Nature Communications. More and more bacteria are becoming resistant to our common antibiotics, and to make matters worse, more and more are becoming resistant to all known antibiotics. The problem is known ...

Archive Systems, Inc., a leading provider of records and document management services, today announced ASPEN Virtual File Room, Release 9.9 and ASPEN Virtual Records Center, Release 6.1 during the company's first annual User Conference in Orlando, Florida. The releases incorporate new features and functionality that dramatically enhance the business intelligence capabilities that records managers have available at their fingertips. ASPEN Virtual File Room, Release 9.9, an on-demand document management solution, significantly improves business processes by allowing documents ...

BOSTON (April 11) --A study from Tufts Medical Center researchers published today finds that a novel drug shows promise for treating leukemia patients who have few other options because their disease has developed resistance to standard treatment. Appearing in the journal Cancer Cell, the study is the first published report showing that the drug, DCC-2036, fights chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in a mouse model of the disease and is effective against human leukemia cells. "These findings demonstrate that DCC-2036 is an excellent candidate for clinical development as a ...