Curated News: Grant Funded News

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To "turn off" particular regions of genes or protect them from damage, DNA strands can wrap around small proteins, called histones, keeping out all but the most specialized molecular machinery. Now, new research shows how an enzyme called KDM4B "reads" one and "erases" another so-called epigenetic mark on a single histone protein during the generation of sex cells in mice. The researchers say the finding may one day shed light on some cases of infertility and cancer.

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Low social status alone can alter immune regulation, even in the absence of variation in access to resources, health care, and at-risk behaviours for health. This is the conclusion of a new Canadian-American study published in Science.

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A new study led by researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear found that vestibular thresholds begin to double every 10 years above the age of 40, representing a decline in our ability to receive sensory information about motion, balance and spatial orientation. The report was published online ahead of print in Frontiers in Neurology.

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When traditional sequencing yielded no genetic drivers, pediatric cancer researchers identified changes at the epigenetic level that suggest a critical marker for predicting prognosis.

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Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have conducted the first study of its kind, using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to look at brain regions in both adults and children who stutter.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a vaccine that blocks the pain-numbing effects of the opioid drugs oxycodone (oxy) and hydrocodone (hydro) in animal models.

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Although both group and individual therapy can ease post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in active-duty military service members, individual therapy relieved PTSD symptoms better and quicker, according to a study led by a Duke University School of Medicine researcher. The randomized clinical trial is the largest to date to examine an evidence-based treatment for active-duty military service members, with 268 participants from the U.S. Army’s Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. Findings will be published Nov. 23 in JAMA Psychiatry.

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Beneficiaries of Medicare who develop cancer and don’t have supplemental health insurance incur out-of-pocket expenditures for their treatments averaging one-quarter of their income with some paying as high as 63 percent, according to results of a survey-based study published Nov. 23 in JAMA Oncology.

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A multi-institutional group of researchers, led by investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Michigan, have identified a simple and inexpensive tool for assessing the prognosis of pediatric brain tumors called ependymomas.

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Conventional, high-dose chemotherapy treatments can cause the fibroblast cells surrounding tumors to secrete proteins that promote the tumors’ recurrence in more aggressive forms, researchers have discovered. Frequent, low-dose chemotherapy regimens avoid this effect and may therefore be more effective at treating certain types of breast and pancreatic cancer, according to the murine study “Metronomic chemotherapy prevents therapy-induced stromal activation and induction of tumor-initiating cells,” which will be published online November 23 in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

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Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis isolated an enzyme that controls the levels of two plant hormones simultaneously, linking the molecular pathways for growth and defense. Similar to animals, plants have evolved small molecules called hormones to control key events such as growth, reproduction and responses to infections.

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University of Washington engineers have developed the first transgenic grass species that can take up and destroy RDX -- a toxic compound that has been widely used in explosives since World War II and contaminates military bases across the U.S. and some offsite drinking water wells.

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A breathing-based meditation practice known as Sudarshan Kriya yoga helped alleviate severe depression in people who did not fully respond to antidepressant treatments, reports a new study published today in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Florida Atlantic University and Bowling Green State University may have finally found a reason for the 'food coma' phenomenon.

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Bernice Morrow, Ph.D., at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and collaborators at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) a five-year, $7.5 million grant to study the genetics of congenital heart abnormalities.

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A team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Georgia has developed a new mouse model that closely mimics fetal brain abnormalities caused by the Zika virus in humans.

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Hypertension and prehypertension in children often go undiagnosed, according to a new study published today in Pediatrics. The study focused on children with abnormal blood pressures across the United States, and is the first to show a widespread underdiagnosis of these conditions by pediatricians in children ages 3 to 18.

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A new study found that decreased levels of the gene p15 represents a way to determine if a nevus, or mole, is transitioning to a melanoma. The protein p15 functions to inhibit nevus cell proliferation.

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If you could watch a molecule of medicine attaching to a cell receptor in extreme slow motion, they would look something like a space ship docking with a space station -- some twists, turns, sputters then locking together tight. With a new improvement to atomic force microscopy by Georgia Tech engineers, seeing this kind of detail is more likely to become possible.

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A Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher has found that addiction treatment results improved when teens in a residential program stopped smoking.

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Water and atmospheric processes are inseparable. Now, there is a supercomputer model that couples climate and hydrodynamic factors for the Great Lakes region. The new model will be useful for climate predictions, habitat modeling for invasive species, oil spill mitigation and other environmental research.

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In a hopeful sign for the health of the nation’s brains, the percentage of American seniors with dementia is dropping, a new study finds. The downward trend has emerged despite something else the study shows: a rising tide of three factors that are thought to raise dementia risk by interfering with brain blood flow, namely diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

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The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was one of only 14 national institutions awarded a Spinal Cord Injury Model System (SCIMS) grant valued at $2,280,000 over five years from the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).

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Supporting the intersection of children’s health and the outdoors, the REI Foundation is awarding a $200,000 grant to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland’s Center for Nature and Health (CNH). CNH develops clinical programs, conducts original research, and seeks to address health inequities by promoting access to nature as part patients’ care and overall well-being.

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Older recipients of long-term services and support who live with a combination of cardiac and pulmonary conditions have elevated risk for hospitalizations; new care management strategies are needed to prevent costly, debilitating hospitalizations

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Carrying extra weight increases a person's risk that a benign blood disorder will develop into multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. This is particularly true for older, African-American men.

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A new study revealed a surprising relationship between two molecules – one that works to store fat and another that promotes fat burning for energy. The team found that the molecules complement each other to maintain a healthy level of fat in the liver.

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On Earth, massive chasm would reach between Detroit, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

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The ASN Foundation for Kidney Research (ASN Foundation) is proud to announce the public launch of its Securing the Future Campaign during ASN Kidney Week 2016. This campaign coincides with the 50th anniversary of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and the 20th anniversary of the Career Development Grants Program.

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The average age of a woman giving birth for the first time has risen dramatically in the United States over the past 40 years, driven by factors like education or career. A new study by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that women choosing to become first-time mothers later in life may increase their chances of living into their 90s.

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When HIV attacks a T cell, it attaches itself to the cell’s surface and launches a “harpoon” to create an opening to enter and infect the cells. To stop the invasion, researchers from the Penn Center for AIDS Research at the University of Pennsylvania and scientists from Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. have developed genetically engineered T cells armed with a so-called “fusion inhibitor” to disrupt this critical step and prevent a wide range of HIV viruses from entering and infecting the T cells. The findings were reported today online in a preclinical study in PLOS Pathogens.

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Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), in collaboration with Cedars-Sinai, has received a $2.5 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, that will fuel efforts by investigators to uncover the underpinnings of cancer, ultimately helping scientists develop better diagnostic and treatment strategies for a class of diseases that claim more than eight million lives each year worldwide.

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When microbes inside the digestive system don’t get the natural fiber that they rely on for food, they begin to munch on the natural layer of mucus that lines the gut, eroding it to the point where dangerous invading bacteria can infect the colon wall, new research in mice shows.

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As part of a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, Indiana University has received over $670,000 to establish "HomeSHARE," the first networked system of smart homes designed to advance research on older adults.

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In new findings that could have an impact the development of therapies for a number of currently untreatable brain disorders such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found for the first time that a specific signaling circuit in the brain is deeply involved in motor activity.

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A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) describes an unexpected role for proteins involved with our daily “circadian” clocks in influencing cancer growth.

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Living cells respond to biochemical signals by moving toward those at higher concentration, a process carefully mapped out by biologists over the past several decades. But cells also move in response to mechanical forces, such as bumping up against other objects -- although the details of that action have been poorly understood.

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Wayne State University’s Math Corps recently received a nearly $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and study the replication of its award-winning mathematics enrichment and mentoring program, which operates during summers and on Saturdays.

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An experimental cancer imaging tool that makes tumors glow brightly during surgery has shown promise again in a new Penn Medicine clinical study, this time in patients with brain cancer. The fluorescent dye technique, originally developed by surgeons at the Penn Center for Precision Surgery to treat lung cancer, illuminated brain tumors in real-time during surgery, helping physicians distinguish between healthy and cancerous tissue

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A new animal model developed at Penn Medicine using tau tangles isolated from the brains of Alzheimer’s patients rather than synthetic tau tangles paints a closer picture of the tau pathology in the AD brain

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In October, we mourned those who died of breast cancer and celebrated all of the women (and men) who have survived. What many of those survivors worry about, though, is that their breast cancer may come back. It has puzzled scientists and health care providers that cancer can suddenly reappear, often with a vengeance, months or years after treatment is over.

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Bacteria in your intestines may play an important role in determining if you will develop blinding wet Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD).

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In 1952 a killer fog covered London for five days, causing breathing problems and killing thousands of residents. The exact cause and nature of the fog has remained mostly unknown for decades, but an international team of scientists believes that the mystery has been solved.

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Biologists demonstrate the workings of a biochemical pathway that helps control glucose in the bloodstream, a development that could potentially lead to treatments for diabetes.

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An Indiana University physicist and neuroscientist who studies how physical movement can be used to detect autism in children and adults has received support from the National Science Foundation. The $750,000 NSF grant to IU scientist Jorge V. José and collaborators will be used to apply analytical methods pioneered at IU and Rutgers University toward diagnosing, and possibly treating, a wider range of learning disabilities.

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A study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), in collaboration with scientists at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and Gilead Sciences, Inc., has demonstrated that combining an experimental vaccine with an innate immune stimulant may help lead to viral remission in people living with HIV. In animal trials, the combination decreased levels of viral DNA in peripheral blood and lymph nodes, and improved viral suppression and delayed viral rebound following discontinuation of anti-retroviral therapy (ART). The research team’s findings appeared online today in the journal Nature.

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New research from the University of Chicago Medicine shows a program that uses electronic medical records to connect Chicagoans with health resources in their community could be a model for other efforts nationally.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins report they have laid the foundation to develop novel antibiotics that work against incurable, antibiotic-resistant bacteria like tuberculosis by targeting an enzyme essential to the production and integrity of bacterial cell walls.

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Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have now for the first time identified a sub-region in the brain that works to form a particular kind of memory: fear-associated with a specific environmental cue or “contextual fear memory.”

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EL PASO, Texas — Co-principal investigators Richard McCallum, M.D., and Irene Sarosiek, M.D., have received a five-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The funds will support basic research and clinical trials on patients living with a digestive disorder named gastroparesis.