Curated News: Grant Funded News

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Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah has been awarded a $2.4 million, two-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to help continue its research in breast cancer researchers will use this new funding to serve as a Breast Cancer Patient-derived xenograft Development and Trials Center to research and test new drugs for breast cancer. This new Center is only one of four such Centers in the nation.

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In a sneak attack, some pathogenic microbes manipulate plant hormones to gain access to their hosts undetected. Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have exposed one such interloper by characterizing the unique biochemical pathway it uses to synthesize auxin, a central hormone in plant development.In a paper published in the Jan.

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It is a parent’s nightmare: a child is born apparently healthy, then stops meeting developmental milestones at one year old. Her verbal and motor skills vanish, and irregular breathing, seizures, and a host of other problems appear. The cause is Rett syndrome—a devastating genetic, neurologic disorder that typically affects girls, resulting in severe disability and often accompanied by autistic behavior. Most Rett patients will live into middle age and require specialized full-time care. There is no cure, but researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have been working to find ways to restore brain function and reverse disabilities associated with Rett syndrome.

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Iconic singer, songwriter, humanitarian, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and four-time GRAMMY Award winner Steven Tyler and Live Nation celebrated the inaugural Janie’s Fund Gala with an exclusive live viewing of the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast, elegant dinner, and unforgettable night of performances at the historic RED Studios Hollywood.

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The International Society of Neurogastronomy symposium will focus on what we eat and why we eat it, with applications in nutrition science, agriculture and medicine.

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Ultrasound is traditionally used on pregnant women to study the anatomy, movement and blood flow of the developing fetus, but University of Illinois at Chicago nurse researchers are using the imaging technique to identify women who are at risk of giving birth prematurely.

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– Injuries are a major public health problem in the United States, accounting for nearly 60 percent of all deaths among Americans between the ages of 1 and 44 years. Survivors of traumatic injuries often face significant physical and mental health challenges, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Scientists looking for jobs after completing their training may soon have a new tool that helps them evaluate various career paths. The new tool uses a method that was developed by scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH. The method differs from others in that it separates employment trends in biomedical science by sector, type, and job specifics. The creators hope this novel approach will be useful throughout NIH, as well as for academic and research institutions around the world.

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New research from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) reveals a novel gene regulatory system that may advance stem cell therapies and gene-targeting treatments for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and mental health disorders that affect cognitive abilities.

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People with the rare genetic disease primary ciliary dyskinesia suffer repeated lung infections because they lack functional cilia, hairlike structures that sweep mucus through the airways.  Most people have errors in the molecular motor that powers the cilia. But some have errors in non-motor proteins. Now, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis researchers report that mutated non-motor proteins cause disease by assembling the motor incorrectly. The findings suggest new routes to drug discovery.

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Different kinds of aerosols released into the atmosphere can affect cloud formations and influence weather patterns, according to a team of researchers that includes a Texas A&M University atmospheric scientist.

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UVA has discovered an unknown biological process that controls the production of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the body. The discovery could help doctors develop new treatments for anemia, which affects millions.

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The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded Brian Schmidt, DDS, MD, PhD, of the Bluestone Center for Clinical Research at New York University College of Dentistry (NYU Dentistry) and Nigel Bunnett, PhD, of Columbia University's Departments of Surgery and Pharmacology, a $3.7 million, five-year grant to study proteases and neuronal signaling responsible for oral cancer pain.

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A transdisciplinary team examined regulatory impacts on Great Lakes mercury, focusing on an Upper Peninsula tribal community with high fish consumption.

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Despite efforts over the past two decades to increase the number of black and Hispanic patients receiving kidney transplants from related or unrelated living donors, these racial/ethnic minority patients are still much less likely to undergo such transplants than white patients, Johns Hopkins researchers report. In fact, the investigators say, the disparities have worsened in the last 20 years.

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Researchers explain a cell differentiation mechanism in Nature Genetics.

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In animal experiments, a human-derived glioblastoma significantly regressed when treated with the combination of an experimental enzyme inhibitor and the standard glioblastoma chemotherapy drug, temozolomide.

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changes in humidity may determine how the contribution of snowpack to streams, lakes and groundwater changes as the climate warms. Surprisingly, cloudy, gray and humid winter days can actually cause the snowpack to warm faster, increasing the likelihood of melt during winter months when the snowpack should be growing, the authors report. In contrast, under clear skies and low humidity the snow can become colder than the air, preserving the snowpack until spring.

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Scientists often struggle to predict how these cells will act in different environments in the body.

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Computer-based analyses of speech transcripts obtained from interviews with at-risk youths were able to predict which youths would later develop psychosis within two years, with an accuracy of up to 83 percent. In two independent cohorts of young people at risk for psychosis, a disturbance in the flow of meaning when speaking, otherwise known as being tangential or going off track, predicted who would later develop psychosis.

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Conducting HIV testing among the social and risk networks of those recently diagnosed with HIV helps identify undiagnosed cases of HIV at significantly higher rates and at a lower cost than other testing approaches, finds a new study conducted in Ukraine by an international research team.

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In an assessment of their “depression literacy” program, which has already been taught to tens of thousands, Johns Hopkins researchers say the Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP) achieved its intended effect of encouraging many teenagers to speak up and seek adult help for themselves or a peer.

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Using an approach that combines ultrasound imaging and genetic engineering of bacterial microbes, a team from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), with funding from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), has created a powerful new system to track bacteria dispatched to deliver therapies deep inside the body.

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Researchers have created the first network map for 200 of the membrane proteins that help plants sense microbes or other stresses. The map shows how a few key proteins act as master nodes critical for network integrity, and the map also reveals unknown interactions.

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La Jolla Institute scientists provide new insights into how so-called CD4 cytotoxic T cells arise in humans and thus could facilitate improved vaccine design.

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The International Society of Neurogastronomy Symposium features leaders in the worlds of nutrition, neuroscience and culinary arts to explore the connection between brain and behavior in the context of food.

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A new smartphone app called WoundCare is successfully enabling patients to remotely send images of their surgical wounds for monitoring by nurses.

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UCLA team shows in the laboratory that an inhibitor can be developed to break down the herpes virus.

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Northwestern University researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind technique for creating entirely new classes of optical materials and devices that could lead to light bending and cloaking devices — news to make the ears of Star Trek’s Spock perk up.

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Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers developed a single blood test that screens for eight common cancer types and helps identify the location of the cancer.

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Data collected during a long-term health study provides additional evidence for a link between increased risk of cancer in individuals with advanced gum disease, according to a new collaborative study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Tufts University School of Medicine and Cancer Center.

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Gender-based differences may influence several ocular conditions, suggesting that fluctuations in sex steroid homeostasis may have direct effects on eye physiology and the pathogenesis of conditions like Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD).

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A new study led by researchers at Indiana University and Rutgers University provides the strongest evidence yet that nearly imperceptible changes in how people move can be used to diagnose neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism.

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La Jolla Institute scientists demonstrate that LIGHT, a member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) super family, directly controls the hyperproliferation of keratinocytes as well as the expression of periostin, a protein that contributes to the clinical features of atopic dermatitis as well as other inflammatory skin diseases such as scleroderma.

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Maltreatment experienced before age 5 can have negative effects that continue to be seen nearly three decades later, according to a new study led by Lee Raby, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah.

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New research finds that PDL-1 expressed in antigen presenting cells – macrophages and dendritic cells found in the tumor microenvironment and in the nearby lymph nodes -- is a better indicator than PDL-1 in the tumor of who will respond to immunotherapy drugs.

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A three-year, $675,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to understand cell-size control in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

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People who survive brain infection with West Nile virus can have neurological problems long after the virus is gone. A new study in mice suggests that such ongoing problems may be due to unresolved inflammation that hinders the brain's ability to repair damaged neurons and grow new ones. Reducing inflammation with an arthritis drug protected mice from West Nile-induced memory loss.

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A research team at the Duke Cancer Institute has found a new way to keep the immune system engaged, and is planning to test the approach in a phase 1 clinical trial.

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A new study adds to accumulating research that gum disease is associated with some cancer risk, reporting a 24 percent increase in the risk of cancer among participants with severe periodontitis. The highest risk was observed in cases of lung cancer, followed by colorectal cancer.

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Sutures and staples can be inadequate in complex surgeries and cannot make an air-tight or liquid-tight seal on a lung or artery wound or incision. Now researchers have created a surgical glue that sets to form an elastic air-tight or liquid-tight seal in just one minute. Successfully tested in animals, the sealant has enormous promise for life-saving use in humans.

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Experiments with a small group of overweight men and women have added to evidence that “hunger hormone” levels rise and “satiety (or fullness) hormone” levels decrease in the evening. The findings also suggest that stress may increase hunger hormone levels more in the evening, and the impact of hormones on appetite may be greater for people prone to binge eating.

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A new study that seeks to ascertain HIV mortality rates in Zambia could provide a model for improved national and regional surveillance approaches and, ultimately, more effective HIV treatment strategies.

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Researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have identified a new therapeutic target for the treatment of melanoma. For decades, research has associated female sex and a history of previous pregnancy with better outcomes after a melanoma diagnosis. Now, a research team from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania says it may have determined the reason for the melanoma-protective effect.

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A team of researchers has developed an ultrasound-based system that can non-invasively and remotely control genetic processes in live immune T cells so that they recognize and kill cancer cells.

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Prostate tumors tend to be what scientists call “indolent” – so slow-growing and self-contained that many affected men die with prostate cancer, not of it. But for the percentage of men whose prostate tumors metastasize, the disease is invariably fatal. In a set of papers out today in the journals Nature Genetics and Nature Communications, researchers at the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) shed new light on the genetic mechanisms that promote metastasis in the mouse model and also implicated the typical Western high-fat diet as a key environmental factor driving metastasis.

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Scientists at the University of Washington announced that they have built and tested a new biomaterial-based delivery system — known as a hydrogel — that will encase a desired cargo and dissolve to release its freight only when specific physiological conditions are met.

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By analyzing immune cells of children who came to the emergency department with flu symptoms, researchers found that the suite of genes these early-response cells expressed was shaped by factors such as age and previous exposures to viruses. Better understanding how early infections influence long-term immune response has implications for the diagnosis and treatment of young patients who suffer from acute respiratory tract infections.

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New research reports that hyperreactive brain networks could play a part in the hypersensitivity of fibromyalgia.

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The field of immunotherapy – the harnessing of patients’ own immune systems to fend off cancer – is revolutionizing cancer treatment today. However, clinical trials often show marked improvements in only small subsets of patients, suggesting that as-yet unidentified variations among tumors result in distinct paths of disease progression and response to therapy.