In a turnabout from the past, courts are enforcing the First Amendment to the detriment of the health of American citizens, says an IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law professor.
By using gelatin-based microparticles to deliver growth factors, researchers are creating three-dimensional structures from stem cells and reducing the use of growth factors needed to promote differentiation.
A comprehensive infection control program combined with an active surveillance process significantly reduced the incidence of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections in a long-term acute care hospital, according to a study published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality.
When hospital senior management supports the creation and maintenance of a strong safety culture, patient outcomes improve, staff productivity increases, and there is less clinical employee turnover, according to research reported in the Journal for Healthcare Quality.
Genetic mutations aren’t the only thing that can keep a protein called PTEN from doing its tumor-suppressing job. Researchers have now discovered that four small chemical tags attached (reversibly) to the protein’s tail can have the same effect, and they say their finding may offer a novel path for drug design to keep PTEN working.
By studying rapidly evolving bacteria as they diversify and compete under varying environmental conditions, researchers have shown that temporal niches are important to maintaining biodiversity in natural systems.
U.S. intelligence agents – like the embattled Edward Snowden – are more prone to irrational inconsistencies in decision making when compared to college students and post-college adults. That’s according a new Cornell University study to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science.
A survey of men age 40 to 74 found that 54 percent said that they would still opt for a popular prostate cancer screening test despite recent recommendations that the test not be performed, finds a new study in American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Increased concerns about the perceived risk of vaccination, inconvenience, or religious tenets are leading more U.S. parents to opt-out of vaccinating their children. Parents are increasingly able to do so in states that have relatively simple procedures for immunization exemption, report researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center in the July issue of Health Affairs. Some states, fearing a public health crisis, have responded by putting in place more burdensome procedures for parents of school-aged children to opt-out.
Patients with low socioeconomic status use emergency and hospital care more often than primary care because they believe hospital care is more affordable and convenient, and of better quality than care provided by primary care physicians, according to the results of a new study from researchers at Penn Medicine. The results of the study, appearing in the July issue of Health Affairs, have significant implications for policy initiatives such as the Affordable Care Act that seek to lower health care costs by reducing avoidable hospitalizations, readmissions, and emergency department visits.
Existing Medicaid beneficiaries have largely been left out of the health reform movement when it comes to preventive services that can ward off cancer, heart disease and other potentially deadly diseases, according to a new study by researchers at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS).
Using tiny gold particles and the kind of plastic found in soda bottles, scientists have created a sensor that could be integrated into artificial skin that can sense humidity, temperature and touch. Scientists hope some day to attach the e-skin to prostheses.
Researchers have found a unique type of methylation, previously found in humans only in embryonic stem cells, before the new survey of neurons. Now, Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists and their collaborators have found that they appear in brain cells during the first years of life, when key learning processes are being established.
Methylation is the addition of methyl chemical groups to nucleotide bases in a strand of DNA. The marks influence which genes are expressed or at what levels they’re expressed.
New evidence by a University of North Carolina-led team shows that MerTK macrophage action in the microenvironment that surrounds cancer cells blunts the immune response, allowing the tumor cell to grow and metastasize.
New research from the University of Adelaide shows for the first time that immune cells known as macrophages are critical to fertility by creating a healthy hormone environment in the uterus.
It’s a jungle down there at batteries’ atomic level, with ions whacking into electrodes and eventually causing failure. Now, a Michigan Technological University scientist has developed a device that lets researchers spy on the actions of lithium ions inside a nanobattery—and use that data to develop better, longer-lasting batteries to power everything from electric cars to cell phones.
A female’s exposure to distress even before she conceives causes changes in the expression of a gene linked to the stress mechanism in the body — in the ovum and later in the brains of the offspring from when they are born, according to a new study on rats conducted by the University of Haifa.
Orthopedic oncologists and surgical oncologists, who have been trained in the complex procedures required to remove sarcomas located deep in the muscles and other soft tissues of the limbs, conducted only 52 percent of these operations at 85 academic medical centers during a three year period, according to an analysis of national data by UC Davis researchers that is published online today in the Journal of Surgical Oncology.
A new study led by Florida State University researcher Stephanie Pau shows that tropical forests are producing more flowers in response to only slight increases in temperature.
You are what you eat – and so are your offspring. And in the title bout featuring protein versus sugar, protein is the winner. That’s what a researcher at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) found while studying the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) as part of a multi-institutional team.
The Facilitates Chromatin Transcription (FACT) complex is expressed at higher levels in tumor cell lines and may be a marker for aggressive cancer, Roswell Park Cancer Institute-led studies show
They’re young. They’ve been injured in an assault – so badly they went to the ER. And nearly 1 in 4 of them has a gun, probably an illegal one. A new study gives data that could be important to breaking the cycle of gun violence that kills more teens and young adults than anything but auto accidents.
In a New England Journal of Medicine “Perspective” article, Saurabh Jha, MB, BS, of the department of Radiology at in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses an important role for radiologists as changes in the US health care system come about: gatekeepers of medical imaging.
According to a study supervised by Ithaca College’s Exercise and Sport Sciences Chair Thomas Swensen, betaine—a nutrient found in shellfish and beets—boosts athletic performance by nearly six percent when added to a sports drink.
With fewer than a dozen flowering plants out of 300,000 species accounting for 80 percent of humanity’s caloric intake, people need to tap unused plants to feed the world in the near future, claims Cornell University plant geneticist Susan McCouch in the Comment feature of the July 4 issue of Nature.
A mere 25 years ago, noncoding RNAs were considered nothing more than "background noise." Now two new studies by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center reveals that miR-22 plays an outsized role in cancer.
Lake Vostok, buried under a glacier in Antarctica, is so dark, deep and cold that scientists had considered it a possible model for other planets, a place where nothing could live.
However, work by Dr. Scott Rogers, a Bowling Green State University professor of biological sciences, and his colleagues has revealed a surprising variety of life forms living and reproducing in this most extreme of environments.
The modern custom of laying flowers in graves or using them for funerals dates back to as early as 13,700 years ago, to our Natufian ancestors living in Mt. Carmel. “Even back then, the Natufians had burial rituals much similar to ours, nowadays”, said Prof. Dani Nadel, from the University of Haifa, who led the excavations.
UCLA researchers have found a possible biological explanation for narcolepsy. In addition, they have shown for the first time that the numbers of new neurons in the brain can increase greatly and not just serve as replacement cells. This may underlie recovery and learning and open new routes to treatment of a number of neurological disorders.
The influenza virus’ ability to mutate quickly has produced new, emerging strains that make drug discovery more critical than ever. For the first time, researchers have mapped how critical molecules regulate both the induction and resolution of inflammation during flu infection. The results are published this month in the journal Cell.
For patients facing treatment for cancer, it is essential to understand how their symptoms will be affected. Symptoms like pain, fatigue, or nausea can result from the cancer, or from treatment side effects. The best way to collect this information is from patients themselves in research studies. But almost no drug labels in the U.S. include this information. As a result, incomplete information is available to patients and clinicians to help with treatment decisions.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital study challenges prior understanding of the process regulating specialized T cells that are essential for a balanced immune system
New research suggests that reading books, writing and participating in brain-stimulating activities at any age may preserve memory. The study is published in the July 3, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Aspirin has been widely used for more than 50 years as a common, inexpensive blood thinner for patients with heart disease and stroke, but doctors have little understanding of how it works and why some people benefit and others don’t.
A research team has genetically engineered a mouse with glowing primary cilia, the tiny outgrowths seen on the surface of most cells, according to a study published today in BioMed Central’s open access journal, Cilia.
Johns Hopkins cancer scientists have discovered that a little-described gene known as FAM190A plays a subtle but critical role in regulating the normal cell division process known as mitosis, and the scientists’ research suggests that mutations in the gene may contribute to commonly found chromosomal instability in cancer.
Physicians at Johns Hopkins say they are encouraged by early results in three patients of their new treatment for gastroparesis, a condition marked by the failure of the stomach to properly empty its contents into the small intestine. In an article published online today in the journal Endoscopy, they describe how the placement of a small metal stent in the stomach can improve life for people who suffer from severe bouts of nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting that accompany the condition.
Researchers have taken the first steps toward a complete representation of the regulatory network for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This map will yield unique insights into how the bacteria survive in the host.
Whitehead Institute researchers have determined that the transcription factor Nanog, which plays a critical role in maintaining the self-renewal of embryonic stem cells, is expressed in a manner similar to other pluripotency markers. This finding contradicts the field’s presumptions about this important gene and its role in the differentiation of embryonic stem cells.
Whitehead Institute researchers have determined that in basal breast cancer cells a transcription factor known as ZEB1 is held in a poised state, ready to increase the cells’ aggressiveness and enable them to transform into cancer stem cells capable of seeding new tumors throughout the body. Intriguingly, luminal breast cancer cells, which are associated with a much better clinical prognosis, carry this gene in a state in which it seems to be permanently shut down.
University of Chicago researchers have discovered the first human "bifunctional" gene--a single gene that creates a single mRNA transcript that codes for two different proteins, simultaneously. Their finding elucidates a previously unknown mechanism in our basic biology, and has potential to guide therapy for at least one neurological disease.
Researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown one disease protein can morph into different strains and promote misfolding of other disease proteins commonly found in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other related neurodegenerative diseases.
Smokers and single men are more likely to acquire cancer-causing oral human papillomavirus (HPV), according to new results from the HPV Infection in Men (HIM) Study. Researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center, the National Cancer Institute, Mexico and Brazil also report that newly acquired oral HPV infections in healthy men are rare and when present, usually resolve within one year.