Typical combinations of anti-HIV medications do not appear to cause language delays in children who where exposed to HIV in the womb and whose mothers took the antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy.
Black patients preoccupied with racial concerns have higher blood pressure than those who aren’t, according to results of new Johns Hopkins-led research. The findings suggest that heightened race consciousness could at least in part account for the disproportionately high rate of hypertension in black Americans — the highest prevalence of any group in the United States and one of the highest rates in the world.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have uncovered a protein switch that can either increase or decrease memory-building activity in brain cells, depending on the signals it detects. Its dual role means the protein is key to understanding the complex network of signals that shapes our brain’s circuitry, the researchers say.
A gene variant strongly associated with development of type 2 diabetes appears to interact with a Mediterranean diet pattern to prevent stroke, report researchers from Tufts University and from Spain. The results are a significant advance for nutrigenomics, the study of the linkages between nutrition and gene function.
Pregnant women whose labors are induced or augmented may have an increased risk of bearing children with autism, especially if the baby is male, according to a large, retrospective analysis by researchers at Duke Medicine and the University of Michigan.
A recently published CU Cancer Center study shows that beyond the fact of fertility, a young woman's perception of fertility based on regular menstrual cycles after cancer treatment affects her quality of life long after treatment ends.
The New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research (NJCCR) has awarded Janice Thomas, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow in the X.F. Steven Zheng laboratory at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey a two-year $100,000 grant (#DFHS13PPCO32) to further examine the impact of a protein ‘trigger’ involved in the regulation of cell function in breast cancer.
Researchers have identified two new genes and implicated 25 distinct mutations in serious forms of epilepsy, suggesting a new direction for developing tailored treatments of the neurological disorders.
The findings by an international research collaboration, which includes investigators from Duke Medicine, appear Aug. 11 in the journal Nature.
Georgia Tech researchers want to put your signature up in lights. Using thousands of nanometer-scale wires, the researchers have developed a sensor device that converts mechanical pressure – from a signature or a fingerprint – directly into light signals that can be captured and processed optically.
A unique nanoscale drug that can carry a variety of weapons and sneak into cancer cells to break them down from the inside has a new component: a protein that stimulates the immune system to attack HER2-positive breast cancer cells.
Professor Paul Robbins, of The Scripps Research Institute, will be principal investigator of the new five-year study, which will focus on identifying just how damage that accumulates over time drives the human aging process. Scientists from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California, Riverside, will also participate in the study.
“The Collaborative, Continuous Care (3C’s) Model” project reflects a practice/education partnership between the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, the NYU College of Nursing, the NYU Silver School of Social Work, the Touro College of Pharmacy, and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York.
This innovative initiative will foster communication and collaboration between physicians and nurse practitioners with a focus on transitional care handoffs of patients with multiple chronic conditions.
Scientists at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have identified a key factor that regulates the autophagy process, a kind of cleansing mechanism for cells in which waste material and cellular debris is gobbled up to protect cells from damage, and in turn, modulates aging.
A new study by thoracic surgeons and pathologists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center shows that a specific pattern found in the tumor pathology of some lung cancer patients is a strong predictor of recurrence. Knowing that this feature exists in a tumor's pathology could be an important factor doctors use to guide cancer treatment decisions.
Full activation of a protein ensemble essential for communication between nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord requires the rocking motion of some of the ensemble’s segments. The ensemble is known to be defective in neurological disorders like epilepsy and Parkinson's so this insight has important implications.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine are enrolling patients with type 2 diabetes into an NIH-funded clinical trial to evaluate the long-term benefits and risks of four widely used diabetes drugs in combination with metformin, the most common first-line medication.
A study of nearly 6,000 North Texas patients suggests sweeping changes be made to the standard of care strategy for colorectal screenings, finding that participation rates soared depending on the screening method offered and how patient outreach was done.
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have identified a characteristic unique to cancer cells in an animal model of cancer -- and they believe it could be exploited as a target to develop new treatment strategies.
Using advanced analysis of DNA from Y chromosomes from men all over the world, scientists have shed new light on the mystery of when and how a few early human ancestors started to give rise to the incredible diversity of today’s population.
A team of researchers says it has solved the longstanding puzzle of why a key protein linked to learning is also needed to become addicted to cocaine. Results of the study, published in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Cell, describe how the learning-related protein works with other proteins to forge new pathways in the brain in response to a drug-induced rush of the “pleasure” molecule dopamine. By adding important detail to the process of addiction, the researchers, led by a group at Johns Hopkins, say the work may point the way to new treatments.
Researchers administered a new method for treating chronic wounds using a novel ultrasound applicator that can be worn like a band-aid. The applicator delivers low-frequency, low-intensity ultrasound directly to wounds, and was found to significantly accelerate healing in five patients with venous ulcers.
In a study in mice, researchers at Duke Medicine identified a protein that is critical to temporomandibular joint disorder pain, and could be a promising target for developing treatments for the disorder.
Transplant teams have long tried to match the size of donor lungs to the size of the recipient as closely as possible, concerned that lungs of the wrong size could lead to poor lung function and poor outcomes. But new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests that oversized donor lungs may instead be the best option for patients, finding they are associated with a 30 percent increased chance of survival one year after the operation.
Could a substance that resembles baby powder curb global carbon emissions?
Wake Forest University researchers believe so, and a new Department of Energy (DOE) grant worth more than $1 million will enable them and collaborators at the University of Texas at Dallas to design a novel material that could help revolutionize green engineering.
Patient care could be enhanced and the health care system could see significant cost savings if health care professionals followed published clinical guidelines to manage and treat back pain, according to researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and published in the July 29 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.
A University of Utah biologist has identified 33 new species of predatory ants in Central America and the Caribbean, and named about a third of the tiny but monstrous-looking insects after ancient Mayan lords and demons.
A “test run” of radiation therapy in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma can show how much radiation is likely to be absorbed by a tumor during actual treatment. This information may help doctors to estimate the dose needed for effective treatment more precisely than currently used measures, such as a person’s height and weight.
A new stem cell-based approach to studying epilepsy has yielded a surprising discovery about what causes one form of the disease, and may help in the search for better medicines to treat all kinds of seizure disorders.
Pediatric cancer patients whose central lines are used to treat them at home develop three times as many dangerous bloodstream infections from their devices than their hospitalized counterparts, according to the results of a new Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study.
A rapid and highly efficient system for transferring large molecules, nanoparticles, and other agents into living cells opens new avenues for disease research and treatment.
There's no vaccine to prevent norovirus, or drugs to treat the pesky virus that sickens millions each year and is known to complicate cruise ship vacations. But a first ever small animal model developed at the University of Michigan Medical School provides a new tool for future drug studies.
Painstaking new analysis of the genetic sequence of the X chromosome—long perceived as the “female” counterpart to the male-associated Y chromosome—reveals that large portions of the X have evolved to play a specialized role in sperm production.
Duke Medicine researchers have identified biochemical changes in people taking antidepressants – but only in those whose depression improves. These changes occur in a neurotransmitter pathway that is connected to the pineal gland, the part of the endocrine system that controls the sleep cycle, suggesting an added link between sleep, depression and treatment outcomes.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have coaxed stem cells into forming networks of new blood vessels in the laboratory, then successfully transplanted them into mice. The stem cells are made by reprogramming ordinary cells, so the new technique could potentially be used to make blood vessels genetically matched to individual patients and unlikely to be rejected by their immune systems, the investigators say.
A drug already approved to treat multiple sclerosis may also hold promise for treating cardiac hypertrophy, or thickening of the cardiac muscle--a disorder that often leads to heart failure, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine report.
NIDA has agreed to award $2.1 million to Lidong Qin, Ph.D., and Ping Wang, Ph.D., of the Houston Methodist Research Institute to develop a pocket-sized drug test for use in health care settings.
People with pre-diabetes who lose roughly 10 percent of their body weight within six months of diagnosis dramatically reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the next three years, according to results of research led by Johns Hopkins scientists.
A set of proteins involved in the body’s natural defenses produces a large number of mutations in human DNA, according to a study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The findings suggest that these naturally produced mutations are just as powerful as known cancer-causing agents in producing tumors.
Scientists have captured new details of the biochemical interactions necessary for cell division. The research may suggest ways for stopping cell division when it goes awry.
A Johns Hopkins study finds that healthy people who carry a genetic mutation for arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) are at much higher risk of developing the symptoms of the life-threatening heart disease if they participate in endurance sports and frequent exercise. The study also suggests that those carriers who significantly cut back on their exercise regimen may reduce their risk or delay the onset of symptoms.
Using the same type of mathematical formulas used to draw political redistricting maps, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have developed a model that would allow for the more equitable allocation of livers from deceased donors for transplantation.
David J. Foran, PhD, chief informatics officer at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, has been awarded a $2 million competitive renewal grant from the National Institutes of Health to expand work on developing computational tools for classifying different types of cancers.
The primary focus is to design, develop and implement state-of-the-art imaging and computational tools for characterizing cancers of the breast, head and neck, ovaries, prostate and skin.
In a study recently published online in The Journal of the American Medical Association Dermatology, Marianne Berwick, PhD, and her international team of melanoma researchers confirmed that the chances of dying from skin cancer depend strongly upon how thick the primary tumor is. But — unexpectedly — the team also found that those having more than one primary tumor have better survival odds.
A nearly $600,000 NIH grant will fund the acquisition of a high-resolution 3D X-ray microscope at Creighton University. This will be one of the first laboratories in the country to focus this state-of-the-art technology on health sciences research.
Stroke is the country’s leading cause of disability, leaving millions with residual arm and leg weakness. However, efforts have usually focused on stroke prevention and acute care. Now, two new studies suggest that stroke survivors left weakened or partially paralyzed may be able to regain more arm and hand movement even years after a stroke - information that clinicians may not know or pass on to their patients.
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.