Does having a television in the bedroom contribute to youth weight gain? In a recent national study, researchers from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center found that having a bedroom television was a significant predictor of adolescent weight gain
Whitehead Institute scientists have used a yeast cell-based drug screen to identify a class of molecules that target the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide involved in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Using a transgenic mouse model, a Mount Sinai research team found that development of intestinal tumors depends on bacteria in the gut and that eradicating the bacteria with antibiotics also prevented polyp formation. They propose that gut bacteria may cross into the intestine, spurring inflammation and tumor growth.
It is not only genetics that predispose to bowel cancer; microbes living in the gut help drive the development of intestinal tumors, according to new research in mice.
On March 1, the National Science Foundation announced the creation of a new Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics (CDP) co-located at Penn State and North Carolina State University. The new center builds on and expands the research capabilities of the long-running Center for Dielectrics Studies (CDS) based at Penn State.
Johns Hopkins researchers report that people with chronic insomnia show more plasticity and activity than good sleepers in the part of the brain that controls movement.
Combined use of iron oxide nanoparticles and an alternating magnetic field can induce local hyperthermia in tumors in a controlled and uniform manner. Our results Induced anti-tumor immune response that reduced the risk of recurrence and metastasis.
For people whose hands shake uncontrollably due to a medical condition, just eating can be a frustrating and embarrassing ordeal – enough to keep them from sharing a meal with others. But a small new study suggests that a new handheld electronic device can help such patients overcome the hand shakes caused by essential tremor.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have mapped key elements of a severe immune overreaction—a “cytokine storm.” Their findings also clarify the workings of a potent new class of anti-inflammatory compounds that prevent this immune overreaction in animal models.
New research from Memorial Sloan Kettering provides fresh insight into the biologic mechanisms that individual cancer cells use to metastasize to the brain.
Researchers at the University of Iowa have found that we don’t remember what we hear nearly as well as things we see or touch. In experiments, the team found that memory declined much greater with sounds than with sight or touch, and the forgetfulness began as early as four to eight seconds after being exposed to a sound. The finding suggests our brain may process auditory information differently than visual and tactile information. Results appear in the journal PLoS One.
The annual ritual of visiting a doctor’s office or health clinic to receive a flu shot may soon be outdated, thanks to the findings of a new study published in the journal Vaccine.
Using tiny particles designed to target cancer-fighting immune cells, Johns Hopkins researchers have trained the immune systems of mice to fight melanoma, a deadly skin cancer. The experiments represent a significant step toward using nanoparticles and magnetism to treat a variety of conditions, the researchers say.
Researchers show that a novel two-pronged strategy targeting DNA synthesis can treat leukemia in mice while sparing damage to normal blood cells.
A multi-center study led by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that high-dose supplementation with both the trace element selenium and vitamin E increase the risk of high-grade prostate cancer. But importantly, this risk depends upon a man’s selenium status before taking the supplements.
An international team has traced the origin of the second-worst malaria parasite of humans to Africa. The closest genetic relatives of human Plasmodium vivax were found only in Asian macaques, leading researchers to believe that P. vivax originated in Asia. This study overturns that, finding that wild-living apes in central Africa are widely infected with parasites that, genetically, are nearly identical to human P. vivax.
Kids growing up in Appalachia are the nation’s largest consumers of sugary drinks. With deaths in Appalachia related to obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease on the rise, local teens are working with researchers to lead a successful program helping peers quit sugary drinks for good.
Pancreas cancer is notoriously impervious to treatment and resists both chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It has also been thought to provide few targets for immune cells, allowing tumors to grow unchecked. But new research from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center shows that pancreas cancer “veils” itself from the immune system by recruiting specialized immune suppressor cells. The research team also found that removing these cells quickly triggers a spontaneous anti-tumor immune response.
A retrospective analysis of oropharyngeal patients with recurrence of disease after primary therapy in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) studies 0129 or 0522 found that HPV-positive patients had a higher overall survival (OS) rate than HPV-negative patients (at two years post-treatment, 54.6 percent vs. 27.6 percent, respectively), according to research presented today at the 2014 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium.
Although the time and cost of sequencing the human genome has plummeted, analyzing the 3 billion base pairs of genetic information can take months. Researchers working with Beagle—one of the world’s fastest supercomputers devoted to life sciences—report they can analyze 240 full genomes in 50 hours.
The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital-Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has identified the most common genetic alteration ever reported in the brain tumor ependymoma and evidence that the alteration drives tumor development. The research appears February 19 as an advanced online publication in the scientific journal Nature.
(Lebanon, NH 2/18/14) —How would a city, state, or country handle a disaster in which hundreds of thousands of people were exposed to radiation? When the number of people involved exceeds the capacity of nearby hospitals, how would a community know who to treat? In a new scientific review published on February 12, 2014 in Radiation Environmental Biophysics, Dartmouth researchers say that by examining a person’s teeth or fingernails with specialized equipment, it is possible for first responders to estimate radiation exposure and identify those with the highest risk of illness. The review makes the case for field-based equipment that can easily and quickly allow first responders to decide who needs treatment for radiation exposure in a large-scale event such as major nuclear power plant malfunction or terrorism.
The antidepressant drug citalopram, sold under the brand names Celexa and Cipramil and also available as a generic medication, significantly relieved agitation in a group of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. In lower doses than those tested, the drug might be safer than antipsychotic drugs currently used to treat the condition, according to results of a clinical trial led by Johns Hopkins researchers that included seven other academic medical centers in the United States and Canada.
A team of researchers at City of Hope has developed a screening assay that can quickly assess up to 1,536 compounds’ effect on estrogen activity in the body. The test can also evaluate whether chemicals act as inhibitors of aromatase, an enzyme linked to breast cancer that converts androgen to estrogen.
Researchers have developed the technology for a catheter-based device that would provide forward-looking, real-time, three-dimensional imaging from inside the heart, coronary arteries and peripheral blood vessels.
Many mothers with children on life-sustaining medical devices, such as ventilators and breathing or feeding tubes, suffer physical and psychological distress from the stress of juggling treatments, appointments, therapies and daily family pressures. A pilot study tested an intervention to help them cope.
New research finds that a protein that fuels an inflammatory pathway does not turn off in breast cancer, resulting in an increase in cancer stem cells. This provides a potential target for treating triple negative breast cancer, the most aggressive form of the disease.
One factor that makes glioblastoma cancers so difficult to treat is that malignant cells from the tumors spread throughout the brain by following nerve fibers and blood vessels to invade new locations. Now, researchers have learned to hijack this migratory mechanism, turning it against the cancer by using a film of nanofibers thinner than human hair to lure tumor cells away.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have been awarded approximately $2.3 million from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the processes involved in long-term memory and how deficits in those processes contribute to brain diseases.
A Johns Hopkins study of patients with ischemic stroke suggests that many of those who receive prompt hospital treatment with "clot-busting" tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) therapy can avoid lengthy, restrictive monitoring in an intensive care unit (ICU).
Researchers have found the first direct evidence of a link between prenatal vitamin A deficiency and postnatal airway hyperresponsiveness, a hallmark of asthma. The study, conducted in mice, shows that short-term deficit of this essential vitamin while the lung is forming can cause profound changes in the smooth muscle that surrounds the airways, causing the adult lungs to respond to environmental or pharmacological stimuli with excessive narrowing of airways. The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Scientists engineer the first berry-based chemopreventive confections that can withstand the rigors of a large-scale clinical trial. An ongoing prostate cancer study is trying to determine if the medical edibles can improve post-surgery outcomes
The risk of a kidney donor developing kidney failure in the remaining organ is much lower than in the population at large, even when compared with people who have two kidneys, according to results of new Johns Hopkins research.
Juggling may seem like mere entertainment, but a study led by Johns Hopkins engineers used this circus skill to gather critical clues about how vision and the sense of touch help control the way humans and animals move their limbs in a repetitive way, such as in running. The findings eventually may aid in the treatment of people with neurological diseases and could lead to prosthetic limbs and robots that move more efficiently.
After a child’s stem cell transplant, parents feel increased distress at the time of the procedure, but eventually recover to normal levels of adjustment.
Studying a cycle of protein interactions needed to make fat, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered a biological switch that regulates a protein that causes fatty liver disease in mice. Their findings, they report, may help develop drugs to decrease excessive fat production and its associated conditions in people, including fatty liver disease and diabetes.
New genetic evidence strengthens the case that one well-known type of cholesterol is a likely suspect in causing heart disease, but also casts further doubt on the causal role played by another type. The findings may guide the search for improved treatments.
In most cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, a toxin released by cells that normally nurture neurons in the brain and spinal cord can trigger loss of the nerve cells affected in the disease, Columbia researchers reported today in the online edition of the journal Neuron.
Scientists at the University of Utah identified mutations in three key genes that determine feather color in domestic rock pigeons. The same genes control pigmentation of human skin and can be responsible for melanoma and albinism.
With a $3.1 million National Institutes of Health grant, orthopedic researchers and engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are looking to improve the outcome of surgical repairs by studying the natural attachment of tendon to bone.
Using electrons more like photons could provide the foundation for a new type of electronic device that would capitalize on the ability of graphene to carry electrons with almost no resistance even at room temperature – a property known as ballistic transport.
Medical associations widely recommend that women visit their obstetricians and primary care doctors shortly after giving birth, but slightly fewer than half make or keep those postpartum appointments, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers.
Minimizing a person’s sight for as little as a week may help improve the brain’s ability to process hearing.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists led a study showing that mutations in a gene responsible for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disrupt the RNA transport system in nerve cells. The findings appear in the current issue of the scientific journal Neuron and offer a new focus for efforts to develop effective treatments.
New research is lighting up yet another reason for women to quit smoking. In a study published online in the journal Menopause, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report the first evidence showing that smoking causes earlier signs of menopause – in the case of heavy smokers, up to nine years earlier than average – in white women with certain genetic variations.
Two surprising risk factors – diminished lung function and low serum potassium levels - appear to have nearly the same impact as obesity in explaining why African-Americans are disproportionately prone to developing type 2 diabetes, researchers at Duke Medicine report.
African American women today are almost twice as likely to deliver a preterm baby as white, Hispanic or Asian women in the US - a disparity that medical conditions, socioeconomic status, access to prenatal care and health behaviors haven’t been able to fully account for. Two new studies explore the complex relationship between race, stress and inflammation and potential impacts on pregnancy in the hope of reducing preterm births and infant mortality, and improving maternal mental health.
A team of Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) scientists created maps of habitat corridors connecting protected areas in the tropics to incorporate biodiversity co-benefits into climate change mitigation strategies. Drs. Patrick Jantz, Scott Goetz, and Nadine Laporte describe their findings in an article entitled, “Carbon stock corridors to mitigate climate change and promote biodiversity in the tropics,” available online in the journal Nature Climate Change on January 26.
People seriously injured by violence are no more likely to die in the years after they are shot, stabbed or beaten than those who are seriously injured in accidents, Johns Hopkins researchers have found.
Scientists have engineered a microchip coated with blood vessel cells to learn more about the conditions under which nanoparticles accumulate in the plaque-filled arteries of patients with atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of myocardial infarction and stroke.
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