The quest to improve survival of children with a high-risk brain tumor has led St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital investigators to two drugs already used to treat adults with breast, pancreatic, lung and other cancers. The study was published today online ahead of print in the journal Cancer Cell.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been awarded $2.3 million to study a category of viruses that cause dengue fever, West Nile, yellow fever and other diseases.
A new study using electronic medical records finds that a scale used for the past 30 years to predict the development of deadly and debilitating pressure ulcers isn’t useful for the patients at highest risk for getting them – those in the intensive care unit.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been able to pinpoint a handful of neurons where certain types of memory formation occur.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Joint BioEnergy Institute have engineered a bacterium to synthesize pinene, a hydrocarbon produced by trees that could potentially replace high-energy fuels, such as JP-10, in missiles and other aerospace applications.
Working with genetically engineered mice, Johns Hopkins neuroscientists report they have identified what they believe is the cause of the vast disintegration of a part of the brain called the corpus striatum in rodents and people with Huntington’s disease: loss of the ability to make the amino acid cysteine. They also found that disease progression slowed in mice that were fed a diet rich in cysteine, which is found in foods such as wheat germ and whey protein.
In a series of studies involving 140 American men and women with liver tumors, researchers at Johns Hopkins have used specialized 3-D MRI scans to precisely measure living and dying tumor tissue to quickly show whether highly toxic chemotherapy – delivered directly through a tumor’s blood supply – is working.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly used for breast cancer screening, diagnostic evaluation, treatment planning, and surveillance, but a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, “Patterns of Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging Use in Community Practice,” found that the indication for breast MRI has changed over time. Much of the increase was found among women with breast cancer risk factors, but there are still notable gaps in risk-based use.
A new robotic system at Georgia Tech’s Center for Chemical Evolution could soon let scientists better simulate and analyze the chemical reactions of early Earth on the surface of real rocks to further test the theory that catalytic minerals on a meteorite’s surface could have jump-started life’s first chemical reactions.
Premi Haynes, a physiology Ph.D. candidate in the Campbell Muscle Lab, has documented the different cellular patterns and mechanical functions in contractions of the human heart. The findings indicate possible therapeutic targets for treatment of disease and heart failure.
Four years after being treated for breast cancer, a quarter of survivors say they are worse off financially, at least partly because of their treatment, according to a new study led by University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers.
There are many reasons some people may not get a flu shot, but would they be more likely to do so if there was a simple device that could be mailed directly to them, was easy enough to use by themselves, and provided at least the same level of protection as a traditional flu shot without the pain of a needle jab? A recent NIBIB-funded study suggests the answer is yes.
A single gene appears to play a crucial role in coordinating the immune system and metabolism, and deleting the gene in mice reduces body fat and extends lifespan, according to new research by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and Yale University School of Medicine.
Vanderbilt neuroscientists show it is possible to selectively manipulate our ability to learn through the application of a mild electrical current to the brain, and that this effect can be enhanced or depressed depending on the direction of the current.
The time is right – you’re ready to quit smoking. Begin with just a click at WebQuit.org. WebQuit is an online quit-smoking program and research study being conducted by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The WebQuit study, which is funded by the National Cancer Institute, is testing two online quit-smoking programs to learn which one is most useful to help people quit.
A new microfluidic method for evaluating drugs commonly used for preventing heart attacks has found that while aspirin can prevent dangerous blood clots in some at-risk patients, it may not be effective in all patients with narrowed arteries. The study, which involved 14 human subjects, used a device that simulated blood flowing through narrowed coronary arteries to assess effects of anti-clotting drugs.
The process of producing high-quality, fertile sperm requires many steps. Researchers show the transcription factor p73 promotes this process by regulating the adhesions between developing sperm and their support cells.
Michelle Ozbun, PhD, recently won a $275,000 two-year grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to study human papillomavirus. Her work could lead to reducing the chemotherapy and radiation treatments that head and neck cancer patients now endure. And that could improve their quality of life afterward.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins report that compounds they hoped would “wake up” dormant reservoirs of HIV inside immune system T cells — a strategy designed to reverse latency and make the cells vulnerable to destruction — have failed to do so in laboratory tests of such white blood cells taken directly from patients infected with HIV.
Foreign mussels hitchhiking to the Great Lakes in the ballast water tanks of international freighters are becoming one of the most vexing environmental problems facing the Great Lakes. A group of scientists from Wayne State University, in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Environmental Protection Agency, are working together to battle this problem.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine helps establish new $28 million consortium to find antibody treatments for Ebola and other viruses.
Biologists have discovered that when biological signals hit cells in rhythmic waves, the magnitude of the cells' response can depend on the number of signaling cycles — not their strength or duration.
The movement to ‘personalize’ cancer treatments has grown significantly over the past few years, with researchers making advances in identifying targeted therapies and understanding what drives them. Aiming to further build on that momentum with the development of innovative early-phase clinical trials is Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Thanks to a $4.25 million NCI grant, Rutgers will collaborate with investigators from the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center to support a precision experimental therapeutics endeavor.
Many diseases have their origins in either the genome or in reversible chemical changes to DNA known as the epigenome. Now, results of a new study from Johns Hopkins scientists show a connection between these two “maps.” The findings could help disease trackers find patterns in those overlays that could offer clues to the causes of and possible treatments for complex genetic conditions, including many cancers and metabolic disorders.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year grant of up to $28 million to establish a new center for excellence to find an antibody “cocktail” to fight the deadly Ebola virus. The project, which involves researchers from 15 institutions, will be led by Erica Ollmann Saphire, professor at The Scripps Research Institute.
University of Utah electrical engineers fabricated the smallest plasma transistors that can withstand high temperatures and ionizing radiation found in a nuclear reactor. Such transistors someday might enable smartphones that take and collect medical X-rays on a battlefield, and devices to measure air quality in real time.
Scientists from Carnegie and Smithsonian museums and the University of Utah today unveiled the discovery, naming and description of a sharp-clawed, 500-pound, bird-like dinosaur that roamed the Dakotas with T. rex 66 million years ago and looked like an 11 ½-foot-long “chicken from hell.”
A multi-national research team led by Duke Medicine scientists has identified a subclass of antibodies associated with an effective immune response to an HIV vaccine.
The protein, Dom34, appears to “rescue” protein-making factories called ribosomes when they get stuck obeying defective genetic instructions.
Adenomatous polyposis coli is critical in protecting against colon cancer. KU Cancer Center researchers have shown that APC stationed in the nucleus is necessary to suppress Wnt and its signaling partners.
People with a genetic predisposition to obesity are at a higher risk of obesity and related chronic diseases from eating fried foods than those with a lower genetic risk, according to a new study from researchers from Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.
Growing drug resistance, a high prevalence of S. aureus bacteria and ineffective antibiotics prescribed to one in three patients are among the challenges facing community hospitals in treating patients with serious bloodstream infections, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.
Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in numerous health conditions in recent years, including depressed mood and major depressive disorder. Recent observational studies provide some support for an association of vitamin D levels with depression, but the data do not indicate whether vitamin D deficiency causes depression or vice versa. These studies also do not examine whether vitamin D supplementation improves depression.
A Wayne State University researcher has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the agency's most prestigious award for up-and-coming researchers in science and engineering.
A new study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that children treated with stimulants for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experienced slower body mass index (BMI) growth than their undiagnosed or untreated peers, followed by a rapid rebound of BMI that exceeded that of children with no history of ADHD or stimulant use and that could continue to obesity.
A new study involving researchers from UC Davis and four other National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers reveals important barriers that limit minority group participation in cancer clinical trials, findings that will be used to refine and launch more effective strategies to assure that more minorities benefit from clinical trials.
Twenty years after Congress mandated that research funded by the National Institutes of Health include minorities, less than 5 percent of trials participants are non-white, and less than 2 percent of clinical cancer research studies focus on non-white ethnic or racial groups, UC Davis researchers have found.
One in eight visits to a a doctor for a headache or migraine end up with the patient going for a brain scan, at a total cost of about $1 billion a year, a new University of Michigan Medical School study finds. And many of those MRI and CT scans – and costs – are probably unnecessary, given the very low odds that serious issues lurk in the patients’ brains.
Adult survivors of childhood cancer face significant health problems as they age and are five times more likely than their siblings to develop new cancers, heart and other serious health conditions beyond the age of 35, according to the latest findings from the world’s largest study of childhood cancer survivors. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital led the research, results of which appear in the March 17 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
New research on dendritic cells from Roswell Park Cancer Institute suggests that manipulating the CD80/CD86 pathway may yield new strategies for treating multiple myeloma.
Scientists have discovered a previously unrecognized gene variation that makes humans have healthier blood lipid levels and reduced risk of heart attacks. But even more significant is how they found the gene, which had been hiding in plain sight.
Scientists at Whitehead Institute have pinpointed a major mitochondrial pathway that imbues cancer cells with the ability to survive in low-glucose environments. By identifying cancer cells with defects in this pathway or with impaired glucose utilization, the scientists can predict which tumors will be sensitive to these anti-diabetic drugs known to inhibit this pathway.
While previous studies have suggested a connection between contagious yawning and empathy, new research from the Duke Center for Human Genome Variation finds that contagious yawning may decrease with age and is not strongly related to variables like empathy, tiredness and energy levels.
Capitalizing on the ability of an organism to evolve in response to punishment from a hostile environment, scientists have coaxed the model bacterium Escherichia coli to dramatically resist ionizing radiation and, in the process, reveal the genetic mechanisms that make the feat possible.
Dartmouth researchers have developed a novel and unique approach to treating Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), a form of blood cancer that often requires repeated chemotherapy treatments to which it grows resistant.
Joining a gang in adolescence has significant consequences in adulthood beyond criminal behavior, even after a person leaves the gang. Former gang members are more likely to be in poor health, receiving government assistance and struggling with drug abuse than someone who never joined a gang.
This research revealed that inflammation in the gut GM-CSF is produced in the normal gut in response to microbiota signals by specialized cells, requires sufficient GM-CSF to protect against gut inflammation. Deletion of GM-CSF gene in the mouse impaired gut regulatory function and compromised oral tolerance, and increased susceptibility to IBD.
With approximately a 90% death rate and no treatment yet available, Marburg virus research and development are a top priority. This cell culture research reveals the molecular details of how Marburg virus and host protein interact, providing a potential disease target.
In a series of experiments sparked by fruit flies that couldn’t sleep, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have identified a mutant gene — dubbed “Wide Awake” — that sabotages how the biological clock sets the timing for sleep. The finding also led them to the protein made by a normal copy of the gene that promotes sleep early in the night and properly regulates sleep cycles.
Studying epithelial cells, the cell type that most commonly turns cancerous, Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a protein that causes cells to release from their neighbors and migrate away from healthy mammary, or breast, tissue in mice.
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