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Study links nearsightedness to higher education and years spent in school

German researchers have found strong evidence that attaining a higher level of education and spending more years in school are two factors associated with a greater prevalence and severity of nearsightedness, or myopia.

28 Jun 2014

Vertex receives positive opinion from European CHMP for approval of KALYDECO for cystic fibrosis

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced that the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has issued a positive opinion recommending the approval of KALYDECO (ivacaftor) for people with cystic fibrosis (CF) ages 6 and older who have one of eight non-G551D gating mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene.

28 Jun 2014

Researchers find way to diagnose aggressiveness of oral cancer

Studying mouth cancer in mice, researchers have found a way to predict the aggressiveness of similar tumors in people, an early step toward a diagnostic test that could guide treatment, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

28 Jun 2014

First step toward new drugs that can transcend antibiotic resistance issues

Scientists in the United States and India have successfully modified the precursor to one of the drugs used to treat tuberculosis, an important first step toward new drugs that can transcend antibiotic resistance issues that experts consider a serious threat to global health.

28 Jun 2014

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma subgroups found to have different survival rates

A Mayo Clinic-led group of researchers has discovered three subgroups of a single type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that have markedly different survival rates. These subgroups could not be differentiated by routine pathology but only with the aid of novel genetic tests, which the research team recommends giving to all patients with ALK-negative anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL). Findings are published in the journal Blood.

27 Jun 2014

University of Utah researcher to receive Nelson Trust Award for Retinitis Pigmentosa

Research to Prevent Blindness, a New York-based foundation, has announced that University of Utah researcher Wolfgang Baehr, Ph.D., will receive the Nelson Trust Award for Retinitis Pigmentosa-and an accompanying $100,000 to pursue new scientific leads to understand contributors to blindness.

27 Jun 2014

State roundup: Troubles in Kentucky; MD. hospital under review

The team at The Upshot, a Times news and data-analysis venture, compiled six basic metrics to give a picture of the quality and longevity of life in each county of the nation: educational attainment, household income, jobless rate, disability rate, life expectancy and obesity rate.

27 Jun 2014

Public health issues: Climate change; funding for Alzheimer's research

A medical expert calls for hospitals and health care officials to begin to plan for global warming problems, and The Wall Street Journal looks at new ways to finance research.

27 Jun 2014

Leopoldina, DFG present joint recommendations for handling security-relevant scientific research

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina presented their joint recommendations on "Scientific Freedom and Scientific Responsibility" on 26 June 2014 in Berlin.

27 Jun 2014

New article explores how specific types of interferons control RNA virus infection

Respiratory and intestinal infections caused by RNA viruses stimulate infected cells to produce interferons, which can act alone or in combination to block virus replication.

27 Jun 2014

UCSB researchers explore genetic underpinnings of nerve-cell spacing

The functional organization of the central nervous system depends upon a precise architecture and connectivity of distinct types of neurons.

27 Jun 2014

Cancer drug shows promise in treating blood cell disorders

Scientists working to make gene therapy a reality have solved a major hurdle: how to bypass a blood stem cell's natural defenses and efficiently insert disease-fighting genes into the cell's genome.

27 Jun 2014

Scientists one step closer to understanding the causes of Parkinson's disease

Scientists have taken a step closer to understanding the causes of Parkinson's disease, identifying what's happening at a cellular level to potentially help develop future treatments.

27 Jun 2014

Surgical biopsies can be safely performed on selected patients with late-stage lung cancer

Researchers at UC Davis have determined that surgical biopsies can be safely performed on select patients with late-stage non-small cell lung cancer, which should enhance their access to drugs that target specific genetic mutations such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).

27 Jun 2014

Low vitamin D may play a role in high blood pressure

A new genetic study has provided the most solid evidence to date that a low vitamin D level plays a causal role in the development of high blood pressure (hypertension).

26 Jun 2014

Hormonal imbalance is not the sole cause of childhood obesity, say experts

The number of children who are obese remains alarmingly high in the U.S. and, unfortunately, diseases associated with obesity are on the rise.

26 Jun 2014

Current sequencing protocols overlook DNA crucial to bacterial virulence

Genomic sequencing is supposed to reveal the entire genetic makeup of an organism. For infectious disease specialists, the technology can be used to analyze a disease-causing bacterium to determine how much harm it is capable of causing and whether or not it will be resistant to antibiotics.

26 Jun 2014