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VUMC, UCSF investigators awarded $6 million NIH grant to develop implantable artificial kidney

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a four-year, $6 million grant to investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of California at San Francisco to develop an implantable artificial kidney.

3 Nov 2015

Deaths from avoidable risk factors: an interview with Dr Ali Mokdad, IHME

The study showed that about thirty percent to maybe half of the leading causes of death in the world are preventable. These are risk factors that you could manage and thus you could prevent a lot of premature deaths.

3 Nov 2015

Federal food policy changes boost healthful food options at smaller urban corner stores

Federal food policy changes led to increased availability of healthy foods at smaller urban corner stores in Baltimore, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests. Increases in healthy food were greatest in corner stores and in neighborhoods with a majority of black residents.

3 Nov 2015

Researchers develop biochemical trick that can extend lifespan of peptides

Researchers at University of the Pacific have developed a biochemical trick that can significantly extend the lifespan of peptides, smaller cousins of proteins. The finding opens up new possibilities for creating peptides to treat cancer, infertility and other conditions.

3 Nov 2015

Scientists identify protein that helps map brain tumours

Scientists have discovered a protein that helps map the edge of brain tumours more clearly so they show up on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, according to new research presented at the National Cancer Research Institute Cancer Conference in Liverpool today.

3 Nov 2015

Study identifies potential new approaches to curing parasitic diseases

A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that some forms of the single celled parasites, Trypanosoma brucei and Toxoplasma gondii behave like cancer cells.

3 Nov 2015

New peptide-based hydrogel could one day facilitate microsurgery

Skillful surgeons can do amazing things in extremely small places, but finding better ways to suture tiny blood vessels has been an ongoing challenge for even the best.

3 Nov 2015

Just one junk food snack is enough to trigger signs of metabolic disease

We hate to ruin Thanksgiving, but a new report appearing in the Nov. 2015 issue of The FASEB Journal suggests that for some people, overindulgence at the dinner table or at snack time is enough to trigger signs of metabolic disease.

3 Nov 2015

TSRI scientists awarded NIH grant to investigate molecular machinery involved in cancer metastasis

Cancer metastasis occurs when tumor cells escape from a primary tumor, via the blood stream, and establish tumors in secondary locations. When the metastases are found in distant tissues and organs, doctors call this stage IV cancer, and the survival rate is low.

3 Nov 2015

Experts call on U.S. and Mexican governments to reduce risk of Chagas disease

Chagas disease -- the third most common parasitic infection in the world -- affects approximately 7.5 million people, mostly in Latin America. To help reduce outbreaks of this disease in their countries, the United States and Mexican governments should implement a range of programs as well as fund research for the development of Chagas vaccines and treatments, according to a new policy brief by tropical-disease and science policy experts at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

3 Nov 2015

Healthy food can help low-income people better control their diabetes

To determine whether healthy food could help low-income people better control their diabetes, a pilot study by UC San Francisco and Feeding America tracked nearly 700 people at food banks in California, Texas and Ohio over two years.

3 Nov 2015

PolyU researchers develop novel biosensor for measuring glucose level in saliva

Diabetic patients have to monitor blood glucose regularly and frequently, but conventional method of taking blood sample for measuring glucose level is painful. It is therefore important to develop high performance biological sensors for monitoring the glucose level at a reasonable cost.

3 Nov 2015

Common heart drug may halt progression of angiosarcoma

A common heart drug may stop the progression of angiosarcoma, a cancer of the inner lining of blood vessels, according to a study by researchers at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso.

3 Nov 2015

Rice scientists solve long-standing mystery about hemophilia protein

Rice University scientists have solved a long-standing mystery about where the body stores and deploys blood-clotting factor VIII, a protein that about 80 percent of hemophiliacs cannot produce due to genetic defects.

3 Nov 2015

Discovery offers promising alternative to current therapies for AMD and ROP

A research team led by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the University of New Mexico School of Medicine has identified a small molecule that treats animal models of aged macular degeneration (AMD) and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) by preventing the overgrowth of blood vessels that are characteristic of these two retinal diseases.

3 Nov 2015

Findings support higher dietary requirements of vitamin E for obese people with metabolic syndrome

A recent study suggests that obese people with metabolic syndrome face an unexpected quandary when it comes to vitamin E - they need more than normal levels of the vitamin because their weight and other problems are causing increased oxidative stress, but those same problems actually cause their effective use of vitamin E to be reduced.

3 Nov 2015

Study highlights importance of sex-specific differences in complex biological processes

New research published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology shows that male and female mice respond differently to inflammation at the cellular level. Specifically, in male mice the spleen acts as a source of white blood cells, while in females this is not the case. This discovery suggests that human studies are necessary to determine if current medical practices, which treat men and women generally the same, should be altered to reflect sex-specific differences.

3 Nov 2015

Small subtype of immune cells appears to prevent obesity

We tend to think of the immune system as guarding us against bacteria, viruses and assorted foreign invaders, but this system has some other surprising roles. Weizmann Institute researchers have now identified a small subtype of immune cells that appears to prevent metabolic syndrome: obesity, high blood pressure, and high levels of blood sugar and cholesterol.

3 Nov 2015

Griffith University uncovers first 3-D image of protein linked to cancer spread

Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics has made scientific history by determining the first three-dimensional image of a protein linked to the spread of cancer.

3 Nov 2015

Menu labeling at fast-food restaurants does not reduce overall calorie intake, shows study

Some six years out from New York City's attempt to curb the obesity epidemic by mandating calorie counts in chain restaurants, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have found that calorie labels, on their own, have not reduced the overall number of calories that consumers of fast food order and presumably eat.

3 Nov 2015