Laboratory News and Research

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External cues affect cell's ability to migrate

In a paper published today in the journal, Cell, a team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has explained for the first time how a long-studied protein complex affects cell migration and how external cues affect cell's ability to migrate.

2 Mar 2012

Berg Diagnostics achieves CLIA certificate of accreditation

Berg Diagnostics, a Boston-based molecular diagnostics company has received Massachusetts Clinical Laboratory Licensure and Certificate of Registration from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA).

2 Mar 2012

Pharmacological antagonist can inhibit body's response to cold

Researchers at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, in collaboration with Amgen Inc. and several academic institutions, have discovered a way to block the body's response to cold using a drug. This finding could have significant implications in treating conditions such as stroke and cardiac arrest.

2 Mar 2012

Memory training strategy can help patients with MCI

If someone has trouble remembering where the car keys or the cheese grater are, new research shows that a memory training strategy can help. Memory training can even re-engage the hippocampus, part of the brain critical for memory formation, the results suggest.

2 Mar 2012

SuperFAK protein decreases damage from heart attack by 50%

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reduced damage from a heart attack by 50 percent by enhancing a protective protein found in mice and humans.

2 Mar 2012

Study uncovers how FoxO1 protein contributes to heart disease in patients with diabetes

UT Southwestern Medical Center cardiologists have uncovered how a specific protein's previously unsuspected role contributes to the deterioration of heart muscle in patients with diabetes. Investigators in the mouse study also have found a way to reverse the damage caused by this protein.

2 Mar 2012

HNSF, AAO publish new guideline on sudden hearing loss

On March 1, 2012, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation published a new Clinical Practice Guideline on Sudden Hearing Loss (SHL). This guideline is published as a supplement to Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

2 Mar 2012

Treatment with vitamin D reduces size of uterine fibroids

Treatment with vitamin D reduced the size of uterine fibroids in laboratory rats predisposed to developing the benign tumors, reported researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

2 Mar 2012

Glucose meter could be adapted to monitor DNA

An inexpensive device used by millions of people with diabetes could be adapted into a home DNA detector that enables individuals to perform home tests for viruses and bacteria in human body fluids, in food and in other substances, scientists are reporting in a new study.

1 Mar 2012

First clinical assessment of how interferon fights infections in people

A drug once taken by people with HIV/AIDS but long ago shelved after newer, modern antiretroviral therapies became available has now shed light on how the human body uses its natural immunity to fight the virus—work that could help uncover new targets for drugs.

1 Mar 2012

New NOSH-aspirin appears more effective against cancer

Scientists have combined two new "designer" forms of aspirin into a hybrid substance that appears more effective than either of its forebears in controlling the growth of several forms of cancer in laboratory tests. Their report on the new NOSH-aspirin, so named because it releases nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), appears in the journal ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters.

29 Feb 2012

Combination treatment for pancreatic cancer increases intratumoral gemcitabine levels

Oncologists who treat patients with pancreatic cancer may be one step closer to understanding why gemcitabine, the only currently available treatment, works in some cases but not in others, according to a paper in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

29 Feb 2012

D-serine improves depressed rats' brain plasticity and memory

During depression, the brain becomes less plastic and adaptable, and thus less able to perform certain tasks, like storing memories. Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now traced the brain's lower plasticity to reduced functionality in its support cells, and believe that learning more about these cells can pave the way for radical new therapies for depression.

29 Feb 2012

Simple and accurate device to study malaria

University of British Columbia researcher Hongshen Ma has developed a simple and accurate device to study malaria, a disease that currently affects 500 million people per year worldwide and claims a million lives.

29 Feb 2012

Scientists discover that sperm do not function like olfactory cells

According to a 2003 study by German and American scientists, a component of the Lily of the Valley scent known as Bourgeonal alters the calcium balance of human sperm and attracts the sperm. The "Lily of the Valley phenomenon" - also the title of a book about smelling - was born as a result of this discovery that sperm act as swimming olfactory cells which follow a "scent trail" laid by the egg. However, a detailed explanation for the Lily of the Valley phenomenon remained illusive as neither Bourgeonal nor other scents could be identified in the female sex organ.

29 Feb 2012

Targeting O-GlcNAcase enzyme with inhibitors might treat Alzheimer's

Slowing or preventing the development of Alzheimer's disease, a fatal brain condition expected to hit one in 85 people globally by 2050, may be as simple as ensuring a brain protein's sugar levels are maintained.

29 Feb 2012

Insights into how fructose may contribute to development of obesity, diabetes

A group of scientists from across the world have come together in a just-published study that provides new insights into how fructose causes obesity and metabolic syndrome, more commonly known as diabetes.

28 Feb 2012

Childhood adversity may lead to epigenetic changes in glucocorticoid receptor gene

In a look at how major stressors during childhood can change a person's biological risk for psychiatric disorders, researchers at Butler Hospital have discovered a genetic alteration at the root of the association.

28 Feb 2012

Vascular Magnetics to advance development of new drug delivery system for PAD

Vascular Magnetics, the first start-up company spun off by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has raised $7 million to advance development of an innovative drug delivery system using magnetically targeted nanoparticles to treat peripheral artery disease.

28 Feb 2012

Study identifies new processes that lead to development of novel cell implicated in allergies

A collaboration between scientists in Trinity College Dublin and the United Kingdom has identified new processes that lead to the development of a novel cell implicated in allergies. The discovery has the potential for new strategies to treat asthma and other allergic diseases.

28 Feb 2012