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Unfavorable fetal development affects physical functioning at the age of 60 years

Low birth weight and slow growth progressing to greater body mass in pre-adolescence significantly increased the risk of poor physical functioning at the age of 60 years, a new Finnish study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found.

11 Nov 2011

Scientists suppress NCoR1 protein and create mighty mice

A team of researchers at EPFL, the University of Lausanne and the Salk Institute created super strong, marathon mice and nematodes by reducing the function of a natural inhibitor, suggesting treatments for age-related or genetically caused muscle degeneration are within reach.

11 Nov 2011

NCoR deficiency may pump up muscles and prevent diabetes

Two independent studies in the Nov. 11 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, suggest a common way to pump up muscles and prevent diabetes. The key is a molecule required for fine-tuning metabolism by selectively and subtly modifying core metabolic programs.

11 Nov 2011

New unsuspected role for nuclear receptor corepressor protein

By knocking out a key regulatory protein, scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland dramatically boosted insulin sensitivity in lab mice, an achievement that opens a new door for drug development and the treatment of diabetes.

11 Nov 2011

Researchers uncover mechanism that governs cell specialization

Researchers at then Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have uncovered a mechanism that governs how cells become specialized during development.

10 Nov 2011

Obese premenopausal women may benefit from dairy food consumption

A recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that consumption of dairy foods and higher protein resulted in improvements in markers of bone formation and reductions in markers of bone degradation in overweight and obese young women over 16 weeks of diet- and exercise-induced weight loss.

10 Nov 2011

Rensselaer engineer receives $1.4M NIH grant to study new method to heal traumatic nerve damage

Injuries to the nervous system affect large numbers of people globally. Such injuries can result in loss of feeling or movement. With a new $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Deanna Thompson, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will investigate a promising new method to heal traumatic nerve damage, using electrical stimulation to prime and pump neuronal growth.

10 Nov 2011

Faster, more sensitive test to detect ciguatera poisoning

Scientists are reporting development of a fast, reliable new test that could help people avoid a terrible type of food poisoning that comes from eating fish tainted with a difficult-to-detect toxin from marine algae growing in warm waters. The report appears in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry.

10 Nov 2011

Positive results from Alkermes VIVITROL addiction study

Alkermes plc today presented positive results from a long-term study of VIVITROL (naltrexone for extended-release injectable suspension) at the 24th Annual U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress in Las Vegas, NV.

10 Nov 2011

Mathematical model accurately predicts horizontal gaze movements of eye

In one respect, handling a computer mouse is just like looking in the rearview mirror: well established movements help the brain to concentrate on the essentials. But just a simple gaze shift to a new target bears the possibility of an almost infinite number of combinations of eye and head movement: how fast do we move eye and head? How much does the eye rotate, how much the head? Until now, it was unclear why the brain chooses a particular movement option from the set of all possible combinations.

10 Nov 2011

Study needed to identify most effective exercise to improve balance among older people

Good balance and mobility are essential to help you perform most activities involved in every-day life, as well as many recreational pursuits. Keeping your balance is a complex task, involving the co-ordination between a person's muscles and sensors which detect balance and are part of the nervous system.

9 Nov 2011

Sex of patient plays a relevant role in recovery from facial paralysis

Research work drawn up by specialists from the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery at the University of Navarra Hospital has shown that, after surgical treatment for facial paralysis through using muscular transplant and nervous transposition (connection of facial muscle to a nerve different from the injured facial nerve), the brain of a woman - in comparison to that of a male - manages to adapt itself better, recovers the spontaneous smile and has a greater time period available for repairing the paralysis.

9 Nov 2011

Sleep paralysis more frequent among students and psychiatric patients

What do Moby Dick, the Salem witch trials and alien abductions all have in common? They all circle back to sleep paralysis.

9 Nov 2011

Treatments can help most HCM patients

Most of the 600,000 Americans with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) -- a genetic heart muscle disease -- can live normal life spans, according to the first science-based guideline for diagnosing and treating this disorder.

9 Nov 2011

Tufts University professor earns March of Dimes Foundation award for tissue development

A new approach to studying tissue development has earned Catherine K. Kuo, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in Tufts University's School of Engineering, the Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Award from the March of Dimes Foundation.

9 Nov 2011

Ligand third quarter total revenues decrease to $5.7 million

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011 and provided a business update.

9 Nov 2011

Pfizer's Toviaz Study A0221048 for overactive bladder meets primary endpoint

Pfizer Inc. announced today top-line results for Toviaz (fesoterodine fumarate) Study A0221048 - Effectiveness and Safety of a Flexible Dose Regimen for Patients with Overactive Bladder including Nocturnal Urinary Urgency.

9 Nov 2011

FDA accepts Genentech's vismodegib NDA for review

Curis, Inc., a drug development company seeking to develop next generation targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer treatment, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted and filed for review Genentech's new drug application (NDA) for vismodegib for the treatment of adults with advanced basal cell carcinoma (BCC) for whom surgery is considered inappropriate.

9 Nov 2011

Salix enters definitive agreement to acquire Oceana Therapeutics

Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. and Oceana Therapeutics, LLC today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby Salix will acquire all of the outstanding stock of Oceana Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held global provider of gastroenterology and urology therapeutics, for $300 million in cash.

8 Nov 2011

A person's stroke risk profile may help identify future cognitive problems

A new study shows a person's stroke risk profile, which includes high blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes, may also be helpful in predicting whether a person will develop memory and thinking problems later in the life.

8 Nov 2011