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Pre-malignant mammary lesions in dogs and humans display many of the same characteristics

...a discovery that could lead to better understanding of breast cancer progression and prevention for people and pets, said a Purdue University scientist from the School of Veterinary Medicine.

16 Nov 2007

Poxvirus' ability to hide from the immune system may aid vaccine design

The cowpox virus, a much milder cousin of the deadly smallpox virus, can keep infected host cells from warning the immune system that they have been compromised, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

16 Nov 2007

Brain's left hemisphere picks up peripheral noise

Our brain is very good at picking up speech even in a noisy room, an adaptation essential for holding a conversation at a cocktail party, and now we are beginning to understand the neural interactions that underlie this ability.

16 Nov 2007

How inhibitor-of-apoptosis chemicals kill tumors

Chemical compounds specially designed to neutralize proteins that would otherwise allow tumor cells to cheat death have been recognized for some time by scientists as a promising new avenue for cancer therapy.

16 Nov 2007

Earlier bites by uninfected mosquitoes boost West Nile deaths in lab mice

There's one more reason to try to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes, scientists have discovered: bites from mosquitoes that aren't infected by the West Nile virus may make the disease worse in people who acquire it later from West Nile-infected mosquitoes.

16 Nov 2007

New computational theory of brain function

Carnegie Mellon University neuroscientist Marcel Just and Stanford postdoctoral fellow Sashank Varma have put forward a new computational theory of brain function that provides answers to one of the central questions of modern science:

16 Nov 2007

Brain compensatory mechanisms contribute to recovery from spinal cord injury

A research team led by Tadashi Isa, a professor at the Japanese National Institute for Physiological Sciences, NIPS (SEIRIKEN), and Dr. Yukio Nishimura (University of Washington, Seattle), have found that brain compensatory mechanisms contribute to recovery from spinal cord injury.

16 Nov 2007

Biomarkers for Alzheimer's can be trusted in clinical trials

The best-established biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease have a low natural variation over two years. The results speak for the inclusion of these biomarkers in clinical trials of novel drugs against Alzheimer’s disease.

16 Nov 2007

University of Delaware research to shed light on osteoporosis

Ten million people in the United States are estimated to already have bone diseases, and almost 34 million more are estimated to have low bone mass, putting them at increased risk for osteoporosis, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

16 Nov 2007

YKL-40 protein may play a role in severe asthma

A protein measured in a simple blood test may be a new biomarker to identify patients with the most serious form of asthma, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

15 Nov 2007

Viral infection affects important cells' stress response

Viral infection disrupts the normal response of mammalian cells to outside deleterious forces, cleaving and inactivating a protein called G3BP that helps drive the formation of stress granules, which shelter the messenger RNAs that carry the code for protein formation, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

15 Nov 2007

Compound of milk thistle shows anti-cancer effects

Recently, scientists demonstrated the anti-cancer effects of silibinin, a major biologically active compound of milk thistle. Being widely used as a folk remedy for liver diseases, milk thistle is safe and well-tolerated, and it protects the liver from drug or alcohol-related injury.

15 Nov 2007

Human RecQ helicases, homologous recombination and genomic instability

Two independent papers in the December 1st issue of G&D detail how human RecQ helicases regulate homologous recombination and protect genome stability.

15 Nov 2007

Human embryonic stem cells derived from preimplantation genetically diagnosed embryos

A human stem cell line derived from embryos that were identified by preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to carry the mutation for fragile X syndrome has provided an unprecedented view of early events associated with this disease.

15 Nov 2007

Hormone orexin links sleep, hunger and metabolism

While investigating how the hormone orexin might control sleep and hunger, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered, to their surprise, that it activates a protein, HIF-1, long known to stimulate cancerous tumor growth.

15 Nov 2007

Freeze-dried grape powder blocks genes linked to colon cancer

Low doses of freeze-dried grape powder inhibit genes linked to the development of sporadic colorectal cancer, University of California, Irvine cancer researchers found.

15 Nov 2007

Research confirms the importance of genetic factors in age-associated hearing loss

A new Brandeis University study of twins shows that genes play a significant role in the level of hearing loss that often appears in late middle age. The research, in the Journal of Gerontology Medical Sciences, examined genetic and environmental factors affecting hearing loss in the frequency range of speech recognition.

15 Nov 2007

Medics worry about ethnic sensitivity

Health professionals worry that a lack of knowledge about different cultures may lead to them being seen as insensitive or inappropriate to patients from different ethnic backgrounds - according to research published today.

14 Nov 2007

Understanding diversity in disease - new routes to prevention, diagnosis and treatment

The Medical Research Council (MRC), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the health research departments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have launched a joint initiative of more than £6millon to identify small carefully defined groups of patients to help researchers detect, treat or prevent diseases.

14 Nov 2007

Low-fat answer to India's coronary crisis

First he devised a way for India's 11 million dairy farmers to improve milk production. Now Dr Suresh Gulati of the University of Sydney's Faculty of Veterinary Science is making milk healthier in a country where coronary heart disease is set to soar.

14 Nov 2007