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Rare genetic mutation explains why flu can kill in rare cases

Nobody likes getting the flu, but for some people, fluids and rest aren't enough. A small number of children who catch the influenza virus fall so ill they end up in the hospital — perhaps needing ventilators to breathe — even while their family and friends recover easily. New research by Rockefeller University scientists, published March 26 in Science, helps explain why: a rare genetic mutation.

30 Mar 2015

Genes crucial for vision multiplied in early stages of vertebrate evolution

A new study from SciLifeLab at Uppsala University published in PLOS ONE shows that genes crucial for vision were multiplied in the early stages of vertebrate evolution and acquired distinct functions leading to the sophisticated mechanisms of vertebrate eyes.

30 Mar 2015

Lettuce varieties can have different antioxidant effect

Lettuce, one of the indispensable vegetables in the Mediterranean diet, is a food that greatly benefits health, mainly because it is rich in antioxidants. But not all lettuce varieties have the same antioxidant effect.

30 Mar 2015

MRI technique may help detect cancerous cells

Imaging tests like mammograms or CT scans can detect tumors, but figuring out whether a growth is or isn't cancer usually requires a biopsy to study cells directly. Now results of a Johns Hopkins study suggest that MRI could one day make biopsies more effective or even replace them altogether by noninvasively detecting telltale sugar molecules shed by the outer membranes of cancerous cells.

30 Mar 2015

Experimental nanoparticle therapy speeds healing of all sorts of wounds

An experimental therapy developed by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University cut in half the time it takes to heal wounds compared to no treatment at all. Details of the therapy, which was successfully tested in mice, were published online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

30 Mar 2015

Iron oxide nanoparticles selectively target cell surface markers in tumor microenvironments

Nanoparticles hold great promise for cancer diagnostics and therapies, but only to the extent that they can be selectively guided to tumors and cancer cells.

30 Mar 2015

Researchers harness gene editing technique in mosquito that infects people with deadly diseases

Traditionally, to understand how a gene functions, a scientist would breed an organism that lacks that gene - "knocking it out" - then ask how the organism has changed. Are its senses affected? Its behavior?

30 Mar 2015

Study quantifies long-term effects of nutrition deprivation at different stages of pregnancy

A study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues in the Netherlands evaluated the relationship between nutritional conditions in very early life and adult health, and found that famine exposure during the first pregnancy trimester was associated with increases in mortality from a variety of causes other than cancer or cardiovascular disease.

30 Mar 2015

UAB scientist explores the bone development function of runx2 gene

Amjad Javed, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has taken a major step forward in understanding the bone development function of a gene called runx2, which could lead to future ways to speed bone healing, aid bone bioengineering, stem osteoporosis and reduce arthritis.

30 Mar 2015

Researchers present new studies on cognition and reasoning at CNS conference in San Francisco

Even rats can imagine: A new study finds that rats have the ability to link cause and effect such that they can expect, or imagine, something happening even if it isn't.

30 Mar 2015

DFG Senate approves establishment of one Clinical Research Unit, five Research Units

At its spring meeting in Bonn, the Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) approved the establishment of one new Clinical Research Unit and five new Research Units.

30 Mar 2015

Research: Common bacteria poised to become antibiotic-resistant superbugs

Antibiotic resistance is poised to spread globally among bacteria frequently implicated in respiratory and urinary infections in hospital settings, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

30 Mar 2015

New study may help decode attention deficit disorders

Sometimes being too focused on a task is not a good thing. During tasks that require our attention, we might become so engrossed in what we are doing that we fail to notice there is a better way to get the job done.

30 Mar 2015

Discovery opens new drug development avenues for treating multiple diseases

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered a control switch for the unfolded protein response (UPR), a cellular stress relief mechanism drawing major scientific interest because of its role in cancer, diabetes, inflammatory disorders and several neural degenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

30 Mar 2015

Study: Blood test may help diagnose Fragile X syndrome related disorders in women

A blood test may shed new light on Fragile X syndrome related disorders in women, according to a new study published in the March 25, 2015, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Fragile X is the most common inherited form of intellectual disability and the most frequent genetic cause of autism.

30 Mar 2015

Moffitt researchers use integrative approaches to study cancer heterogeneity

Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are using integrative approaches to study cancer by combining mathematical and computational modeling with experimental and clinical data. The use of integrative approaches enables scientists to study and model cancer progression in a manner that conventional experimental systems are unable to do.

29 Mar 2015

AACR to honor Lewis C. Cantley with Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship

The American Association for Cancer Research will honor Lewis C. Cantley, PhD, with the ninth annual Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015, to be held in Philadelphia, April 18-22.

29 Mar 2015

Australian researchers find gene that drives aggressive form of triple-negative breast cancer

Australian researchers have found that so-called 'triple-negative breast cancers' are two distinct diseases that likely originate from different cell types. This helps explain why survival prospects for women with the diagnosis tend to be either very good or very bad.

29 Mar 2015

UCSF professor wins Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science

Peter Walter was chosen as winner of the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for his pioneering work on how proteins are transported between cellular compartments and for unraveling the components of a regulatory mechanism that cells use to handle stress tied to the aggregation of misshapen proteins.

29 Mar 2015

German Neuroscience Society “FEI Technology Award” goes to Benjamin Judkewitz

FEI Munich, a subsidiary of FEI Company (NASDAQ: FEIC) is pleased to announce Benjamin Judkewitz as the 2015 recipient of the German Neuroscience Society “FEI Technology Award.”

From Thermo Fisher Scientific – Electron Microscopy Solutions 27 Mar 2015