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Low-fat diets better than low-carb diets for weight loss, NIH study finds

In a recent study, restricting dietary fat led to body fat loss at a rate 68 percent higher than cutting the same number of carbohydrate calories when adults with obesity ate strictly controlled diets. Carb restriction lowered production of the fat-regulating hormone insulin and increased fat burning as expected, whereas fat restriction had no observed changes in insulin production or fat burning.

14 Aug 2015

Improved method for building proteins into antibodies

Some proteins exist so fleetingly in the bloodstream that they can't be given effectively as therapies. However, building them into larger proteins, such as antibodies, can make them persist long enough to be useful. Now a team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has devised an improved method for accomplishing this protein-engineering feat.

14 Aug 2015

Researchers develop new genomic data set on Lassa virus

An international team of researchers has developed the largest genomic data set in the world on Lassa virus (LASV).

14 Aug 2015

New data assesses actionability of multigene panel testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer risk

Multigene testing of women negative for BRCA1 and BRCA2 found some of them harbored other harmful genetic mutations, most commonly moderate-risk breast and ovarian cancer genes and Lynch syndrome genes, which increase ovarian cancer risk, according to an article published online by JAMA Oncology.

14 Aug 2015

3D protein structure reveals new drug targets for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases

Protein Kinase C (PKC) is a family of enzymes that controls the activity of other proteins in a cell by attaching chemical tags. That simple act helps determine cell survival or death.

14 Aug 2015

Rice and UTHealth scientists awarded $1.02 million NSF grant to examine how the brain processes language

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1.02 million grant to scientists at Rice University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School to study how the brain processes language. The joint research may one day help people who lose the ability to communicate.

14 Aug 2015

TSRI-led team devises selection-based, protein-engineering method to work on obesity therapy

Some proteins exist so fleetingly in the bloodstream that they can’t be given effectively as therapies. However, building them into larger proteins, such as antibodies, can make them persist long enough to be useful. Now a team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has devised an improved method for accomplishing this protein-engineering feat.

14 Aug 2015

TSRI study reveals ancient roots of Lassa virus and how it has changed over time

Working as part of an international team in North America and West Africa, a researcher at The Scripps Research Institute has published new findings showing the ancient roots of the deadly Lassa virus, a relative of Ebola virus, and how Lassa virus has changed over time.

14 Aug 2015

New study uses big data analytical methods to reveal 'social character' of genes

A new study at the University of Haifa has used "big data" analytical methods to reveal the "social character" of genes - a phenomenon in certain diseases whereby genes operate jointly rather than independently.

14 Aug 2015

Researchers use advanced photodynamic therapy to combat ovarian cancer in laboratory animals

Researchers at Oregon State University have made a significant advance in the use of photodynamic therapy to combat ovarian cancer in laboratory animals, using a combination of techniques that achieved complete cancer cell elimination with no regrowth of tumors.

14 Aug 2015

Playing Tetris for few minutes a day can weaken cravings

Playing Tetris for as little as three minutes at a time can weaken cravings for drugs, food and activities such as sex and sleeping by approximately one fifth, according to new research.

14 Aug 2015

Rush researchers explore new stem cell therapy to treat spinal cord injuries

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center are exploring a new therapy using stem cells to treat spinal cord injuries within the first 14 to 30 days of injury. Rush is only the second center in the country currently studying this new approach.

14 Aug 2015

Researchers help explain how malaria infection increases children's risk of developing Burkitt's lymphoma

In equatorial Africa, a region of the globe known as the "lymphoma belt," children are ten times more likely than in other parts of the world to develop Burkitt's lymphoma, a highly aggressive blood cancer that can be fatal if left untreated. That area is also plagued by high rates of malaria, and scientists have spent the last 50 years trying to understand how the two diseases are connected.

14 Aug 2015

Scientists reveal how non-allergenic pollen mediators can increase allergic reactions

Scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum München and TU München discovered a new mechanism how non-allergenic pollen mediators can enhance allergic reactions. Especially the so-called B cells play a critical role in this process. The results were recently published in the Journal 'Allergy' and might lead to new approaches for therapies.

13 Aug 2015

CMU engineers awarded NSF grant to study neural variability in motor learning

When we move, we rarely move in the exact same way twice. The National Science Foundation has awarded Carnegie Mellon University Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Steven Chase and Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Byron Yu, and their long-time collaborator, University of Pittsburgh Associate Professor of Bioengineering Aaron Batista, an $869,000 grant to conduct basic research that will establish how variability in movement is encoded in the brain and how this variability contributes to learning and performance.

13 Aug 2015

Researchers reveal cellular origin of PIK3CA-induced breast tumors

In a study published in Nature, researchers lead by Cédric Blanpain, MD/PhD, WELBIO investigator and Professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, in collaboration with Pr Wayne Phillips, Australia and Pr Christos Sotiriou, Bordet Institute, Belgium, uncovered the cellular origin of PIK3CA-induced breast tumors and demonstrated that the cancer cell of origin controls tumor heterogeneity and is associated with different breast tumors types and clinical prognosis.

13 Aug 2015

Food ingredient formulators use different ways to enhance absorption, bioavailability of curcumin, turmeric

Few natural products have demonstrated the range of protective and therapeutic promise as have turmeric and its principal bioactive components, the curcuminoids.

13 Aug 2015

Northwestern University researchers identify molecular difference in male and female brains

Male and female brains operate differently at a molecular level, a Northwestern University research team reports in a new study of a brain region involved in learning and memory, responses to stress and epilepsy.

13 Aug 2015

Netrin1 protein acts as cellular "marriage broker"

Scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -The Neuro, at McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre, have made a breakthrough in understanding an important protein that appears to act as a kind of cellular "marriage broker."

13 Aug 2015

Researchers identify potential drug target to fight TB

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved the first new drug to fight tuberculosis (TB) in more than 40 years, but treatment still takes six months, 200 pills and leaves 40 percent of patients uncured. Thus, new targets are needed. Today in ACS Central Science, researchers report they have identified one such target -- a gene that allows the disease to camp out in human immune cells, and is thus essential for the organism's proliferation.

13 Aug 2015

Medical Science News

Low-fat diets better than low-carb diets for weight loss, NIH study finds

Improved method for building proteins into antibodies

Researchers develop new genomic data set on Lassa virus

New data assesses actionability of multigene panel testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer risk

3D protein structure reveals new drug targets for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases

Rice and UTHealth scientists awarded $1.02 million NSF grant to examine how the brain processes language

TSRI-led team devises selection-based, protein-engineering method to work on obesity therapy

TSRI study reveals ancient roots of Lassa virus and how it has changed over time

New study uses big data analytical methods to reveal 'social character' of genes

Researchers use advanced photodynamic therapy to combat ovarian cancer in laboratory animals

Playing Tetris for few minutes a day can weaken cravings

Rush researchers explore new stem cell therapy to treat spinal cord injuries

Researchers help explain how malaria infection increases children's risk of developing Burkitt's lymphoma

Scientists reveal how non-allergenic pollen mediators can increase allergic reactions

CMU engineers awarded NSF grant to study neural variability in motor learning

Researchers reveal cellular origin of PIK3CA-induced breast tumors

Food ingredient formulators use different ways to enhance absorption, bioavailability of curcumin, turmeric

Northwestern University researchers identify molecular difference in male and female brains

Netrin1 protein acts as cellular "marriage broker"

Researchers identify potential drug target to fight TB

Real-time Raman monitoring for pharmaceutical hot melt extrusion

Synthetic Psychedelics: A Growing Public Health Concern

How the Vutara VXL simplifies single-molecule imaging

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