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Findings open new avenues for research to predict risk of therapy-related AML

For a small percentage of cancer patients, treatment aimed at curing the disease leads to a form of leukemia with a poor prognosis. Conventional thinking goes that chemotherapy and radiation therapy induce a barrage of damaging genetic mutations that kill cancer cells yet inadvertently spur the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a blood cancer.

8 Dec 2014

Study highlights causes of postpartum disorders in new mothers

In the days shortly after giving birth, most mothers experience a period of increased calmness and decreased stress responses, but around 20% of mothers experience anxiety. Some women may become depressed, and around one in a thousand can develop psychosis. The latest evidence indicates that these distressing responses to motherhood are still poorly understood, but that animal research could provide valuable clues to their causes.

8 Dec 2014

Low doses of fluoxetine could hold key to preventing PMS symptoms

Low doses of fluoxetine - better known as the anti-depressant Prozac - could hold the key to preventing PMS symptoms, an international team of researchers has found.

8 Dec 2014

Scientists discover new line of defence that cancer cells use to evade cell death

Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered a new line of defence used by cancer cells to evade cell death, according to research published in Nature Communications today (Monday).

8 Dec 2014

New advancement in biomedical research could help tackle diseases associated with ageing

A new advance in biomedical research at the University of Leicester could have potential in the future to assist with tackling diseases and conditions associated with ageing - as well as in treating cancer.

8 Dec 2014

Researchers gain new insights into potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease

It is estimated that about 35 million people worldwide currently suffer from dementia and it is expected that the number will increase to 135 million by the year 2050. The disease is already one of the most common health problems in the elderly, which is why experts predict that the numbers of people affected will increase over time.

8 Dec 2014

Subsets of cells drive spread of multiple myeloma

Although it is among the most highly metastatic of all cancers, multiple myeloma is driven to spread by only a subset of the myeloma cells within a patient's body, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found in a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

8 Dec 2014

Baylor-led researchers identify gene linked to familial glioma

An international consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine has identified for the first time a gene associated with familial glioma (brain tumors that appear in two or more members of the same family) providing new support that certain people may be genetically predisposed to the disease.

8 Dec 2014

Emerging strategies to boost healthy RBCs may reduce burden of anemia linked to blood disorders

Emerging treatment approaches may reduce the burden of anemia associated with blood disorders by enhancing production of healthy red blood cells, according to data presented today at the 56th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition.

7 Dec 2014

New quantum mechanical computational method attains rapid simulation of complex molecular systems

Professor Stephan Irle and Yoshio Nishimoto at the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) of Nagoya University and Dr. Dmitri Fedorov of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, Tsukuba) have developed a novel ultrafast quantum chemical method enabling rapid simulations of molecules containing more than a million atoms without detrimental loss in accuracy.

7 Dec 2014

OIST Graduate University joins The Brain/MINDS Project in Japan

Governments the world over are now focusing their efforts in research towards mapping the brain to understand its secrets. America has The BRAIN Initiative and Europe, The Human Brain Project. Japan's counterpart is called The Brain/MINDS Project which aims to map the brain at various scales of detail and function over the next ten years. The maps that result from this research would subsequently be used for the development of neurotechnologies and for disease studies. The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University has become one of 17 institutions in Japan to be awarded a grant by the government to conduct this research.

7 Dec 2014

Researchers identify new targets for future CLL therapies

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is among the most frequent leukemias affecting adults in Western countries. It usually occurs in older patients, does not cause any symptoms for a long time and is often only discovered by accident. Despite treatment, relapses frequently occur. The immunologists Dr. Kristina Heinig and Dr. Uta Höpken (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch) and the hematologist Dr. Armin Rehm (MDC and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) have now discovered why this is so.

7 Dec 2014

Study reveals how elite Kenyan athletes succeed in long-distance races

The Journal of Applied Physiology has published an article by Jordan Santos-Concejero of the Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences of the University of the Basque Country, and entitled `Maintained cerebral oxygenation during maximal self-paced exercise in elite Kenyan runners'. This is a pioneering study in the world of the physiology of exercise, given that it describes for the first time that elite Kenyan athletes have greater brain oxygenation during periods of maximum physical effort, and which contributes to their success in long-distance races.

7 Dec 2014

Study shows link between cardiac abnormalities, sudden unexpected death in epilepsy

Groundbreaking findings describing the link between cardiac abnormalities and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) will be presented at the American Epilepsy Society's Annual Meeting in December.

7 Dec 2014

New study explores reliability of optogenetics as method of intervention of temporal lobe seizures

Optogenetics is one of the hottest tools in biomedical research today, a method that uses gene therapy to deliver light-sensitive proteins into specific cells. This new tool allows researchers to interact with a single cell or a network of cells with exquisite precision. Whereas imaging and other technologies allow researchers to watch the brain in action, optogenetics enables them to influence those actions.

7 Dec 2014

Study provides insights into genetic underpinnings of childhood epilepsies

Technological advances in genetic analysis have uncovered changes in single genes that account for a surprising number of infantile and early-childhood epilepsies. Though some of the affected genes have been identified, the physical manifestations of these alterations remain largely uncharacterized.

7 Dec 2014

Findings may guide doctors to choose better therapies for patients with myeloma

The "molecular mail" sent by multiple myeloma cells provides clues to how well patients with the disease are likely to respond to treatment, according to a study being presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

7 Dec 2014

Scientists devise powerful algorithm to improve effectiveness of research technology harnessing RNAi

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have devised a powerful algorithm that improves the effectiveness of an important research technology harnessing RNA interference, or RNAi.

7 Dec 2014

Study: Key protein may help prevent tumor growth, promote wound healing

A key protein may represent a new way to use the immune system to speed healing and counter inflammatory, infectious and autoimmune diseases, according to study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in the December issue of Cell Reports.

7 Dec 2014

Researchers reveal that genetic mutations may cause more cases of ALS

Genetic mutations may cause more cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) than scientists previously had realized, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The scientists also showed that the number of mutated genes influences the age when the fatal paralyzing disorder first appears.

7 Dec 2014