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Boosting estrogen levels may help reduce urinary infections in menopausal women

Estrogen levels drop dramatically in menopause, a time when the risk of urinary tract infections increases significantly.

24 Jan 2013

UTHealth NRC to sponsor forum on sports-related concussions

Super Bowl-winning lineman turned orthopaedic surgeon Mark Adickes, M.D., is moderating a free public forum to help parents, athletes and trainers spot the warning signs of concussion.

24 Jan 2013

Study examines associations between blood calcium and ovarian cancer

A new study from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is the first to report that high blood calcium levels might predict ovarian cancer, the most fatal of the gynecologic cancers.

24 Jan 2013

Normalizing p62 protein levels in immune system cells could reduce infection in CF patients

New research suggests that lowering excessive levels of a protein in immune system cells could be a strategy to clear an infection that is deadly to patients with cystic fibrosis (CF).

23 Jan 2013

Mice with reduced caloric intake accumulate longer telomeres

One of the indicators of a cell's health is the state of its DNA and containers-the chromosomes-so when these fuse together or suffer anomalies, they can become the source of illnesses like cancer and/or ageing processes.

23 Jan 2013

Hyperbaric treatment restores neurological function in damaged brains

Stroke, traumatic injury, and metabolic disorder are major causes of brain damage and permanent disabilities, including motor dysfunction, psychological disorders, memory loss, and more. Current therapy and rehab programs aim to help patients heal, but they often have limited success.

23 Jan 2013

Catenin required in odontoblasts for tooth root formation

Today, the International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) published a paper titled "--catenin is Required in Odontoblasts for Tooth Root Formation." The paper, written by lead authors Tak-Heun Kim and Cheol-Hyeon Bae, Chonbuk National University Korea School of Dentistry, Laboratory for Craniofacial Biology, is published in the IADR/AADR Journal of Dental Research.

23 Jan 2013

DFG now extends funding for research on immunological therapy at Charité

The DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) has now extended the funding of a research association which is located at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) will receive funding in excess of ten million Euros over the next four years.

23 Jan 2013

KLF6-SV1 gene variant drives the spread of breast cancer

A team of researchers led by Goutham Narla, MD, PhD, at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, and collaborators at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Erasmus Medical Center, have discovered a gene variant that drives the spread of breast cancer.

23 Jan 2013

Study identifies how astrocytes regulate a neurotransmitter involved in sleep

Neuroscience researchers from Tufts University have found that our star-shaped brain cells, called astrocytes, may be responsible for the rapid improvement in mood in depressed patients after acute sleep deprivation. This in vivo study, published in the current issue of Translational Psychiatry, identified how astrocytes regulate a neurotransmitter involved in sleep.

23 Jan 2013

Scientists identify consistent epigenetic signatures in men with metastatic prostate cancer

In a genome-wide analysis of 13 metastatic prostate cancers, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center found consistent epigenetic "signatures" across all metastatic tumors in each patient.

23 Jan 2013

New apatamer can boost therapeutic effect of cell-based vaccines

A small compound called an aptamer that specifically targets and stimulates a human immune cell can greatly increase the effectiveness of an immunotherapeutic drug designed to destroy malignant or virus-infected cells. The development of a novel apatamer that recognizes activated T-lymphocytes and can boost the therapeutic effect of cell-based vaccines is described in an article in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers.

23 Jan 2013

Journal of Unsolved Questions presents 5th issue on 'scientific labor'

In its recently published 5th issue, the Journal of Unsolved Questions (JUnQ) invites readers to take a look behind the doors of researchers' offices and laboratories, presenting "reports from the academic workforce". Researchers from archeology to neurology were invited to reflect upon "Scientific Labor". With this cover topic, JUnQ continues its endeavor to promote a realistic view of academic work.

23 Jan 2013

BH3-mimetics might be new option for treatment of autoimmune conditions

Melbourne researchers have discovered that the death of immune system cells is an important safeguard against the development of diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, which occur when the immune system attacks the body's own tissues.

23 Jan 2013

Salk Institute to establish Helmsley Center for Genomic Medicine

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies has received a $42 million gift-the largest in the Institute's history-to establish the Helmsley Center for Genomic Medicine (HCGM), a research center dedicated to decoding the common genetic factors underlying many complex chronic human diseases.

23 Jan 2013

Data from Provectus' PV-10 pre-clinical study on melanoma to be presented at AACR meeting

Provectus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a development-stage oncology and dermatology biopharmaceutical company, announces that data on PV-10 will be presented in a poster presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

23 Jan 2013

Researchers pinpoint several inherited mutations in autism

While autism clearly runs in some families, few inherited genetic causes have been found. A major reason is that these causes are so varied that it's hard to find enough people with a given mutation to establish a clear pattern. Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have pinpointed several inherited mutations—among the first to be identified—through an unusual approach: using whole-exome sequencing to study large Middle Eastern families with autism.

23 Jan 2013

Enterococcal cytolysin synthetase helps form distinctly different, 3-D protein ring structures

While working out the structure of a cell-killing protein produced by some strains of the bacterium Enterococcus faecalis, researchers stumbled on a bit of unusual biochemistry. They found that a single enzyme helps form distinctly different, three-dimensional ring structures in the protein, one of which had never been observed before.

23 Jan 2013

Strong link between mortality and reduced innate immune responsiveness in critically ill patients

Investigators from 15 children's medical centers, including Nationwide Children's Hospital, observed and evaluated critically ill children with influenza to evaluate the relationships between levels of systemic inflammation, immune function and likelihood to die from the illness. The study appears in the January issue of Critical Care Medicine.

23 Jan 2013

SMO and AKT1 mutations appear to drive about 15% of meningiomas

Large-scale genomic sequencing has revealed two DNA mutations that appear to drive about 15 percent of brain tumors known as meningiomas, a finding that could lead to the first effective drug treatments for the tumors, report scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute.

23 Jan 2013