Medical Science News

RSS

Study on epigenetics link of PTSD and respiratory disease in 9/11 responders

The "Epigenetics Link of PTSD and Respiratory Disease in 9/11 Responders" study is the first to investigate the association between genetic changes and the development of both conditions in the 9/11 responder patient population. Approximately 500 patients treated at the LI-CCE for both conditions will be evaluated during the two-year study.

24 Sep 2012

Lasers manipulate neurons in worms' brains

In the quest to understand how the brain turns sensory input into behavior, Harvard scientists have crossed a major threshold. Using precisely-targeted lasers, researchers have been able to take over an animal's brain, instruct it to turn in any direction they choose, and even to implant false sensory information, fooling the animal into thinking food was nearby.

24 Sep 2012

Researchers identify gene linked to common cause of lower back pain

Researchers at King's College London have for the first time identified a gene linked to age-related degeneration of the intervertebral discs in the spine, a common cause of lower back pain.

24 Sep 2012

Conceptually novel mechanism for biological regulation of cell suicide

Death plays a big role in keeping things alive. Consider the tightly orchestrated suicide of cells--a phenomenon essential to everything from shaping an embryo to keeping it free of cancer later in life. When cells refuse to die, and instead multiply uncontrollably, they become what we call tumors. An intricate circuitry of biochemical reactions inside cells coordinates their self-sacrifice. Tracing that circuitry is, naturally, an important part of cancer research.

24 Sep 2012

Biologists unravel why some people infected with HIV have more virus

Biologists at UC San Diego have unraveled the anti-viral mechanism of a human gene that may explain why some people infected with HIV have much higher amounts of virus in their bloodstreams than others.

24 Sep 2012

Anesthetics and proteins: understanding the interactions

Spanish scientists at the University of the Basque Region and the University of La Rioja have combined mass-resolved electronic spectroscopy and ab initio calculations to model the interactions of anesthetics with proteins.

24 Sep 2012

NanoViricides’ oral FluCide dramatically improves survival in animals with H3N2 influenza A

NanoViricides, Inc. reported today that its oral FluCide drug candidates demonstrated dramatically improved survival in animals administered a lethal dose of the H3N2 influenza A virus.

24 Sep 2012

Cannabis Science commences CSTATI-1 preclinical studies in Squamous/BCCs, Kaposi's sarcoma

Cannabis Science, a pioneering U.S. Biotech Company developing pharmaceutical products for global public health challenges, is pleased to announce preclinical investigations being initiated in Europe for Squamous/Basal Cell carcinomas and Kaposi's sarcoma based on inhibition of carcinogenicity utilizing cannabinoids that have been demonstrated in recent studies to significantly affect tumor necrosis.

24 Sep 2012

PTEN inhibitor can trigger growth of small eggs

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have discovered that a chemical can trigger the maturation of small eggs to healthy, mature eggs, a process that could give more women the chance of successful IVF treatment in the future. The results have been published in the revered journal PloS ONE.

24 Sep 2012

Molecular similarity between one sub-type of breast cancer and ovarian cancer

A team of scientists with The Cancer Genome Atlas program reports their genetic characterization of 800 breast tumors, including finding some of the genetic causes of the most common forms of breast cancer, providing clues for new therapeutic targets, and identifying a molecular similarity between one sub-type of breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

24 Sep 2012

Interleukin-6 could affect hunger and satiety

Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have identified a molecule in the immune system that could affect hunger and satiety. The researchers hope that new treatments for obesity will benefit from this finding.

24 Sep 2012

Novel genetic tools may shed new light in papillary thyroid carcinoma research

Next-generation sequencing analyses of the follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma may elucidate the biological underpinnings and clinical behavior of an increasingly common disease, according to data presented at the 82nd ATA Annual Meeting in Québec City, Québec, Canada.

24 Sep 2012

Consumer Genetics Conference to take place in Boston from Oct. 3-5

The 4th Annual Consumer Genetics Conference, taking place October 3-5 at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, will include a keynote presentation by George Church that will provide a forthright and candid assessment of new sequencing technologies, including the emergence of nanopore DNA sequencing, current trends in personal genomics, and projections on the future path of medical genomics.

24 Sep 2012

New technique allows cells to make terpenes

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shown how to synthesize in the laboratory an important set of natural compounds known as terpenes. The largest class of chemicals made by living organisms, terpenes are made within cells by some of the most complex chemical reactions found in biology.

24 Sep 2012

Researchers identify subgroups of B cells in MYC-positive germinal centers

Germinal centers are sites in the organs of the lymphatic system, formed during the course of an immune response to infection, where B cells intensely proliferate and modify their DNA in order to produce antibodies specific for the pathogen. However, it is known that the vast majority of lymphomas derive from the B cells at the germinal centers.

24 Sep 2012

New findings on how naked mole-rats adapt to acidic environments

Naked mole-rats evolved to thrive in an acidic environment that other mammals, including humans, would find intolerable. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago report new findings as to how these rodents have adapted to this environment.

24 Sep 2012

Latest research on stem cells discussed at Einstein symposium

The promise of stem cells seems limitless. If they can be coaxed into rebuilding organs, repairing damaged spinal cords and restoring ravaged immune systems, these malleable cells would revolutionize medical treatment. But stem cell research is still in its infancy, as scientists seek to better understand the role of these cells in normal human development and disease.

24 Sep 2012

Sleep medicine and research: an interview with James K. Walsh

There are a variety of sleep medicines. I am going to refer to what are commonly described as hypnotics or sleeping pills. Sleeping pills have been around for a long time.

24 Sep 2012

Most basal-like breast and ovarian tumors have similar genetic origins

The most comprehensive analysis yet of breast cancer shows that one of the most deadly subtypes is genetically more similar to ovarian tumors than to other breast cancers.

24 Sep 2012

Researchers solve mystery of radial glial cells

Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have solved an important piece of one of neuroscience's outstanding puzzles: how progenitor cells in the developing mammalian brain reproduce themselves while also giving birth to neurons that will populate the emerging cerebral cortex, the seat of cognition and executive function in the mature brain.

24 Sep 2012