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Bile acid enables foetus to produce blood stem cells

A research group at Lund University in Sweden has been able to show that bile acid is transferred from the mother to the foetus via the placenta to enable the foetus to produce blood stem cells.

31 Jan 2016

Framework for improving chemical hazard assessment without animals

A new paper published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, co-authored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, calls for ongoing development and regulatory acceptance of adverse outcome pathways (AOPs), a framework for improving chemical hazard assessment by prioritizing modern test methods that reduce animal use.

31 Jan 2016

Study provides vital information about mechanisms governing DNA repair

DNA damage can lead to gene inactivation or deregulation and cause various diseases such as cancer; however, many DNA repair mechanisms allow cells to survive against such damage. A study lead by Antoine Simoneau of the laboratory of Dr. Hugo Wurtele, a researcher in immunology-oncology at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital (CIUSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal) and professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, and recently published in the prestigious journal Nucleic Acids Research, provides valuable information about certain mechanisms governing DNA repair.

31 Jan 2016

SLU clinical psychologist helps patients battle fears, phobias

Some fear is rational, keeping us appropriately cautious in the face of dangerous animals, hot stoves and contagions that could make us ill. But rational caution can turn to irrational panic about imagined terrors that are unlikely to occur or cause much actual damage if they did.

31 Jan 2016

COG presents plan to effectively handle future pediatric cancer drug shortages

The Children's Oncology Group has taken steps to help pediatric oncologists across the United States plan for the next shortage of life-saving chemotherapy drugs used for children with cancer. The COG is the world's largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research and is supported in part by the St. Baldrick's Foundation, the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants.

31 Jan 2016

HIV protein alters activity of networked neurons

Nearly half of HIV infected patients suffer from impaired neurocognitive function. The HIV protein transactivator of transcription (Tat) is an important contributor to HIV neuropathogenesis because it is a potent neurotoxin that continues to be produced despite treatment with antiretroviral therapy.

31 Jan 2016

New partnership aims to study underlying neurobiology and genetics of PTSD, TBI

Cohen Veterans Bioscience today announced two new collaborative partnership efforts that will provide critical research tools for understanding the underlying neurobiology and genetics of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) with the goal of accelerating the development of first generation diagnostics and treatments.

31 Jan 2016

Graphene-based electrodes could be safely implanted in the brain

Researchers have successfully demonstrated how it is possible to interface graphene - a two-dimensional form of carbon - with neurons, or nerve cells, while maintaining the integrity of these vital cells. The work may be used to build graphene-based electrodes that can safely be implanted in the brain, offering promise for the restoration of sensory functions for amputee or paralysed patients, or for individuals with motor disorders such as epilepsy or Parkinson's disease.

31 Jan 2016

People injured by police officers more likely to have mental illness

People hospitalized due to an encounter with a law enforcement officer are more likely to have a mental illness, have longer hospitalizations, more injuries to the back and spine, and greater need for extended care than those hospitalized due to altercations with other civilians.

31 Jan 2016

Human brain uses several frequency channels for communication

In the brain, the visual cortex processes visual information and passes it from lower to higher areas of the brain. However, information also flows in the opposite direction, e.g. to direct attention to particular stimuli. But how does the brain know which path the information should take? Researchers at the Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in Frankfurt in Cooperation with Max Planck Society have now demonstrated that the visual cortex of human subjects uses different frequency channels depending on the direction in which information is being transported.

31 Jan 2016

Lipofilling safe for breast reconstruction

For women undergoing breast cancer surgery, a technique called lipofilling—using the patient's own fat cells to optimize the results of breast reconstruction—does not increase the risk of recurrent breast cancer, reports a study in the February issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

31 Jan 2016

Applying ultrasound therapies for recovery of cardiac stem cells

A joint project of researchers from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Julius Wolff Institute and led by Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research shows that when cardiac stem cells undergo low-intensity pulsed ultrasound treatment, these cells can perform continuing modifications, tissue remodeling and regeneration of damaged cardiac tissue after a heart attack.

31 Jan 2016

Scientific breakthrough could contribute to early diagnosis of osteoporosis, Alzheimer's

Scientists from the University of Granada have developed a new fluorescent dye capable of detecting, in a single test lasting 20 minutes, the presence of phosphate and biothiol inside living cells. This scientific breakthrough could contribute significantly to the early diagnosis of diseases such as osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, type 2 diabetes, and prostate cancer, since abnormal levels of both substances are associated with these diseases.

30 Jan 2016

Chronically victimized adolescents 6 times more at risk of attempting suicide at 15

A study to be published in the February 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reports that adolescents chronically victimized during at least two school years, are about five times more at risk of thinking about suicide and 6 times more at risk of attempting suicide at 15 years compared to those who were never victimized.

30 Jan 2016

Research points to potential use of radiotherapy in treating systemic cancer

An international team of researchers lead by the University of Granada has proven that mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) may be used as enhancer agents of local and systemic effects of radiotherapy, that is to say, those which affect the irradiated tumour and tumour cells located at a certain distance of the irradiated ones.

30 Jan 2016

Children born to obese women with diabetes at higher risk of developing autism

Children born to obese women with diabetes are more than four times as likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder than children of healthy weight mothers without diabetes, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.

30 Jan 2016