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 Back to Eurekalert Medical and Health News Archives
Eurekalert Medical and Health News: 04-24-2006
Until now, little was known about the physiochemical processes that determine the protective qualities of military uniforms (for example, for protection against poisonous gases). Delft University of Technology researcher Michal Sobera has changed all this, however, through the use of computer modeling. He believes that within a few years it will be possible to calculate a realistic model of the human body with protective clothing. On April 25, Sobera will receive his PhD based on this research subject.
"Nutritional Genomics" provides a genomic roadmap that helps navigation of the many scientific data on food bioactives, human clinical studies, animal models, and population genetics. World-renowned experts in the field of nutrigenomics have contributed their latest breakthroughs and insights to create a comprehensive overview of the fundamental principles and scientific methodologies behind nutrigenomics.
Physicians from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine have been awarded a one-year, $933,551 grant from the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), to support clinical and educational activities in Botswana, Africa. The money will be used to support Penn faculty, residents and students as they treat, study and research the AIDS epidemic that has gripped the country where the prevalence of HIV is among the highest in the world.
University of Pittsburgh researchers have developed a polymer-based therapy for breast cancer that could serve as an artificial tissue filler after surgery and a clinically effective therapy. The treatment could be applicable to women with breast deformities from breast cancer surgery followed by radiation therapy. The findings, based on mouse studies, will be presented on Tuesday, April 25 at the World Congress on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at the Westin Convention Center in Pittsburgh.
The Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) has chosen Springer as the publisher of the Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM). Springer will begin publishing the society's journal both online and in print in January 2007 with Volume 22, No.1. JGIM is a peer-reviewed journal featuring articles written by clinicians, clinical researchers, and medical educators worldwide who are dedicated to improving patient care, education and research in internal medicine.
When problems in the health care system threaten doctors' ability to practice medicine and patients' access to needed treatments, surgeons can play an important role as advocates for political solutions, according to a series of special articles in the April issue of SURGERY (Volume 139, Number 4, April 2006) published by Elsevier. The articles highlight some recent health care crises and the effective advocacy response by surgeons and physicians, focusing on patient education as the key to political change.
Rutgers College of Nursing faculty member, Rachel Jones, will premiere her video vignettes for hand-held computers aimed at reducing young women's HIV sexual risk behavior before community members, AIDS experts and caregivers at John Cotton Dana Library on the Newark campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey April 25.
HEBE is an EU-funded joint research project. By means of this biannual project a mechanism for the detection of falls and the monitoring of the activity of the elderly has been developed.
The disadvantages of locking the front doors of psychiatric units outnumber the advantages by more than two to one, according to mental health staff. The research findings are published in the latest Journal of Clinical Nursing.
The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will present the 8th Annual Biotechnology Heritage Award to Alejandro Zaffaroni, an outstanding pioneer of the biotechnology revolution and legendary entrepreneur with considerable scientific and business skills. The award will be presented at the plenary breakfast session from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. on Monday, 10 April, at BIO 2006 at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago.
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) lung cancer patients who have never smoked before in their life have better overall survival rates and respond better to chemotherapy than current or former smokers.
A new study finds use of annual mammography among breast cancer survivors, who are at increased risk of a recurrence or a new malignancy in the other breast, dropped off after a few years.
Scientists have found that a protein produced by immune cells during malaria infection triggers severe anemia, a lethal complication of the disease. Richard Bucala and colleagues at Yale University (New Haven, CT) show that immune cells in mice with malaria secrete a protein called MIF, which decreases the production of red blood cells (RBCs) from the bone marrow. The study appears online on April 24 in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Their experience treating a rare type of abdominal cancer has helped physicians at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center make a new discovery that may change the way it is diagnosed. The results are reported in the May issue of the American Journal of Surgical Pathology.
Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Scripps Research Institute have determined the structure and biochemistry of the exonuclease domain of WRN, a protein that protects humans from premature aging and cancer. Mutated WRN causes Werner's syndrome, which shows few signs until its victims are in their 20s, then causes rapid aging and often cancer. Understanding how the normal WRN protein works could lead to new forms of treatment for cancer and age-related pathologies.
University of Utah researchers will receive up to $10.3 million to help develop a new prosthetic arm that would work, feel and look like a real arm. The Utah work is a key part of a U.S. Department of Defense contract worth up to $55 million to develop the new device for soldiers and potentially others whose arms were amputated.
A scientific paradox linking artificial sweeteners such as saccharin with a sensory experience in which plain water takes on a sweet taste has guided researchers at the Monell Center to an increased understanding of how humans detect sweet taste. The findings, reported in Nature, will facilitate the development of new sweeteners and sweet inhibitors.
A new Joslin Diabetes Center-led study has shown conclusively that two receptors in the insulin-producing beta cell do not affect developmental growth, refuting a long-held hypothesis in diabetes research.
Cancer researchers at Sydney's Garvan Institute, in collaboration with Spanish scientists, have formulated a new concept for how cancer cells can escape normal growth controls, which may have far-reaching implications for the new generation of cancer therapies.
Investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have located the cause of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) - a gene that, when damaged, causes the body's skeletal muscles and soft connective tissue to undergo a metamorphosis into bone, progressively locking joints in place and rendering movement impossible. This important discovery is relevant, not only for patients with FOP, but also for those with more common skeletal conditions.
Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Toronto have designed a nanoscale assembly of molecules that successfully counteracts and inhibits anthrax toxin in animal and laboratory experiments. The novel approach used to neutralize anthrax toxin could be applied in designing potent therapeutics for a variety of pathogens and toxins, according to the researchers.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS) report in the April 23 issue of Nature that they have identified neurons that encode the values that subjects assign to different items. The activity of these neurons might facilitate the process of decision-making that occurs when someone chooses between different goods.
A study in the current journal issue reveals children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders exhibit altered sleeping and eating patterns, as well as other behavioral problems such as attention deficits and depression; alterations in these behaviors may indicate that their biological rhythms, which are controlled by circadian systems, have been affected by alcohol exposure during development; and rodent research confirms that alcohol exposure during a period equivalent to the third human trimester influences the ability to synchronize circadian rhythms to light cues.
A study in the current journal issue reveals alcoholism commonly co-occurs with chronic smoking; both alcohol and nicotine act on the brain's "drug-reward pathway" or mesocorticolimbic system; and new findings indicate that alcoholism and chronic smoking have a higher number of common genetic targets than previously believed.
A study in the current journal issue reports individuals with a family history of alcoholism (FH+) have a greater risk of developing alcoholism themselves than do persons with no family history; FH+ individuals who are male and have behavioral disinhibition may have the greatest risk of developing alcoholism; researchers caution that these combined characteristics indicate a greater probability, not certainty, of developing alcoholism.
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