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GSU professor receives USDA grant to study dynamics of childhood obesity

A Georgia State University professor has received a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to look at the obesity trends from childhood to adolescence.

11 Oct 2010

University of Missouri creates National Botanical Research Center with $7.5M NIH grant

Americans spend $25 billion a year on dietary supplement products such as herbs and other botanicals. While the Nutrition Business Journal forecasts that sales of botanical dietary supplements will increase by about 19 percent over the next five years, scientists still don't know the precise properties that make certain plants helpful or harmful to humans. Now, with a new $7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, University of Missouri researchers have created a National Botanical Research Center to answer these questions.

11 Oct 2010

Progress in understanding mechanism behind photocontact allergy

What happens to sunscreens when they are exposed to sunlight? And how is the skin affected by the degradation products that form? This has been the subject of research at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology that will be presented at the upcoming dermatologist conference in Gothenburg.

11 Oct 2010

Research reveals that fragrances can cause contact allergy

The fragrances used in many household and skincare products can cause contact allergy when exposed to oxygen in the air, reveals research from the University of Gothenburg's Faculty of Science in conjunction with the University of Gothenburg to be presented at the dermatologist conference in Gothenburg.

11 Oct 2010

Obesity can accelerate progression of acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Study

The first study to demonstrate that obesity can directly accelerate the progression of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has been conducted at The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and was published in Cancer Prevention Research, on October 5, 2010.

11 Oct 2010

Researchers find new surface adaptation mechanism of biofilm-forming pathogen

Many drug-resistant infections are the result of bacterial biofilms, structured aggregates of bacteria that live on surfaces and that are extremely resistant to environmental stresses. These biofilms impact human health in many ways - cystic fibrosis, for example, is a disease in which patients die from airway bacterial biofilm infections that are invulnerable to even the most potent antibiotics.

11 Oct 2010

Researchers determine genetic structures of bacteria that cause Lyme disease

Researchers Dr. Steven E. Schutzer of UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and Dr. Claire M. Fraser-Liggett of the Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland, and their collaborators have made a major achievement toward better understanding Lyme disease, by determining the complete genetic structures of 13 strains of the bacteria that cause the disease.

11 Oct 2010

Scientists identify molecular mechanism of muscle stem cell differentiation

Under normal circumstances, adult stem cells reside in muscle tissue, where they can differentiate into a number of different cell types. After an injury (or even a tough workout), muscles are inflamed as cells and molecules flood the area to control damage and begin repairs. When called upon to replace muscle tissue damaged by injury or genetic disease, some muscle stem cells differentiate, becoming new muscle cells, while others make more stem cells. At Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), a team of scientists led by Pier Lorenzo Puri, M.D., Ph.D., recently uncovered the molecular messengers that translate inflammatory signals into the genetic changes that tell muscle stem cells to differentiate.

11 Oct 2010

Research may offer new therapy targets for drug-resistant breast tumors

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have found how gene expression that may contribute to drug resistance is ramped up in unusual types of breast tumors. Their findings may offer new therapy targets.

11 Oct 2010

Discovery can lead to new approach for treating MS in early stages

A deficiency in one of the immune system's enzymes affects the severity of autoimmune diseases such as MS, and explains why the course of these diseases can vary so much. New findings give an insight into how this enzyme deficiency can be diagnosed, and could lead to new medicines, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy.

11 Oct 2010

Some herbal remedies for anxiety disorders effective

Two herbal remedies from passion flower extract and kava have shown to be effective in alleviating anxiety say scientists. The results came from an analysis of 24 studies involving more than 2,000 participants which also showed that combinations of the amino acids L-lysine and L-arginine may be useful anxiety remedies.

10 Oct 2010

Researchers discover rhythmic changes in synapse numbers regulate sleep cycles

With the help of tiny, see-through fish, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers are homing in on what happens in the brain while you sleep. In a new study, they show how the circadian clock and sleep affect the scope of neuron-to-neuron connections in a particular region of the brain, and they identified a gene that appears to regulate the number of these connections, called synapses.

8 Oct 2010

Researchers reveal neural responses associated with empathy for others' pain

Witnessing a person from our own group or an outsider suffer pain causes neural responses in two very different regions of the brain. And, the specific region activated reveals whether or not we will help the person in need. Researchers at the University of Zurich studied the brain responses of soccer fans and now have neurobiological evidence for why we are most willing to help members of our own group.

8 Oct 2010

Mouse study may help develop new therapies for spinal cord injury

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown how stem cells, together with other cells, repair damaged tissue in the mouse spinal cord. The results are of potential significance to the development of therapies for spinal cord injury.

8 Oct 2010

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center named Centers of Excellence for Molecular Hematology

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has been named one of five national Centers of Excellence for Molecular Hematology to find new gene and cell therapies for inherited diseases affecting blood cells.

8 Oct 2010

US continues to lag behind other nations when it comes to gains in life expectancy: Study

America continues to lag behind other nations when it comes to gains in life expectancy, and commonly cited causes for our poor performance-obesity, smoking, traffic fatalities and homicide-are not to blame, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

8 Oct 2010

Study finds boosting mitochondria may delay onset of Parkinson's disease

In a study that sheds new light on the causes of Parkinson's disease, researchers report that brain cells in Parkinson's patients abandon their energy-producing machinery, the mitochondria. A shutdown in fuel can have devastating effects on brain cells, which consume roughly 20 percent of the body's energy despite making up only 2 percent of body weight.

8 Oct 2010

Scientists engineer bacterial cell wall with small molecules to combat diseases

A team of Yale University scientists has engineered the cell wall of the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, tricking it into incorporating foreign small molecules and embedding them within the cell wall.

8 Oct 2010

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center receives $7.6M ARRA stimulus grant for prostate cancer research

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center has received a $7.6 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 stimulus grant to coordinate a study comparing the effectiveness of various treatments for prostate cancer. David Penson, M.D., M.P.H., professor of Urologic Surgery, will serve as Principal Investigator for the Comparative Effectiveness Analysis of Surgery and Radiation study on prostate cancer.

8 Oct 2010

Two-day symposium marks an extraordinary decade for Brown Institute for Brain Science

Just as intense concentration allows a sharp mind to perform at its peak, a research institute that concentrates pre-eminent scientists from 11 academic departments can push back the frontiers of knowledge in a complex research area: the human brain.

8 Oct 2010