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NIH awards $1.2M for study on discharge decisions at hospitals

A Georgia State University professor and an Emory University surgeon have received a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for a joint research project to study discharge decisions at hospitals.

15 Oct 2010

Fluctuations in internal body temperature regulate body's circadian rhythm: Research

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that fluctuations in internal body temperature regulate the body's circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle that controls metabolism, sleep and other bodily functions.

15 Oct 2010

Questcor, CNF partner to fund infantile spasms research

Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it is partnering with the Child Neurology Foundation (CNF) to fund a $30,000 grant to support research into infantile spasms (IS). Catherine Chu-Shore, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital was selected by CNF as the recipient of this first-ever "Logan Infantile Spasms Research Award."

15 Oct 2010

Southern Research to acquire BioCryst's bioanalytical laboratory assets

Southern Research Institute today announced that it is acquiring the bioanalytical laboratory assets and bioanalytical personnel of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals.

15 Oct 2010

DFG to establish new Research Units

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing four new Research Units to facilitate cross-regional, interdisciplinary cooperation among researchers. This decision was taken by the DFG Senate at its autumn meeting in Bonn. The new groups are intended to enable researchers to devote themselves to current and urgent issues within their fields and to develop new approaches.

15 Oct 2010

Study suggests treating RLS may improve sleep and quality of life in people with fibromyalgia

A study in the Oct. 15, 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that adults with fibromyalgia had a much higher prevalence and risk of restless legs syndrome than healthy controls. The study suggests that treating RLS may improve sleep and quality of life in people with fibromyalgia.

15 Oct 2010

New insights into HIV infection process may allow antiviral drug development

New insights into the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection process, which leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), may now be possible through a research method recently developed in part at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where scientists have glimpsed an important protein molecule's behavior with unprecedented clarity.

15 Oct 2010

ARTS protein increases apoptosis mechanism to balance stem cells' regenerative power: Research

Stem cells, the prodigious precursors of all the tissues in our body, can make almost anything, given the right circumstances. Including, unfortunately, cancer. Now research from Rockefeller University shows that having too many stem cells, or stem cells that live for too long, can increase the odds of developing cancer.

15 Oct 2010

Scientists identify mechanism that regulate nuclear size

Size matters when it comes to the nucleus of a cell, and now scientists have discovered the signals that control how big the nucleus gets. Nuclear size varies not only among different species, but also in different types of cells in the same species and at different times during development. In addition, cancer cells are known to develop larger nuclei as they become more malignant. Screening for cervical cancer, for example, involves looking for grossly distorted nuclei in cervical cells collected during a Pap smear.

15 Oct 2010

Fitness freaks may have higher sex drive

According to Dr Peter Biro and his colleagues in their latest study, people obsessed with staying fit may have higher sex drives and also tend to be more aggressive and socially dominant. The team was studying the relationship between behavior and metabolic rate in a number of insects, birds and animals.

14 Oct 2010

A bad job is worse than unemployment: Mental health study

According to the latest research a bad job is worse than unemployment for a person’s mental health. The study was published today in the journal BMC Public Health. Australian National University (ANU) researchers conducted the study.

14 Oct 2010

Scientists discover 'switch' mechanism of lymphatic and blood vessel cells

Scientists at the University of East Anglia have made an important breakthrough in the way anti-cancer drugs are tested. A tumour cannot grow to a large size or spread until it has developed its own blood supply and leading research has looked for a way of halting capillary formation to stop tumours taking hold.But new findings published today in the Journal of Cell Science have shown that scientists testing such treatments may not have been studying exactly what they thought they were.

14 Oct 2010

Kineta awarded second NIH contract to identify new drug targets and candidates

Kineta announced today it has been awarded its second NIH contract in twelve months - the latest focused on mining vast, existing, basic research databases with the goal of identifying new drug targets and candidates. The project will be directed at five key therapeutic areas: infectious, cardiovascular, neurological, metabolic and autoimmune diseases.

14 Oct 2010

Real-time data access can improve quality and efficiency of drug development

Technologies to capture and view clinical trial data in real time offer great potential to enhance patient safety, strengthen trial quality and accelerate drug development, but they also require new guidelines to ensure trial integrity, according to the white paper "Using Real-Time Data to Drive Better Decisions, Faster" released today by Quintiles, the world's leading biopharmaceutical services company.

14 Oct 2010

Patient-specific experimental vaccine to prevent recurrence of glioblastoma

Mary Lee's primary care physician is also a family friend. When he walked into the exam room in October 2006 with tears in his eyes, she knew something serious was wrong. But she was shocked to learn she had a brain tumor - and later found out it was the most aggressive malignant type, a glioblastoma multiforme.

14 Oct 2010

'Brain-computer interface' development receives Arizona Biomedical Research Commission grant

Efforts to advance technology to aid people who have lost communication and movement abilities are getting support from an Arizona Biomedical Research Commission grant for a project combining resources and expertise at Arizona State University and the Children's Neuroscience Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital.

14 Oct 2010

LFA announces award of new grants for lupus research

The Lupus Foundation of America, Inc. (LFA) today announced the awarding of six new research grants to address gaps in the science and understanding of key areas of lupus research, including pediatric lupus, reproductive health issues in people with lupus, lupus nephritis (kidney involvement), and neuropsychiatric lupus, which affects the brain and nervous system.

14 Oct 2010

Study suggests link between individual's personality and capacity to exercise

There may be a fundamental link between aspects of an individual's personality and their capacity to exercise or generate energy, recent research suggests.

14 Oct 2010

Research finds fat cells can secrete hormones

Scientists are reporting new evidence that the fat tissue in those spare tires and lower belly pooches - far from being a dormant storage depot for surplus calories - is an active organ that sends chemical signals to other parts of the body, perhaps increasing the risk of heart attacks, cancer, and other diseases. They are reporting discovery of 20 new hormones and other substances not previously known to be secreted into the blood by human fat cells and verification that fat secretes dozens of hormones and other chemical messengers.

14 Oct 2010

Scientists identify root cause of chromosomal errors and gene diversity

A team led by a scientist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has discovered a regulatory protein that influences where genetic material gets swapped between maternal and paternal chromosomes during the process of creating eggs and sperm. The findings, which shed light on the roots of chromosomal errors and gene diversity, appear in tomorrow's issue of Nature.

14 Oct 2010