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Close relationships can perpetuate health-compromising behaviors

Human problems rarely occur in a vacuum, but persist as part of ongoing social interaction in which causes and effects are interwoven.

11 Mar 2009

Discovery of cellular pathway that prevents cancer response to diet restriction

Whitehead Institute researchers have pinpointed a cellular pathway that determines whether cancerous tumors respond to dietary restriction during their development.

11 Mar 2009

MRI and CT used to map intelligence in the brain

Neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have conducted the most comprehensive brain mapping to date of the cognitive abilities measured by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), the most widely used intelligence test in the world.

11 Mar 2009

A single question can identify unhealthy alcohol use in patients

Researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC) have found that a single-screening question recommended by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) accurately identifies unhealthy alcohol use in primary-care patients.

11 Mar 2009

Anesthesia or hypothermia: Warning for Alzheimer's patients

Everyone knows that its important to keep a cool head, but a new study published online in The FASEB Journal shows that for Alzheimer's patients, a cool head may make the disease worse.

11 Mar 2009

Alzheimer's marker amyloid beta 42 linked to brain damage

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have linked a potential indicator of Alzheimer's disease to brain damage in humans with no signs of mental impairment.

11 Mar 2009

Measuring the strength needed to move chromosomes

It's about as long as the width of a human hair and only half that length across. So it's tiny - measured in millionths of a meter - and extremely tricky to manipulate. But the meiotic spindle plays so irresistibly important a role in separating our chromosomes during cell division that scientists are compelled to try to study it.

11 Mar 2009

University at Buffalo to receive $4.9 million in stem cell research funds from New York State

The University at Buffalo will receive $4.9 million in funding to conduct research on stem cells, part of a new investment in stem cell research announced yesterday by New York State Governor David A. Paterson.

11 Mar 2009

Cell pathway on overdrive prevents cancer response to dietary restriction

Whitehead Institute researchers have pinpointed a cellular pathway that determines whether cancerous tumors respond to dietary restriction during their development.

11 Mar 2009

Twin nanoparticle targets then zaps breast cancer cells

Breast cancer patients face many horrors, including those that arise when fighting the cancer itself.

11 Mar 2009

Tiny samples could yield big predictive markers for pancreatic cancer

A handful of proteins, detected in incredibly tiny amounts, may one day help doctors distinguish between a harmless lesion in the pancreas and a potentially deadly one, say researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

11 Mar 2009

Men moving to Venus, women to Mars - research looks at changing roles of mothers and fathers

Elvire Vaucher is a professor at the Université de Montréal School of Optometry.

11 Mar 2009

Teenage stress carries forward to adulthood

Most of us remember our teenage years with a mix of fondness and relief. Fondness for the good memories, and relief that all that teenage stress, angst and drama - first love, gossip, SATs, fights with parents - is behind us.

11 Mar 2009

Researchers create gene circuit that permits precise tuning of a gene's expression in a cell

Researchers have crafted a gene circuit that permits precise tuning of a gene's expression in a cell, an advance that should allow for more accurate analysis of the gene's role in normal and abnormal cellular function.

11 Mar 2009

Salt could be 'nature's antidepressant' according to new research

Most people consume far too much salt, and a University of Iowa researcher has discovered one potential reason we crave it: it might put us in a better mood.

11 Mar 2009

Small molecules block cancer gene

Finding molecules that block the activity of the oncogene Stat 3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription) required screening literally millions of compounds, using computers that compared the structure of the cancer-causing gene to those of the small molecules, said a Baylor College of Medicine researcher in a report that appears in the current online issue of the journal PLoS One (Public Library of Science ONE).

11 Mar 2009

Simple test helps predict heart attack risk

The use of common and readily available screening tests - like the ankle brachial index (ABI) - along with traditional risk scoring systems - such as the Framingham Risk Score - has the potential to prevent devastating heart attacks in thousands of individuals who are not originally thought to be at high risk (according to Framingham alone), say researchers at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 34th Annual Scientific Meeting.

11 Mar 2009