Entomologists have isolated three key genes that determine when female mosquitoes feed on blood and when they decide to switch to an all-sugar diet to fatten up for the winter.
David Denlinger, professor of entomology at Ohio State University, hopes this discovery will lead scientists to other genes that help the mosquitoes survive cold weather – in particular, those genes related to how insects handle the West Nile Virus when they enter a kind of hibernation.
Denl
A new study suggests that a substance made by immune cells plays a key role in the progression of a disease in animals that closely mimics multiple sclerosis (MS). The findings further suggest that blocking the molecule, known as macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) might prevent the progression of the disease.
Researchers at The Ohio State University Medical Center conducted the study using mice that develop a disease that mimics MS. They compared these animals to similar
Research at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical has shown that Gamma Knife Stereotactic Radiosurgery (GKRS) is an effective treatment for trigeminal neuralgia, a common condition characterized by excruciating facial pain.
“This has proven to be a safe, effective treatment for trigeminal neuralgia patients, without the potential facial paralysis and long-term recovery experienced with conventional surgery,” said Volker Stieber, M.D., co
Encouraging results for women with aggressive Her2-positive disease
The targeted drug trastuzumab, or Herceptin, previously shown to prolong survival in advanced breast cancer, dramatically reduced the chances of recurrence in patients with early-stage disease when given for one year following standard chemotherapy.
These are the encouraging findings in an interim report from HERA, an ongoing large, international clinical trial of Herceptin, being published today in t
Concurrent NCCTG and NSABP studies find trastuzumab best for women with HER2
In a joint paper, co-authored by Mayo Clinic’s Edith Perez, M.D., and Edward Romond, M.D., of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP), researchers report complete and combined results of two trials comparing adjuvant chemotherapy with or without concurrent trastuzumab treatment in women with surgically removed HER2-positive breast cancer. The studies showed trastuzumab (Herceptin®
Nine-year-old boy from northern Alberta tested and found to have genetic abnormality; first time it’s been identified by researchers
Researchers at the University of Toronto (U of T), Capital Health’s Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and their international collaborators have discovered a genetic abnormality that causes a type of language impairment in children – a discovery that could lead to isolating genes important
Genetic material derisively called “junk” DNA because it does not contain the instructions for protein-coding genes and appears to have little or no function is actually critically important to an organism’s evolutionary survival, according to a study conducted by a biologist at UCSD.
In the October 20 issue of Nature, Peter Andolfatto, an assistant professor of biology at UCSD, shows that these non-coding regions play an important role in maintaining an organism’s genetic integr
Penn State researchers have developed a prototype sonic gas analyzer that automatically and continuously tracks the concentration of a gas in an air/gas mixture based on changes in pitch.
Miguel Horta, doctoral candidate in acoustics who is currently working on the sonic gas analyzer as part of his dissertation, says, “The system automatically cancels out the background and flow noise and can detect changes in gas concentration as low as 0.003 percent – plenty sensitive enough,
We often make unwise choices although we should know better. Thunderstorm clouds ominously darken the horizon. We nonetheless go out without an umbrella because we are distracted and forget. But do we? Neurobiologists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies carried out experiments that prove for the first time that the brain remembers, even if we don’t and the umbrella stays behind. They report their findings in the Oct. 20th issue of Neuron.
“For the first time, we can
Men who have a yearly blood test to examine their prostate specific antigen levels are nearly three times less likely to die from prostate cancer than those who don’t have annual screenings, according to a study presented October 19, 2005, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s 47th Annual Meeting in Denver.
The study shows that over an estimated 10-year period, men who have an annual prostate specific antigen (PSA) test will have a 3.6 percent chance of dyi
Some patients with head and neck cancer can be safely spared the risk and expense of surgery by undergoing a CT scan to predict whether the disease is in check after radiation therapy, according to study findings University of Florida doctors released today (Oct. 18) at the annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.
Researchers with the UF Shands Cancer Center have identified criteria doctors can use to evaluate CT scans four weeks after patients
Correcting the timing of heart contractions through cardiac resynchronization therapy can be a lifesaver for people with advanced heart failure. But the procedure, as it is done today, fails in about 15 percent of patients.
Using a minimally invasive approach that may startle heart specialists, a medical-student researcher developed a technique that—at least in pigs—overcomes the procedure’s main shortcomings. Steven Mickelsen, a third-year medical student at the Univers
Children who have been treated with steroids and are exposed to chicken pox tend to have a more severe case of the virus, according to pediatric oncologists at Brenner Children’s Hospital, part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
New research published in the October issue of Pediatrics, says that children who are undergoing steroid treatments for diseases like childhood leukemia are at increased risk of contracting a more severe form of chicken pox, which may
In a major research initiative funded by The Terry Fox Foundation, Claude Perreault, Canada Chair in Immunobiology at the Institute of Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal, has succeeded in developing a new approach to eradicate malignant melanoma tumours in mice. The findings of Dr. Perreault and his research team are reported in an article just published in the online edition of Nature Medicine, and soon to be published in the print edition of the publicatio
“There should be a Nobel prize for the doctor who can eliminate hot flushes” – cancer specialist
A study by UK researchers of over 200 breast cancer patients receiving hormone treatments such as tamoxifen has found that nearly two-thirds would prefer to take a tablet daily and around a quarter would prefer a monthly injection, given that both treatments would be equally effective and have similar side-effects.
However, when presented with a hypothetical situation tha
Bacteria found in soil around Tokyo are not indigenous to the area. A study published in the open access journal Saline Systems reveals a large proportion of salt-loving bacteria in non-saline soil around Tokyo. The researchers suggest that dust storms may have carried the bacteria from their natural habitats in China.
Akinobu Echigo and colleagues, from Toyo University and the Noda Institute for Scientific Research in Japan, analysed bacteria found in non-saline soil collected in garden
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