Radiofrequency (RF) ablation offers an effective first-line treatment for some liver cancer patients who are excluded from surgery, according to two studies appearing in the March issue of the journal Radiology.
“I believe that this treatment will soon enter into the guidelines for the clinical management of liver cancer patients,” said the first study’s lead author, Riccardo Lencioni, M.D., a radiology professor at the University of Pisa in Italy.
Liver cancer is the
Yale scientists report in the journal Nature that the “missing” genes for tRNA in an ancient parasite are made up by splicing together sequences in distant parts of the DNA genome.
The research led by Professor Dieter Söll in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale focuses on the most ancient organism with a known genome sequence. Nanoarchaeum equitans, is a member of a new phylogenetic kingdom in the Archaea containing organisms that are primitive, par
Research led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) helps explain how a group of angiogenesis inhibitor molecules serve as an important defense mechanism against the development and spread of cancer, offering key insights into why cancerous tumors grow at different rates among different individuals.
The findings, which could help lead to the development of new drug treatments to help keep existing tumors at bay, are reported in the early edition of the Proceedings o
A study on bladder cancer cells lines showed that green tea extract has potential as an anti-cancer agent, proving for the first time that it is able to target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.
The study, published in the Feb. 15, 2005 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Cancer Research, also uncovered more about how green tea extract works to counteract the development of cancer, said JianYu Rao, a Jonsson Cancer Center member, an associate professor of p
The tension created between the supposed egalitarianism and the hierarchical realities of the American workplace can often cause conversational “black holes” during which employees avoid calling their bosses by any name, according to a Penn State researcher.
“Uncertainty over whether it is appropriate to call your boss ’Bob’ or ’Mr. Smith’ can create tension for employees in today’s workplace,” says Dr. David A. Morand, professor of management at Penn
The body mass index (BMI) of individuals who drink alcohol may be related to how much, and how often, they drink, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). In an analysis of data collected from more than 37,000 people who had never smoked, researchers found that BMI was associated with the number of drinks individuals consumed on the days they drank. Calculated as an individual’s weight in k
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used genetically modified mice to uncover a potentially important link between diabetes and obesity.
By genetically altering production of a factor found in skeletal muscle, scientists produced mice that can’t get fat but do develop early signs of diabetes. Reversing the alteration produced mice that can become obese but do not develop diabetes. The findings provide important insights for scientists struggling
UCLA scientists have created a mechanism at the nanoscale to externally control the function and action of a protein.
“We can switch a protein on and off, and while we have controlled a specific protein, we believe our approach will work with virtually any protein,” said Giovanni Zocchi, assistant professor of physics at UCLA, member of the California NanoSystems Institute and leader of the research effort. “This research has the potential to start a new approach to protein engine
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have made a discovery that may have implications for the treatment of liver-based genetic defects such as hemophilia A and B in humans.
Mouse embryonic stem cells treated in culture with a growth factor and then injected into the liver reverse a form of hemophilia in mice analogous to hemophilia B in humans, the new study shows. A report of the study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today
The fascinating interactions between flowers and their pollinators have resulted in a spectacular diversity of plants. In order to entice pollinators such as bees, flies or butterflies to visit and successfully pollinate their flowers, plants have evolved intriguing mechanisms and attractants, of which nectar is best known.
Thirty years ago, researchers discovered that nectars of flowers pollinated by butterflies contain substantial amounts of amino acids. Recent experiments ha
Birdsong delights listeners and intrigues evolutionary ecologists. Female birds are thought to preferentially mate with males with more complex or extravagant songs. But why should females prefer these males? What information does a male’s song convey?
Jane M. Reid and fellow researchers studied a population of song sparrows inhabiting Mandarte Island, British Columbia, Canada, where males sing elaborate repertoires of songs. They found that male sparrows with larger song r
If you’re a ship captain and there might be 50-foot waves headed your way, you’d appreciate some information about them, right? That’s the idea behind a wave model system a Texas A&M University at Galveston professor has developed. His detailed wave prediction system is currently in use in the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of Maine.
Vijay Panchang, head of the Department of Maritime Systems Engineering, doesn’t make waves – he predicts what they’ll do, when
Working under harsh Antarctic conditions, an international team of scientists, engineers and technicians has set in place the first critical elements of a massive neutrino telescope at the South Pole.
The successful deployment – in a 1.5 mile-deep hole drilled into the Antarctic ice – of a string of 60 optical detectors designed to sample phantom-like high-energy particles from deep space represents a key first step in the construction of the $272 million telescope known as IceCu
Max Planck scientists develop fundamentals for new microfluidic and nanofluidic devices
The labs of the future will be “labs-on-a-chip”, i.e., integrated chemical and biochemical laboratories shrunk down to the size of a computer chip. An essential prerequisite for such labs are appropriate microcompartments for the confinement of very small amounts of liquids and chemical reagents. Directly accessible surface channels, which can be fabricated by available photolithographic methods,
A new study of 60 newborns in New York City reveals that exposure of expectant mothers to combustion-related urban air pollution may alter the structure of babies’ chromosomes while in the womb. While previous experiments have linked such genetic alterations to an increased risk of leukemia and other cancers, much larger studies would be required to determine the precise increase in risk as these children reach adulthood.
The air pollutants considered in this study include e
Fundamental prospective trial investigated drug in patients with recurrent colon polyps
The largest prospective trial ever examining the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx as a chemoprevention agent found that the risk of developing a cardiovascular “event” – heart attacks and/or strokes – was almost double in patients who received the drug, compared to patients who took the placebo, according to a study out Feb. 15 on-line in The New England Journal of Medicine. The risk was first disco
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