While breast cancer screening in rural America remains underutilized, barriers to screening mammography in poor, rural areas are marked by significant racial disparities, according to a new study. These barriers include poor knowledge about breast cancer and screening, difficulty accessing facilities, and lack of encouragement and funds to get screened. These factors are particularly striking among Native Americans. The study will be published in the December 1, 2004 issue of CANCER, a peer-re
Severe calorie restriction prevents certain aging-related changes in the brain, including the accumulation of free radicals and impairments in coordination and strength, according to a mouse study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. However, the dietary changes did not seem to prevent mice from developing some cognitive deficits associated with age, such as declines in memory. The study will be presented at 3 p.m. PT on Sunday, Oct. 24 at Neuroscience 2004, the Society fo
A repetitive drop in blood oxygen levels in newborn rats, similar to that caused by apnea (brief pauses in breathing) in some human infants, is followed by a long-lasting reduction in the release of the brain neurotransmitter dopamine, according to an Emory University research study. Because dopamine promotes attention, learning, memory and a variety of higher cognitive functions, the researchers believe repetitive apnea during neonatal development may be one factor leading to the development
Highest ratings to Duke, Harvard, Stanford
A newly-commissioned study of 34 graduate school decision programs in the United States rated those at Duke University, Harvard University, and Stanford University the leading prescriptive programs in the field, according to researchers at the annual meeting of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).
The leading descriptive graduate programs cited were Carnegie Mellon University, University o
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have dispelled the widespread belief among obstetricians that, in premature infants, brain injury results from a lack of oxygen, also called hypoxia, when, in fact, infection plays a larger role.
“Infection plays a much larger role than lack of oxygen in brain injury among premature infants,” said high-risk obstetrician Ernest Graham, M.D., an assistant professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and lead author of the study, presen
A research team led by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has found a potential new protein marker for prognosis of breast and ovarian cancer.
In the November, 2004 issue of the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers report tumor cells that “overexpress” the protein Rab25 are more aggressive and associated with poorer outcome. Thus, Rab25 could represent a novel therapeutic target or marker of tumor behavior, they say.
The researchers matched tumor sa
Two studies presented at Society for Neuroscience Meeting (NOTE: Thise release has been updated since its original post.)
Scientists at the OHSU Oregon National Primate Research Center and the University of Pittsburgh report significant stress early in life can have varying lifelong impacts depending of the timing of the stress exposure. The research also demonstrates that the impact can become even more profound when coupled with stress in adulthood. In a related but separate study
In an animal model of Parkinson’s, exercise prevents degeneration of nerve cells that are normally impaired or destroyed by the disease, according to University of Pittsburgh researchers. Based on their work, which was presented today at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, a small pilot study has been initiated in patients with Parkinson’s to determine if regular exercise has an impact on the progression of their disease.
In Parkinson&#
Human primitive spinal cord cells delayed symptoms and paralysis by a week when implanted in the spinal cord of rats destined to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, researchers from Johns Hopkins report.
The human neuronal stem cells were obtained from embryos by scientists at biotech company Neurostem Inc., transferred to Hopkins and implanted into the lower part of the rats’ spinal cords about a month before the animals usually develop
Inebriated bees could give researchers better insight into alcohol’s effects on human behavior, a new study suggests.
“Alcohol affects bees and humans in similar ways – it impairs motor functioning along with learning and memory processing,” said Julie Mustard, a study co-author and a postdoctoral researcher in entomology at Ohio State University.
Researchers gave honey bees various levels of ethanol, the intoxicating agent in liquor, and monitored the ensuing behavio
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai’s Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute have described an immune-disruptive process driven by an enzyme that is overexpressed in the cells of many types of tumors, including malignant brain tumors called gliomas.
Blocking the enzyme’s expression in laboratory tests interrupted the series of cell-level events and led to the development of cells capable of launching an immune response. This finding supports the suggestion that medications attacking the enzyme
Study Helps Explain Why Albuterol Benefits Some Asthma Patients More Than Others
Genes affect how asthma patients respond to albuterol, according to results of a new study of adults with mild asthma. Researchers in the Asthma Clinical Research Network (ACRN) of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, found that over time, how participants responded to daily doses of inhaled albuterol differed depending on which form of
Estrogen treatment had less beneficial effect on memory in female mice that raced on running wheels and played with other toys than in mice raised in non-stimulating environments, according to a Yale study published this month.
“We saw no beneficial effect of estrogen in the animals in cognitively and physically stimulating environments (also known as enriched environments),” said Karyn Frick, assistant professor of psychology and principal investigator on the study. “This fi
For people who suffer from a rapid heartbeat condition called tachycardia, an implanted device can usually nudge the racing blood pump back into a normal rhythm by applying electrical pulses to the heart. But on rare occasions, in a twist that has baffled physicians, the anti-tachycardia pulses produce the opposite effect: they trigger an even faster and more dangerous heartbeat.
By electrically jolting cardiac cells in a lab and mapping the change in the electrical activity, bio
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have found a new way to study individual living bacteria cells and analyze their chemistry.
In research published today in Science, the scientists used high-energy X-ray fluorescence measurements for mapping and chemical analyses of single free-floating, or planktonic, and surface-adhered, or biofilm, cells of Pseudomonas fluorescens. The results showed differences between the planktonic and adhered
Researchers have identified a new gene that causes a common form of inherited Parkinson’s disease (PD) and whose understanding they believe “will impact not only patients and their families but will open novel avenues of research aimed at identifying and ultimately halting the molecular events that lead to PD.”
The international research team reported finding the gene in a mutant form in five families from Spain and the United Kingdom. They have named the protein “dard
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