Study implicates viral-mediated cell fusion as a possible engine of tumor formation

In some cases, the fusion of human cells is a normal process that leads, for instance, to the formation of muscle and bone. Viral infections can also cause cell fusion, but cells fused by viruses are widely considered to be harmless because they are generally believed to die without consequences for the host. According to a recent study, however, cell fusion triggered by viruses is a possible

A multidisciplinary team consisting of researchers from McGill/MUHC and the CHUM have been awarded a grant of nearly $700,000 by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to continue their groundbreaking research on pain suffered by some women during sexual intercourse. The new funding will allow the team, consisting of psychologists, gynecologists, physical therapists and statistician/epidemiologists, to root-out the cause of a condition experienced recurrently by at least 15% of Canadian

FameLab – a national competition to discover the new faces of UK science launched today in London (Tuesday 8 November 2005). The competition -dubbed the science world’s equivalent of Pop Idol – is the brainchild of the Cheltenham Science Festival and NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and supported by Pfizer, The Daily Telegraph, Research Councils UK and Channel 4.

Now in its second year, FameLab encourages scientists to inspire and excite public

Especially in Mexican-American children

Children bottle-fed past 12 months of age and Mexican-American children may be at high risk for iron deficiency and the problems that accompany it, according to a national study by Medical College of Wisconsin and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin researchers. The research was done in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Rochester and the American Academy of Pediatrics Center for Child Health Research. The findings appe

Grandma has Alzheimer’s disease – should you sign her up for a new research study, even if she doesn’t really understand what it entails? What if the research has real risks, is unlikely to benefit her, but could lead to advances that will help future patients with Alzheimer’s? A new study sheds light on these questions, which may come up more often as potential treatments require more involved and invasive research.

“As potential new therapies such as vaccines, ge

Need more evidence that men and women are different? Look no further than the Sunday funnies. According to a new Stanford University School of Medicine study, gender affects the way a person’s brain responds to humor.

The first-of-its-kind imaging study showed that women activate the parts of the brain involved in language processing and working memory more than men when viewing funny cartoons. Women were also more likely to activate with greater intensity the part of t

First national study encourages changes by the movie industry

The first national study to look at the connection between smoking in movies and smoking initiation among adolescents shows that exposure to smoking in popular films is a primary risk factor in determining whether young people will start smoking.

The study by researchers from Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) and Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) appears in the November 7 issues of the journal, Pediatrics. The re

Research may hold key to reduce national rate and improve neonatal health

Low birth weight, an important risk factor of infant mortality and childhood developmental disorders, varies more than 3-fold in regions across the U.S., according to national research conducted at Dartmouth Medical School. The study offers promise for health care experts in an area of prenatal health where progress has been elusive.

Published in the November 7 issue of Pediatrics, the study is the f

Inaccurate diagnoses led to painful biopsies that in themselves worsened the condition of patients with rare muscle-to-bone disease

A new research study shows how common a medical misdiagnosis can be and how severely it can exacerbate a disease. Focusing on a rare, genetic and disabling disease known as fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, or FOP, researchers designed the study as an examination of the frequency of misdiagnosis and the complications associated with it.

T

Books offering advice to parents about teens are less likely to contain injury prevention messages than those that give advice on parenting smaller children, according to a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. Notably absent from most such books were discussions about preventing automobile accidents among adolescents.

The UNC Injury Prevention Research Center investigation, which appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics, involved reviewing the 46

Universal health care systems such as Canada’s exist, to a very large extent, because access to health care is considered a fundamental right of everyone, irrespective of income and social status. While there is good evidence that access to acute medical care such as cardiac surgery is equitably distributed across income groups, there is little evidence regarding access to the expanding array of diagnostic imaging procedures such as CT scans and MRIs.

In this study, inv

A team of scientists is proposing that endangered California condors raised in captivity be released near seal and sea lion rookeries so that the birds can once again feast on the carcasses of marine mammals as their ancestors did centuries ago.

The researchers from Stanford University and four other institutions base their conclusion on the feeding behavior of modern and early condors and their potential prey. Writing in the Nov. 7 online edition of the Proceedings of the Nati

Reflecting on meaningful values provides biological and psychological protection from the adverse effects of stress, UCLA psychologists report in the November issue of the journal Psychological Science.

“Our study shows that reflection on personal values can buffer people from the effects of stress, but the implications are broader than that,” said Shelley E. Taylor, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology, and an expert in the field of stress and health. “Any positive self-affi

A study published in the November 11 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, lowers the levels of the amyloid-beta peptides which cause the telltale senile plaques of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Resveratrol is a natural polyphenol occurring in abundance in several plants, including grapes, berries and peanuts,” explains study author Philippe Marambaud. “The polyphenol is found in high concentrations in red

A new study on HIV-positive patients eligible for liver transplants found that their survival while waiting for a transplant is significantly shorter than patients who are HIV-negative. Other than infection, which caused many of the deaths, there appear to be no other factors that predict a poor outcome for these patients.

The results of this study appear in the November 2005 issue of Liver Transplantation, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver D

Study links information and communications technology to political ’place-making’ efforts

Cyberspace is widely considered to be lacking geography, rendering borders and distances irrelevant in a globalizing world. As a result, few have focused on how the very technologies that created the virtual space of the internet are also used to delineate physical locales.

A new study in the forthcoming issue of Current Anthropology focuses on how information and communi