A multidisciplinary international consortium will study the secrets of sleep disorders applying new methods.
Dr. Tarja Porkka-Heiskanen (Stenberg) MD, PhD, at the Institute of Biomedicine, University of Helsinki, coordinates a new EU-funded project, which addresses the mechanisms of sleep regulation. The “Enough Sleep” – project is a forerunner in combining several research disciplines into an integrated program and incorporating a company to develop commercial products based on
Fish have menopause, study determines; menopausal period not affected by evolution
A UC Riverside-led research team has found that as some populations of an organism evolve a longer lifespan, they do so by increasing only that segment of the lifespan that contributes to “fitness” – the relative ability of an individual to contribute offspring to the next generation.
Focusing on guppies, small fresh-water fish biologists have studied for long, the researchers found th
For many years, scientists thought gene activity was relatively straightforward: Genes were transcribed into messenger RNA, which was processed and translated into the proteins of the body. Certainly, there were many factors governing the transcription process, but gene control happened at the level of the DNA.
In the past few years, however, evidence for a more nuanced understanding of the total genetic system has steadily accumulated. Researchers at The Wistar Institute and els
Young men can be aggressive – even during the season of goodwill. Now, a new study by University of East London (UEL) psychologist Tom Dickins shows how patterns of male aggression vary with sexual orientation.
According to the findings of the study, forthcoming in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, homosexual men score higher for empathy and show significantly lower levels of physical aggression than heterosexual men.
However they do show similar level
The animal kingdom’s family tree is beginning to look a little bushy.
Two decades ago, with the advent of methods to look at the family relationships of different organisms by analyzing DNA, scientists envisioned it would only be a matter of time before the various family trees for plants, animals, fungi and their kin would be resolved with genetic precision.
And while molecular methods have had enormous success in ordering some branches in the tree of life — ma
Finding out why seemingly healthy people experience ventricular fibrillation, a fatal irregular heart rhythm, could eventually lead to better methods of early detection, according to a Medical College of Georgia researcher.
“We don’t know what starts ventricular fibrillation or why defibrillation – electrically shocking the heart back into beating normally – works to correct it,” says Dr. Autumn Schumacher, a new faculty member in the MCG School of Nursing who recently won the Am
In a major study funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), women with either inactive or stable systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) — a disease in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks and damages healthy tissues of the skin, joints and internal organs — were able to take oral contraceptives without increased risk of flares, or periods of increased disease activity, that characterize th
A recent study in The American Journal of Gastroenterology revealed that patterns in diet may effect the development of colorectal adenomas, or precancerous polyps of the colon.
In this study, over 1500 patients underwent baseline colonoscopy to remove existing polyps. They were then given a survey about their diet. After a period of one and then four years later, the group underwent follow-up colonoscopies to determine if any polyps had returned. Those who had consumed diets higher in p
A groundbreaking new study examines the origins of holiday giving and finds that our early human ancestors were frequently altruistic.
“Reciprocity is arguably the foundational basis of cooperation in humans,” writes Michael Gurven (University of California – Santa Barbara). “A core feature of reciprocity is the contingent relationship between acts of giving and receiving among social partners. Contingency is important because it sets the rules for who qualifies as a free-rider
Study a breakthrough in efforts to find safe, effective method of producing large quantities of vaccine for top bioterrorism threat
Enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate everyone in the United States could be grown inexpensively and safely with only one acre of tobacco plants, a University of Central Florida molecular biologist has found.
Mice immunized with a vaccine produced in UCF professor Henry Daniell’s laboratory through the genetic engineering of tobacco plan
If you are a Medicare beneficiary, should it matter whether your health care plan is for-profit or not-for-profit? According to a study published in the December issue of The American Journal of Medicine, it may.
By analyzing the first mandatory reporting of Quality-of-Care (QOC) data for Medicare patients, researchers from the Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health; and the Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston,
Swedish study points to link between depression and coronary heart disease
According to a large-scale study in Sweden, people who have been diagnosed with depression, especially younger patients between 25 and 50 years of age, are at increased risk of developing Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) later in life. Even after accounting for socioeconomic status and gender, the risk was greatest for those diagnosed before 40.
In an article published in the December issue of the Am
New research reveals that television commercials featuring celebrity voice-overs are most influential when consumers can’t identify which actor it belongs to.
The study, by Mark Forehand of the University of Washington Business School and Andrew Perkins of Rice University, appears in the December issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.
The researchers studied consumers’ reactions to TV commercials featuring actors Willem Dafoe, David Duchovny, David Hyde Pie
Monumental measurement of mortality
The world’s largest prospective study on mortality, in which a staff of a thousand are monitoring 14 million people in 2.4 million representative households, is currently underway in India. As described in the open access journal PLoS Medicine, the study will ascertain the causes of one million deaths expected to occur among these people in the period between 1998 and 2014. Three quarters of the 9.5 million annual deaths in India occur in the ho
Scientists have identified 570 genes that act abnormally during the development of Parkinson’s Disease, a finding which could help doctors predict the likelihood of it developing, and provide targets for new treatments.
The research published in Neurogenetics, by the team from Imperial College London and the University of Liege, Belgium, uses microarrays to analyse brains from Parkinson’s patients. Microarrays are laboratory chips able to pick out which genes are active when diffe
Improved materials may allow stents, tiny metal scaffolds inserted into blood vessels, to better deliver beneficial genes to patients with heart disease, by reducing the risk of inflammation that often negates initial benefits. The new technique, using a compound that binds in an extremely thin layer to bare metal surfaces, may have potential uses in other areas of medicine that make use of metallic implants.
Cardiologists frequently treat heart disease patients now by using stents to ex
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