An analysis of new data by a leading cancer researcher has revealed specific cancers that are most likely to affect teenagers and young adults, and it points to infections, adolescent growth spurts, and hormones as being among the possible causes. Now, international collaborative research is needed to find out more.

Professor Jillian Birch told a news briefing at the 4th International Conference on Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Medicine, organised by the charity Teenage Cancer Trust, that

Research News from the Journal of Pathology

While newly published research confirms that under laboratory circumstances prion-protein can be absorbed across the gut, it also shows that this is unlikely to occur in real life. In addition, the results show that the places in the gut that do take up these disease-associated proteins are different from the locations where infectivity is known to be amplified. The findings will be published in the Journal of Pathology.

Si

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have identified a new gene that causes the spread of cancer.

Professor Philip Rudland, Dr Guozheng Wang and Dr Roger Barraclough from the University’s Cancer and Polio Research Fund Laboratories have discovered an additional member of the S100 family of protein genes – S100P – that causes the spread of cancerous cells from an original tumour to other parts of the body.

If present in the primary tumour, metastagenes such as S100P tr

Antibiotic resistance is a major problem worldwide and there is an urgent need for new antibiotics to be developed. Potential new drugs are usually made in the lab which is complicated and time-consuming. An international team of scientists are using bacteria found naturally in the soil to produce new antibiotics in the fight against drug-resistant “Super-bugs” such as MRSA.

Led by Professor Tony Maxwell of the John Innes Centre (Norwich, UK) [1] and Professor Lutz Heide of the Pharm

PowderMed, the immunotherapeutics company focused on the development and manufacture of DNA-based vaccines for viral diseases and cancer, has announced that its dual-antigen encoding immunotherapeutic for Hepatitis B (HBV) has received US IND approval together with approval from the Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwanese Regulatory Authorities and has entered Phase I Clinical Trials. The study will primarily evaluate the safety and tolerability of the HBV immunotherapeutic, pdpSC18, administered by P

The sweetgum tree grows widely throughout the country and is known for its mace-like green fruit, which are sometimes called “gumballs.” Now, this spiny fruit may become an important source of a chemical needed to make a lifesaving drug against bird flu — a drug that is currently in short supply worldwide, researchers say.

Chemists have found that the seeds of the sweetgum fruit contain significant amounts of shikimic acid, the starting material used to produce the main antiviral agen

Chemists have developed a powerful household water purification system that puts the cleansing power of an industrial water treatment plant into a container the size of a ketchup packet. The researchers have shown that the tiny packet, which acts as a chemical filter, can be added to highly contaminated water to dramatically reduce pathogen-induced diarrhea — the top killer of children in much of the developing world.

The packets also show promise for boosting water safety during emer

A Duke University engineering group is doing pioneering work at very diminutive dimensions. Their basic studies could lead to genetically engineered proteins that can form erasable chemical detectors; self-grown forests of molecular “bottlebrushes” that keep themselves contamination-free; and auto-assembled DNA “towers” that could become anchors for the tiniest of devices.

Professor of biomedical engineering Ashutosh Chilkoti of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering will describe such a

Finding may also shed light on cause of autism

Researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Clinic for Special Children (CSC) in Strasburg, PA, have described a new childhood-onset disorder characterized by severe epilepsy and autistic traits, and identified its genetic basis.
Epilepsies are a biologically complex group of disorders comprising many discrete genetic entities, and the majority of recurrent seizure syndromes remain unexplained. M

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) have identified a previously unknown gene variant that doubles an individual’s risk for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The new functional variant, or allele, is a component of the serotonin transporter gene (SERT), site of action for the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that are today’s mainstay medications for OCD, other anxiety disorders, and

The first gene therapy human trial in the United States for a form of muscular dystrophy is under way.

The clinical trial for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) tests the safety and effectiveness of a therapy that was developed over two decades by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh.

The trial was launched March 28, at Columbus Children’s Hospital in Ohio, an affiliate of Ohio State Universit

A pain–killing medication appears to halt the production of an enzyme that is key to a common form of breast cancer, a new study using tissue cultures suggests.

The drug is called nimesulide. In laboratory experiments on breast cancer cells, scientists found that derivatives of nimesulide stopped the production of aromatase, the enzyme implicated in estrogen-dependent breast cancer. This form of breast cancer is the most common kind of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

Rodeo athletes have often been called a breed of their own and now University of Alberta research looking into how they deal with whiplash injuries confirms it.

Dr. Robert Ferrari, from the U of A’s Department of Medicine, has conducted several studies on whiplash and patients’ expectations of recovery. Last year while on a radio talk show, he was explaining how Canadians have a worse outcome than those recovering from similar injuries in other countries. Since w

New evidence to explain how the body’s natural joint lubricant prevents the wear and tear that can lead to osteoarthritis has been uncovered by researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering The findings may lead to new methods for treating arthritis, the researchers said.

The team found in realistic models of joints that, rather than simply reducing friction, a component of joint fluid called lubricin forms a very thin barrier that repels joint surfaces to preve

Results from a clinical trial demonstrate that high doses of an experimental H5N1 avian influenza vaccine can induce immune responses in healthy adults. Approximately half of those volunteers who received an initial and a booster dose of the highest dosage of the vaccine tested in the trial developed levels of infection-fighting antibodies that current tests predict would neutralize the virus. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of H

Youth with superior IQ are distinguished by how fast the thinking part of their brains thickens and thins as they grow up, researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans showed that their brain’s outer mantle, or cortex, thickens more rapidly during childhood, reaching its peak later than in their peers – perhaps reflecting a longer developmental window for high-level thinking c