Patients who develop diabetes shortly after kidney transplantation have poorer short-term outcomes than those who had the disease before transplant, according to a Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center study.

“Because patients with diabetes often pose many medical challenges due to the complications of the disease, it was surprising to see that these patients who’d been dealing with diabetes for years, ended up better off than the patients who only developed diabetes after their t

Short-Term Hormone Replacement Therapy Safe Following Removal of Ovaries

Two studies from the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania appearing online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) have important implications for women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. The first study shows that bilateral prophylactic mastectomy can reduce breast cancer risk by more than 90% in women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, and may be even more effective when performed concurrently w

A recent finding may lead to new treatments for multiple myeloma, an incurable cancer of immune cells called plasma cells that are present in the blood and bone marrow. The research, published in the February issue of Cancer Cell, reveals a frequent and common abnormal cellular event that occurs in about half of all myeloma cases and identifies an attractive target for therapeutic intervention.

A research team led by Dr. Louis M. Staudt from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryla

Scientists report that a protein made in excess in the majority of human tumors plays a significant role in the ability of cancer cells to resist traditional treatments. The research study, published in the February issue of Cancer Cell, provides new insight into the biology of cancer cells and may have a significant impact in the design of future, more effective cancer treatments.

Tumor formation results when cells divide in an unregulated fashion and many chemotherapeutic agents are thoug

Researchers in obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive endocrinology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham suggest that specialists should consider the routine use of laparoscopic evaluation when women are unable to become pregnant after four cycles of the “fertility pill” clomiphene citrate. They made their recommendation after reviewing 92 patient cases over an eight-year period. Some physicians have in the past few years forgone laparoscopy

Already renowned as a leading centre for plant science research, the University of Reading’s Herbarium is now a world resource for botanists after the launch of a new internet website featuring an ever-expanding database of specimens.

The Herbarium, which was founded in 1900, contains 264,500 plant specimens from around the world, with a particular focus on the United Kingdom and Mediterranean countries such as Spain and Morocco.

There are extensive collections of phanerogams, pter

It has long been known that migratory birds can make use of the earth’s magnetic fields to navigate. Birds read the angle that magnetic fields create on the ground and thereby determine how far north or south they are of the magnetic equator and the magnetic pole. But how do they do this? Is there some unknown “magnetic sense”? It seems that birds can actually see magnetic fields-providing the lighting conditions are right. Experiments on redbreasts carried out by a zoo-ecologist at Lund University i

Pieris butterflies are not like all other butterflies. Both sexes agree about sex. In a dissertation about olfactory communication, Johan Andersson, a scientist at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (KTH), Sweden, presents exciting new findings about a joint effort that provides an alternative view of the theory of sexual selection.

The Western man gives his partner an engagement ring when he wants to show the world that this woman is spoken for. When mating, the male white-winge

Initial testing indicates promise for the procedure

An initial Mayo Clinic study has confirmed the effectiveness and durability over time of a patient-friendly, robot-assisted procedure that corrects a complication that can follow hysterectomy. The study, published in the February issue of Urology, is the first in the United States to examine the feasibility of using this method to repair vaginal vault prolapse, or collapsed vaginal walls.

“The benefit to the patient is dram

Making some self-described “stupid moves” shifting stones for a sculpture landed Professor Ze’ev Seltzer with nine months of back pain and a more personal appreciation for the importance of his own field of research — finding the genetic links to chronic pain.

“One of the things that really surprised me when I had chronic pain was the anger I felt towards my body that has failed me,” Seltzer says. “You really feel this betrayal of the body and disappointment and you think, Why did it h

Single Infusion of islet cells surpasses previous success

esearchers at the University of Minnesota’s Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation (DIIT) and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Diabetes Center have achieved insulin independence in four of six patients with long-term Type 1 diabetes using one infusion of insulin-producing “islet” cells from a single donor pancreas.

Individuals in whom Type 1 diabetes was complicated by hypoglycemic

An experiment which forced E. coli bacteria to adapt or perish showed that, in a pinch, they were capable of improvising a novel molecular tool to save their skins.

“The bacteria reached for a tool that they had, and made it do something it doesn’t normally do,” said James Bardwell, an associate professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Michigan. “We caught evolution in the act of making a big step.”

This big step also turns out to be a new w

A century ago, when biologists used to talk about the primordial soup from which all life on Earth came, they probably never imagined from how far away the ingredients may have come. Recent findings have the origins of life reaching far out from what was once considered “the home planet.” Evolution on the early Earth may have been influenced by some pretty far-out stuff.

In a paper published this week in the journal Science, Arizona State University Chemistry Professor Sandra Pizzarello cla

Findings extend longevity research from yeast and worms to mammals

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have discovered how two key cellular influences on lifespan work together, providing insights that may help reveal aging mechanisms in humans. The findings extend longevity research from yeast and worms into mammals, and suggest that longer life results, at least in part, from biochemical interactions that boost cells’ ability to resist environmental stresses while in

Results of a phase III study from Germany in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggest that a tumour-based vaccine could reduce disease recurrence and increase survival of patients who have had surgery for kidney cancer.

3% of cancer occurs in the kidney, with around 12,000 renal-cancer deaths a year in the USA. Removal of part or all of the kidney (nephrectomy) is the standard treatment for renal cancer, although other treatments after surgery (eg, radiotherapy, chemotherapy) are not effectiv

One in five asthmatic patients are sensitive to aspirin, yet many are unaware that they are at risk of a potentially life threatening reaction known as aspirin induced asthma, warn researchers in this week’s BMJ.

Aspirin induced asthma is a severe reaction to aspirin and other commonly used painkillers, but controversy exists over its prevalence.

Researchers analysed 21 studies of asthmatic patients and found the prevalence of aspirin induced asthma to be 21% in adults and 5% in chi