Body

In a study published online this week in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, an international team of researchers report that a virus that causes respiratory disease in humans infected and contributed to the deaths of mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park. This finding raises questions about the safety of ecotourism for endangered species.

An experimental drug lessens symptoms of a rare form of childhood leukemia and offers significant insight into the cellular development of the disease, according to findings from a new UCSF study. The mouse model research could spearhead the development of new leukemia therapies and paves the way for future clinical trials in humans.

Two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists may have discovered "the map to El Dorado" for the American elm-a previously hidden population of elms that carry genes for resistance to Dutch elm disease. The disease kills individual branches and eventually the entire tree within one to several years.

NEW YORK (March 30, 2011) -- In the longest study of its kind, bariatric surgery has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients with diabetes. These results and other groundbreaking research were presented at the 2nd World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes, hosted by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The most recently discovered amino acid, pyrrolysine, is produced by a series of just three chemical reactions with a single precursor – the amino acid lysine, according to new research.

Scientists at Ohio State University used mass spectrometry and a series of experiments to discover how cells make the amino acid, a process that until now had been unknown.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Last year, a research team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill discovered one way the protein Tet 1 helps stem cells keep their pluripotency—the unique ability to become any cell type in the body. In two new studies, the team takes a broad look at the protein's location in the mouse genome, revealing a surprising dual function and offering the first genome-wide location of the protein and its product, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine—dubbed the "sixth base" of DNA.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A lack of equipment and venues – and a lack of motivation even if those were available – are the main barriers to physical activity for adolescent boys, according to recently published research from a Michigan State University nursing researcher.

A study of sixth-grade boys' attitudes led by Lorraine Robbins from MSU's College of Nursing suggests an after-school physical activity program could help overcome the decrease in exercise typically seen in this age group.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. — Researchers have built a computer model of the crowded interior of a bacterial cell that – in a test of its response to sugar in its environment – accurately simulates the behavior of living cells.

The new "in silico cells" are the result of a collaboration between experimental scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Biology in Germany and theoretical scientists at the University of Illinois using the newest GPU (graphics processing unit) computing technology.

(WASHINGTON, March 30, 2011) – While the median age at diagnosis for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is over 60 years old and incidence increases dramatically with age,limited data are available about the long-term outcome for older patients treated with imatinib, the standard first-line therapy used to treat CML.

DALLAS – March 31, 2011 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered genetic pathways to starve selectively kidney cancer cells.

If Congress reversed its ban on allowing people with HIV to be organ donors after their death, roughly 500 HIV-positive patients with kidney or liver failure each year could get transplants within months, rather than the years they currently wait on the list, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.

Researchers from the University of York and Manchester have successfully extracted protein from the bones of a 600,000 year old mammoth, paving the way for the identification of ancient fossils.

Doctors report that singing reduced the blood pressure of a 76-year-old woman who had experienced severe preoperative hypertension prior to total knee replacement surgery for osteoarthritis (OA). While the patient was unresponsive to aggressive pharmacologic interventions, the woman's blood pressure dropped dramatically when she sang several religious songs. This case-report appears in the April issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).

WASHINGTON, DC, March 30, 2011 -- Good news for candy and chocolate lovers: they tend to weigh less, have lower body mass indices (BMI) and waist circumferences, and have decreased levels of risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and metabolic syndrome, according to a new study(1) published in Nutrition Research.