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CINCINNATI—Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have found that the FDA-approved drug sirolimus, used primarily to prevent rejection in organ transplant patients, stabilized lung function in women with lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM).

The Multicenter International LAM Efficacy of Sirolimus (MILES) trial was the first randomized, controlled study designed to develop a therapy for this life-threatening illness, which currently has no cure or treatment.

WHAT: Sirolimus, a drug currently used to help prevent transplant rejection, can improve lung function and quality of life in individuals living with the lung disease lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), according to the results of a new study sponsored and conducted in part by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.

"Efficacy and Safety of Sirolimus in Lymphangioleiomyomatosis," will be published online March 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), in collaboration with researchers from the Inner City Asthma Consortium, have found that among inner-city children, the drug omalizumab improved asthma control, nearly eliminated seasonal exacerbations and reduced the need for controller medication. These findings appear in the March 17th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Durham, NC — A new study of more than three dozen bacteria species — including the microbes responsible for pneumonia, meningitis, stomach ulcers and plague — settles a longstanding debate about why bacteria are more likely to steal some genes than others.

What's in a name? Letters. And psychologists have posited that the letters—particularly the first letter of our names—can influence decisions, including whom we marry and where we move. The effect is called "implicit egotism."

In 2008, two Belgian researchers found that workers in their country were more likely to choose a workplace if the first letter of its name matched their own.

In the business of concrete making, what's old—even ancient—is new again.

Almost 1,900 years ago, the Romans built what continues to be the world's largest unreinforced solid concrete dome in the world—the Pantheon. The secret, probably unknown to the Emperor Hadrian's engineers at the time, was that the lightweight concrete used to build the dome had set and hardened from the inside out. This internal curing process enhanced the material's strength, durability, resistance to cracking, and other properties so that the Pantheon continues to be used for special events to this day.

It's been more than 20 years since scientists first discovered the gene that causes cystic fibrosis (CF), yet questions about how the mutated gene causes disease remain unanswered.

PHILADELPHIA -- More than three quarters of domestic violence victims who report the incidents to police seek health care in emergency rooms, but most of them are never identified as being victims of abuse during their hospital visit. These findings, from a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study, point to a missed opportunity to intervene and offer help to women who suffer violence at the hands of an intimate partner.

For worms, choosing when to search for a new dinner spot depends on many factors, both internal and external: how hungry they are, for example, how much oxygen is in the air, and how many other worms are around. A new study demonstrates this all-important decision is also influenced by the worm's genetic make-up.

Once thought to exclusively inhabit its namesake mountain range, the threatened Andean cat—a house cat-sized feline that resembles a small snow leopard in both appearance and habitat—also frequents the Patagonian steppe at much lower elevations, according to a new study published by the Wildlife Conservation Society and partners.

Paleontologists agree that it's difficult to observe behavior in fossil specimens that are dead – even extinct – and petrified. One method is to find a modern, living, species that has some similarities to the ancient animal.

That's the strategy adopted by David L. Meyer, University of Cincinnati professor of geology and colleagues as they study a group of ancient shellfish known as brachiopods. Although they resemble clams or other shelled mollusks, brachiopods are more closely related to marine worms. Relatively rare today, brachiopods were a dominant species in Paleozoic seas.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University scientist's nanopolymer would make it easier and cheaper for drug developers to test the effectiveness of a widely used class of cancer inhibitors.

HAMILTON, March 16, 2011 -- Children and adolescents growing up with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are less fit than their peers, says a study by researchers at McMaster University and the McMaster Children's Hospital.

The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics online, shows children and youth with the most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease have aerobic fitness levels 25 per cent lower than other children their age, and their muscle function is 10 per cent lower.

Amsterdam, 16 March, 2011 – A recent special edition of the journal Fungal Biology Reviews, published by Elsevier, on behalf of the British Mycological Society, features a total of 76 videos which together comprise the most comprehensive collection of fungal cell biology movies ever published. The movies were produced by Professor Gero Steinberg of the University of Exeter, UK, who is a renowned researcher in the field of fungal cell biology.

Using a light-triggered chemical tool, Johns Hopkins scientists report that they have refined a means of moving individual molecules around inside living cells and sending them to exact locations at precise times.

This new tool, they say, gives scientists greater command than ever in manipulating single molecules, allowing them to see how molecules in certain cell locations can influence cell behavior and to determine whether cells will grow, die, move or divide. A report on the work was published online December 13 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.