Body

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Using recent advances in genomics, researchers have uncovered a genetic pathway that affects the development of breast cancer, work that could help predict which patients are at risk of relapse for the disease.

By studying which genes are expressed – or "turned on" – in breast cancer, research led by Michigan State University's Eran Andrechek uncovered a role for several members of the E2F family of genes, which control cell division and growth.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Dinosaurs squashed them with impunity. Thousands of species that lacked culinary appreciation have turned up their noses at them. And a study based on advanced DNA analysis has shown that this shameful indifference went on for 129 million years.

Finally, however, one animal species came along that would learn to appreciate this particular fungus with almost a global reverence – homo sapiens. Thus was born the human affection for the morel – for millions of people around the world, it's what you mean when you say "mushroom hunting."

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researcher Steve Plimpton, who led development of a widely used computer code that models how materials behave, has been invited to present a keynote lecture at the Feb. 27-March 3 Minerals, Materials & Materials Society (TMS) meeting in San Diego.

Plimpton developed the LAMMPS molecular-dynamics software code. The acronym LAMMPS (Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator) is also a pun on the word "lamp," a device that brings light to dark places.

LEBANON, NH - A clinical study of anti-HIV/AIDS medicines in the developing world is on the verge of turning "the whole treatment world on its head," according to Dartmouth pediatrician Paul Palumbo.

Researchers determined that carotid artery stenting (CAS) with embolic protection is an economically attractive alternative to endarterectomy (END) for patients at increased surgical risk. The study, based on data from the Stenting and Angioplasty with Protection in Patients at High Risk for Endarterectomy (SAPPHIRE) trial, found that initial procedural cost was higher with CAS, but post-procedure hospital stay was shorter which significantly offset associated costs compared to END.

People in marginalized groups, such as the disabled or racial minorities, feel stigmatized—condemned, feared, or excluded—when other people stigmatize them. That's obvious. But they can also feel stigma when nobody blatantly discriminates against them or says a negative word.

These folks aren't paranoid, suggests a new study of HIV-positive people and their communities to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association of Psychological Science. Rather, they're picking up subtle clues from their communities.

TORONTO, On – March 3, 2011 – Men living in low-income neighbourhoods consume more than three times as many alcoholic drinks each week compared to women in these neighbourhoods, according to a study led by St. Michael's researcher Flora Matheson.

The findings, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, suggest neighbourhood affluence affects men and women differently when it comes to alcohol consumption. Heavy drinking is associated with higher death rates and a greater risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and liver cirrhosis.

A research team from the University of Valencia has discovered that up to 20% of spices and 26% of herbs sold in Spain are contaminated by various bacteria, reducing their quality. The study, which is the first of its kind in Spain, suggests that health and hygiene control systems should be put in place, from cultivation of these products right through to when they reach the market.

Scientists from the University of Valencia have for the first time studied the microbiological quality of 53 samples of spices and herbs such as thyme and oregano sold at Spanish markets.

New research into the neurodegenerative disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) offers new insight into the link between sunlight, vitamin D3, and MS risk and severity. The research, published in the European Journal of Immunology, studies the relationship between the sunlight-dependent vitamin D3 hormone, immune cells, and the risk and severity of autoimmunity in an experimental model.

All night long, bats swoop over our landscape consuming insects, but they do this in secret, hidden from our view. Until recently, scientists have been unable to bring their ecosystem out of the dark but thanks to new genetic techniques, researchers from the University of Bristol and Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Canada, have been able to reconstruct the environment supporting these elusive creatures.

A novel study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet has deepened the understanding of how chromosome replication, one of life's most fundamental processes, works. In a long term perspective these results could eventually lead to novel cancer therapies. The study is presented in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.

ATLANTA -- An enzyme viewed as an executioner, because it can push cells to commit suicide, may actually short circuit a second form of cell death, researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have discovered.

The finding could shift drug discovery efforts, by leading scientists to rethink how proposed anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory drugs that target the enzyme, called caspase 8, are supposed to work. The results are described in this week's Nature.

Sea-ice algae – the important first rung of the food web each spring in places like the Arctic Ocean – can engineer ice to its advantage, according to the first published findings about this ability.

The same gel-like mucus secreted by sea-ice algae as a kind of antifreeze against temperatures well below minus 10 C is also allowing algae to sculpt microscopic channels and pores in ice that are hospitable to itself and other microorganisms.

With the steep decline in populations of many animal species, scientists have warned that Earth is on the brink of a mass extinction like those that have occurred just five times during the past 540 million years.

Each of these "Big Five" saw three-quarters or more of all animal species go extinct.

In results of a study published in this week's issue of journal Nature, researchers report on an assessment of where mammals and other species stand today in terms of possible extinction compared with the past 540 million years.

They find cause for hope--and alarm.

WASHINGTON, DC, March 1, 2011 — The discrimination that obese people feel, whether it is poor service at a restaurant or being treated differently in the workplace, may have a direct impact on their physical health, according to new research from Purdue University.