Body

A team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has developed a faster way to engineer synthetic enzymes that target specific DNA sequences for inactivation, repair or alteration. The report from the MGH Molecular Pathology Unit, being published online in Nature Methods, describes a highly effective but less labor-intensive way to generate powerful tools called zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs).

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have pinpointed a protein that compromises the kidney's filtering ability, causing nephrotic syndrome, and demonstrated that a naturally occurring precursor of an acid in the body offers potential for treating some forms of the condition.

The research was published online Dec. 12 in Nature Medicine.

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), have identified components in pomegranate juice that seem to inhibit the movement of cancer cells and weaken their attraction to a chemical signal that has been shown to promote the metastasis of prostate cancer to the bone, according to a presentation today at the American Society for Cell Biology's 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

Insulin-secreting pancreatic islet cells have been generated from human spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) directly isolated from human testicular tissue, researchers reported today at the American Association of Cell Biology 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

When grafted into diabetic mice that lacked a transplant-rejecting immune system, the bioengineered cells functioned much like somatic β-islet cells, the Georgetown University (GU) Medical Center researchers said.

PHILADELPHIA – Men with type 1 diabetes may be able to grow their own insulin-producing cells from their testicular tissue, say Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researchers who presented their findings today at the American Society of Cell Biology 50th annual meeting in Philadelphia.

SAN ANTONIO -- Results for testing breast tumors for HER2 (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-cancer/AN00495) proteins and genes is most often straightforward when one piece of tumor (a single tumor block) is analyzed. However, tumors can be diverse, and researchers at Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.org/) found that HER2 results can vary in up to 10 percent of patients when several tumor blocks are analyzed.

SAN ANTONIO — A higher prescription co-payment, especially among older women, is associated with both early discontinuation and incomplete use of adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy, a life-saving therapy for women with hormone sensitive early-stage breast cancer.

Dawn L. Hershman, M.D., M.S., associate professor of medicine and epidemiology and co-director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University, presented detailed study results at the 33rd CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 8-12, 2010.

SAN ANTONIO — Do not delay treatment of breast cancer just because a woman is pregnant, said lead researcher Sibylle Loibl, Dr. med, of the German Breast Group.

This suggestion is based on study results detailing the effects of different treatment options on the infant. Loibl presented this data at the 33rd Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 8-12, 2010.

"At the time we started the study in 2003, there was hardly any information on breast cancer therapy during pregnancy, but we felt there was a medical need for it," she said.

A higher prescription co-payment, especially among older women, is associated with both early discontinuation and incomplete use of adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy, a life-saving therapy for women with hormone sensitive early stage breast cancer.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A drug commonly used to treat depression and anxiety disorder was effective at reducing joint and muscle pain associated with a breast cancer treatment, according to a study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

SAN ANTONIO -- With guidance from a specialized scan, radiation oncologists at Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.org/) were able to reduce by 55 percent the number of lymph nodes critical for removing fluid from the arm that received damaging radiation doses.

A gene target for drug resistance, a triple-drug cocktail for triple negative breast cancer, and patients' risk for carpal tunnel syndrome are among study highlights scheduled to be presented by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists during the 33rd Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 8-12. The information is embargoed for the time of presentation at the symposium.

HOXB7 GENE PROMOTES TAMOXIFEN RESISTANCE(Presentation # PD05-10)

SAN ANTONIO — Results of the GeparQuinto study, randomized Phase III efficacy data on the use of bevacizumab plus chemotherapy to treat women with early breast cancer will be presented at the 33rd Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Gunter von Minckwitz, M.D., Ph.D., managing director of the German Breast Group, and colleagues are conducting final analyses on efficacy data from this study, which will detail the early treatment of more than 1,900 patients with HER2-negative breast cancer treated with chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab.

(Washington, DC) – A recent study of the use of metaphors in spoken language and various sign languages shows that certain types of metaphors are difficult to convey in sign language. The study, "Iconicity and metaphor: Constraints on metaphorical extension of iconic forms," to be published in the December 2010 issue of the scholarly journal Language, is authored by Irit Meir of the University of Haifa.