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Early Online Releases:

1. Depression Symptoms and Low Physical Activity May Keep Dialysis Patients from WorkingEfforts to Improve Mood and Activity Might Help Patients Remain Employed

Ethnicity is a contributing risk factor of cardiovascular problems in kidney recipients of South Asian origin post-transplant, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).

South Asians comprise 25% of all Canadian visible minorities and have a higher risk for cardiovascular disease in the general population. However, the risk of cardiovascular events has never been studied in this minority population.

TORONTO, Ont., September 30, 2010 — South Asian men and women have more than twice the risk of suffering a heart attack after a kidney transplant, according to a study led by St. Michael's nephrologist Dr. Ramesh Prasad.

A cheetah lies still in the grass. Finally, a gazelle comes into view. The cheetah plunges forward, reaches sixty-five miles per hour in three seconds, and has the hapless gazelle by the jugular in less than a minute. Then it must catch its breath, resting before eating.

Women in South Africa who underwent human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA-based testing or visual inspection of the cervix followed by treatment of test-positive women with cryotherapy had a statistically significant reduction in high grade cervical cancer precursors, compared with women in a control group, according to a study published online Sept. 30 in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

High in an alpine meadow, Gesine Pufal, from the University of Wellington, New Zealand, crouched low to the ground and splashed some water from her water bottle on a low green plant cushion, then sat back waiting to see if something would move. Sound crazy? Many hikers passing by her may have thought so, but Pufal was trying to find potential plant species that possess a type of plant movement called hygrochasy.

An experimental vaccine intended to prevent genital herpes disease in women, although generally safe and well-tolerated, proved ineffective when tested in the recently concluded clinical study known as the Herpevac Trial for Women.

A research and development effort by the University of Notre Dame, the University of Wyoming, and Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc. has succeeded in producing transgenic silkworms capable of spinning artificial spider silks.

"This research represents a significant breakthrough in the development of superior silk fibers for both medical and non-medical applications," said Malcolm J. Fraser Jr., a Notre Dame professor of biological sciences. "The generation of silk fibers having the properties of spider silks has been one of the important goals in materials science."

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass.--Researchers from Tufts University School of Engineering and MIT have reported a new way to biosynthesize important precursors to the potent anti-cancer compound Taxol in an engineered strain of E. coli bacteria.

The findings are significant steps on the way to achieving cost-effective, large-scale production of Taxol and the effort to design new Taxol-like pharmaceuticals.

The work is reported in the October 1, 2010, issue of the journal Science.

Chestnut Hill, Mass. (9/30/2010) – Scientists have sequenced the genome of the Southern house mosquito, providing new insights into the most diverse and widespread of three groups of disease-bearing mosquitoes and shedding new light on the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, encephalitis, West Nile virus and filariasis, international teams of researchers report in the upcoming edition of the journal Science.

1st October 2010 - The Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito poses a significant threat to human health as a blood-sucking transmitter of elephantiasis-causing worms and encephalitis-inducing viruses. An international team of scientists, including researchers from the University of Geneva and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics sequenced its genome and studied its responses to pathogen infections.

GALVESTON, Texas — An international research team has determined the DNA sequence of the mosquito species whose bite transmits West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis virus and the microscopic worm responsible for elephantiasis.

Northwestern University researchers have taken another step towards realizing a new class of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) enzyme mimics, opening the door for the development of highly sensitive chemical detection systems that go beyond nucleic acid targets.

Richmond, Va. (September 30, 2010) – Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center researcher Steven Grant, M.D., and a team of VCU Massey researchers have uncovered the mechanism by which leukemia cells trigger a protective response when exposed to a class of cancer-killing agents known as histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs). The findings, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, could lead to more effective treatments in patients with leukemia and other cancers of the blood.