Body

A "game-changing" technique using near infrared light enables scientists to look deeper into the guts of cells, potentially opening up a new frontier in the fights against cancer and many other diseases.

University of Central Florida chemists, led by Professor Kevin Belfield, used near infrared light and fluorescent dye to take pictures of cells and tumors deep within tissue. The probes specifically target lysosomes, which act as cells' thermostats and waste processors and which have been linked to a variety of diseases, including types of mental illnesses and cancers.

DARIEN, Ill. – A study in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that teens who slept less than eight hours per weeknight ate higher proportions of fatty foods and snacks than adolescents who slept eight hours or more. The results suggest that short sleep duration may increase obesity risk by causing small changes in eating patterns that cumulatively alter energy balance, especially in girls.

Chemotherapy is the best broad defense against cancer recurrence after surgical resection. However, it is difficult to predict which patients will benefit from which regimen of anticancer drugs, if at all. Building on existing knowledge, a study published in the September edition of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO), analyzed the usefulness of adjuvant chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) based on the histoculture drug response assay (HDRA).

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, and the prognosis is generally poor, even if surgery is successful. Furthermore, the incidence of one type of lung cancer, adenocarcinoma, has been increasing in recent years. A better understanding of the changes in tumor cell biology that result in a more aggressive neoplastic phenotype (characteristic of an abnormal mass of tissue) that have been completely surgically removed may help identify patients at risk for recurrent disease and lead to the development of more effective therapeutic treatments.

Hispanic middle school students may be more likely to smoke, drink or use marijuana than their peers of other races and ethnicities, whereas Asian students seem to have the lowest risk, according to new research in the September issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Accra, Ghana (1 September 2010)—With a major famine unfolding in Niger and other countries of West Africa's dry Sahelian region, an agricultural scientist speaking here today at the African Green Revolution Forum announced new progress in disseminating an innovative system for irrigated vegetable production—a valuable option in a region that is highly dependent on subsistence rainfed cropping.

A team of researchers at the University of Bristol decided to find out, with investigations of dinosaur and human evolution. Their study, which is published this week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests most fossil discoveries do not make a huge difference, confirming, not contradicting our understanding of evolutionary history.

While preterm birth is a known risk factor for cerebral palsy, an examination of data for infants born at term or later finds that compared with delivery at 40 weeks, birth at 37 or 38 weeks or at 42 weeks or later was associated with an increased risk of cerebral palsy, according to a study in the September 1 issue of JAMA.

It now appears that the malaria mosquito needs more than one family of odor sensors to sniff out its human prey.

That is the implication of new research into the mosquito's sense of smell published in the Aug. 31 issue of the online, open-access journal Public Library of Science Biology.

Although the whole population can benefit from a physically active lifestyle, in part through reduced obesity risk, a new study shows that individuals with a genetic predisposition to obesity can benefit even more. The research, carried out by Dr. Ruth Loos from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and colleagues, published in this week's PLoS Medicine suggests that the genetic predisposition to obesity can be reduced by an average of 40% through increased physical activity.

The Editorial this month argues for the need to fundamentally rethink how societies can look beyond the "medical" causes of disease in an effort to promote health and well-being. This follows a systematic review and a meta-analysis by Julianne Holt-Lunstad and colleagues published in PLoS Medicine in July finding that individuals' social relationships have as much influence on mortality risk as other well-established risk factors for mortality, such as smoking.

Scientists are gaining a deeper understanding of marine mammal travel patterns using a large-scale tracking network. A new PLoS collection, created in conjunction with the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking (POST) Program and the Census of Marine Life (CoML), will highlight the variety of ways scientists are using this large POST network to trace marine animal movement in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. The PLoS POST Collection launches on August 31st.