Body

PITTSBURGH, June 3 – The liver scarring of α1-antitrypsin (AT) deficiency, the most common genetic cause for which children undergo liver transplantation, might be reversed or prevented with a medication that has long been used to treat seizures, according to findings from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine that will published in Science and are available online today through the Science Express website.

Some species of bacteria perform an amazing reproductive feat. When the single-celled organism splits in two, the daughter cell - the swarmer - inherits a propeller to swim freely. The mother cell builds a stalk to cling to surfaces.

ST. LOUIS -- While researchers have done a good job documenting health problems associated with the high prevalence of smoking among Americans who have HIV/AIDS, it's now time to focus on how to get these smokers to kick the habit, Saint Louis University School of Public Health research finds.

Of the 1.1 million Americans living with HIV/AIDS, between 40 and 60 percent are smokers – which is two to three times the rate of smokers in the general population.

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered a novel component of the influenza virus that may be the key to disabling the virus's ability to replicate itself and to developing a universal anti-viral treatment. The findings were published June 1 online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The delicate balance of microbes in the vagina can vary greatly between healthy women, according to a new study led by the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute for Genome Sciences. Researchers hope further study will lead to personalized reproductive medicine for women, allowing doctors to tailor each woman's treatment and health maintenance strategies to her individual microbial make-up.

Hackensack, NJ, June 03, 2010 – The John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center announced today that its physicians and researchers will present 16 abstracts on treatment and diagnostic progress in many different areas of oncology during the Annual Meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, IL from June 4-8.

Montreal, Quebec – June 3 – A Université de Montréal philosopher and ethicist is proposing that governments implement an organ donation tax credit to help increase the number of organs available for transplant.

Using sophisticated genomic analysis, scientists have probed the ancestry of several Jewish and non-Jewish populations and better defined the relatedness of contemporary Jewish people. The research, published by Cell Press in the June issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, may shed light on the question, first raised more than a century ago, of whether Jews are a race, a religious group or something else.

By capturing movies of both the blood and vasculature of zebrafish embryos, each less than two millimeters long, researchers have been able for the first time to see the very moment that blood begins to flow.

The observations, reported online on June 3rd in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, show that the earliest blood flow, involving what appear to be hundreds of cells, begins all at once.

(New York, NY, June 3, 2010) Through the use of sophisticated genomic analysis, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have found that the genetic influences of the Jewish people have retained their genetic coherence, as well as their cultural and religious traditions, even as Jewish communities migrated from the Middle East into Europe, North Africa and across the world according to a new study in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Potassium channels are specialised pores in cell membranes. They have a signature region termed the ion selectivity filter, which is responsible for ensuring that only potassium, and not sodium, permeates the membrane.

A detailed analysis of the epigenetics – factors controlling when and in what tissues genes are expressed – of Wilms tumor reveals striking similarities to stem cells normally found in fetal kidneys. These findings by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center researchers have revealed new cellular pathways that are critical for Wilms tumor development and may also apply to other pediatric cancers. The report appears in the June 4 Cell Stem Cell.

Potatoes offering elevated levels of phytonutrients thought to promote health could add a new dimension to the consumer diet. But the journey from farm to fork can be a perilous one fraught with sundry microorganisms ready to attack the spuds, either while they're still in the ground or during storage.

DALLAS – June 3, 2010 – UT Southwestern Medical Center is the first site in North Texas to launch the next generation in CT scanners, which allow doctors to image an entire organ in less than a second or track blood flow through the brain or to a tumor – all with less radiation exposure to patients.