Body

Early detection of leukemia patients' resistance to therapy

Australian researchers have made a world-first breakthrough in the early detection of patients' resistance to a common treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia.

The discovery offers some hope that the patients' treatment could be changed sooner to improve their chances of survival.

Scientists call for increased federal investment in sustainable agriculture

Amsterdam, July 28, 2016 - Based on a new analysis of federal funding from the US Department of Agriculture, researchers say there is an urgent need for increased investment in research and development aimed at making sustainable food production more effective. The article published in Environmental Science & Policy has been selected for the Elsevier Atlas Award of June 2016.

New rare species of whale identified

Researchers have identified a new rare species of beaked whale with a range in the remote North Pacific Ocean.

The international team of experts searched museums and other sources for DNA samples to determine the existence of the new whale, which is smaller and darker in color than the more common Baird's beaked whale.

As described in a Marine Mammal Science article, the new species is an elusive, deep-diving whale about 25 feet long that is rarely seen, even by Japanese whalers who call the enigmatic whale "karasu," the Japanese word for raven.

Unlocking the languages of autistic children in families

Researchers at the University of Kent are arguing that creativity and intermedial languages can be used as a bridge to communicate with autistic children.

Introduction of screening could significantly reduce lung cancer deaths

The introduction of lung cancer screening in the UK could significantly reduce deaths in high risk groups, without causing participants the undue stress sometimes associated with medical tests.

Published today in Thorax, a trial led by Cardiff University looked at long-term psychosocial outcomes of CT screening for lung cancer and found that it did not cause unnecessary anxiety, even though fear and stigma can sometimes be barriers to participation in screening.

Pneumonia discovery may offer way to boost body's defenses

A molecule being targeted in cancer is also critical for the immune system's ability to battle pneumonia, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have determined. The finding may offer a new way for doctors to boost patients' ability to fight off the life-threatening infection as bacteria become more and more resistant to antibiotics.

Photopharmacology and optogenetics: Lighting the way for second messengers

Teams at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich and EMBL have created photosensitive mimics of a class of signaling molecules, thus enabling their actions to be regulated by light, and affording new insights into the communications networks that control cellular metabolism.

Prostate cancer breakthrough could lead to new diagnostic tests and treatments

Prostate cancer patients have been offered hope after scientists at Newcastle University, UK, have identified a new group of molecules that could be targeted to slow tumour growth.

Experts used an advanced screening technique which found hundreds of genes were affected by the male hormone testosterone. It is believed this could lead to new diagnostic tests and treatments.

Among the 700 genes identified was an important set that add sugar groups - known as glycans - to the surface of prostate cancer cells. This group has never been investigated before.

Sampling method used for new breast cancer tests may lead to underestimation of risk

PITTSBURGH, July 28, 2016 - Not only is breast cancer more than one disease, but a single breast cancer tumor can vary within itself, a finding that University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) researchers discovered has the potential to lead to very different patient treatment plans depending on the tumor sample and diagnostic testing used.

Russian scientists discover how certain proteins may help fight chlamydia

Scientists from Federal Research and Clinical Centre of Physical-Chemical Medicine, Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology and MIPT have shown that peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGLYRPs) of the human immune system can play a key role in the fight against chlamydia infections. Their study was published in Infection and Immunity.

Tooth wear sheds light on the feeding habits of ancient elephant relatives

How can we ever know what ancient animals ate? For the first time, the changing diets of elephants in the last two million years in China have been reconstructed, using a technique based on analysis of the surface textures of their teeth.

The work was carried out by a University of Bristol student, working with an international team of researchers. The research was published online in Quaternary International.

Today, elephants live only in remote, tropical parts of Africa and southern Asia, but before the Ice Ages they were widespread.

PR officials should utilize Twitter, social media during crises to gauge public response

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Previous research on crisis communications strategies has examined how and why organizations develop specific stances toward their audiences or "publics" during crisis situations. However, little is known about how various audiences themselves develop attitudes toward organizations during such crises. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri School of Journalism have found that unorganized and semi-organized groups use Twitter to communicate and develop stances toward organizations who are experiencing crises.

Severity of kyphosis and decline in lung function: The Framingham study

BOSTON--July 28, 2016-- Researchers from the Harvard affiliated Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research (IFAR), have published a recent article in Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, suggesting that preventing or slowing progression of hyperkyphosis may reduce pulmonary decline in older adults. Hyperkyphosis is a poorly understood condition that causes an extreme forward curvature of the spine and affects as many as 20 to 40 percent of older individuals.

INRS professor's team unveils new Leishmania virulence strategies

Professor Albert Descoteaux of INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier Research Centre and his team have discovered novel virulence strategies employed by the Leishmania parasite. These scientific breakthroughs recently published in the prestigious PLOS Pathogens journal represent two important clues to understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing the parasitic infections that cause leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease endemic in one hundred countries.

Confronted with sepsis, key immune mechanism breaks, Indiana University scientists find

INDIANAPOLIS - When the body encounters an infection, a molecular signaling system ramps up the body's infection-fighting system to produce more white blood cells to attack invading bacteria. Now researchers have discovered that when facing a massive bacterial infection resulting in sepsis, that same signaling system malfunctions, damaging the body's ability to fight the invaders.