Body | Page 3322 | Science Codex

Science to help rice growers affected by Japan's tsunami

Under a year since a huge tsunami inundated paddy fields in Japan with salty sludge, scientists are near to developing locally-adapted, salt-tolerant rice.

Following a Japan-UK research collaboration, a new method for marker assisted breeding is being used to slash the time it takes to isolate new traits such as salt tolerance. Details of the new method, called MutMap, will be published in Nature Biotechnology on Sunday so they can be used by scientists and breeders worldwide to dramatically accelerate crop breeding.

Vaccines to boost immunity where it counts, not just near shot site

DURHAM, N.C. and SINGAPORE – Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have created synthetic nanoparticles that target lymph nodes and greatly boost vaccine responses, said lead author Ashley St. John, Ph.D., a researcher at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.

The paper was published online in the journal Nature Materials on Jan. 22.

Identified a cause of resistance to colon cancer treatment

Doctors and researchers of Hospital del Mar and its research institute, the IMIM, have lead a study describing a new pharmacological resistance to cancer. This new mechanism is a mutation in an oncogene called EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) causing resistance to treatment using a drug called cetuximab, a monoclonal antibody which specifically attacks the EGFR.

Inflammatory mediator promotes colorectal cancer by stifling protective genes

HOUSTON - Chronic inflammation combines with DNA methylation, a process that shuts down cancer-fighting genes, to promote development of colorectal cancer, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report today in the advance online publication of the journal Nature Medicine.

The team's connection of these two separate influences eventually may lead to better combination therapies for treating and preventing colorectal cancer.

Unprecedented, man-made trends in ocean's acidity

Nearly one-third of CO2 emissions due to human activities enters the world's oceans. By reacting with seawater, CO2 increases the water's acidity, which may significantly reduce the calcification rate of such marine organisms as corals and mollusks. The extent to which human activities have raised the surface level of acidity, however, has been difficult to detect on regional scales because it varies naturally from one season and one year to the next, and between regions, and direct observations go back only 30 years.

DNA motor programmed to navigate a network of tracks

Kyoto, Japan -- Expanding on previous work with engines traveling on straight tracks, a team of researchers at Kyoto University and the University of Oxford have successfully used DNA building blocks to construct a motor capable of navigating a programmable network of tracks with multiple switches. The findings, published in the January 22 online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, are expected to lead to further developments in the field of nanoengineering.

Sweeping genetic analysis of rare disease yields common mechanism of hypertension

Analyzing all the genes of dozens of people suffering from a rare form of hypertension, Yale University researchers have discovered a new mechanism that regulates the blood pressure of all humans.

The findings by an international research team headed by Yale scientists, published online Jan. 22 in the journal Nature, may help explain what goes wrong in the one billion people who suffer from high blood pressure. The study also demonstrates the power of new DNA sequencing methods to find previously unknown disease-causing genes.

Younger breast cancer patients have more adverse quality-of-life issues

Younger women with breast cancer experience a decrease in their health-related quality of life (QOL), associated with increased psychological distress, weight gain, a decline in their physical activity, infertility and early onset menopause, according to a study published January 20 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Study showed oxaliplatin improved colon cancer patient survival

Stage III colon cancer patients in the general population who receive adjuvant treatment for the disease have an improved rate of survival when oxaliplatin is added to 5-fluorouracil (5FU), according to a study published Jan. 20 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

High levels of MRSA bacteria in retail meat products

Retail pork products in the U.S. have a higher prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MRSA) than previously identified, according to new research by the University of Iowa College of Public Health and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

MRSA can occur in the environment and in raw meat products, and is estimated to cause around 185,000 cases of food poisoning each year. The bacteria can also cause serious, life-threatening infections of the bloodstream, skin, lungs and other organs. MRSA is resistant to a number of antibiotics.

Health benefits of exercise may depend on cellular degradation, UT Southwestern researchers report

DALLAS – Jan. 20, 2012 – The health benefits of exercise on blood sugar metabolism may come from the body's ability to devour itself, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in the journal Nature.

Autophagy is a process by which a cell responds to starvation and other stresses by degrading damaged or unneeded parts of itself to produce energy. It is sometimes called the cell's housekeeping pathway.

Penn researchers help solve questions about Ethiopians' high-altitude adaptations

PHILADELPHIA -- Over many generations, people living in the high-altitude regions of the Andes or on the Tibetan Plateau have adapted to life in low-oxygen conditions. Living with such a distinct and powerful selective pressure has made these populations a textbook example of evolution in action, but exactly how their genes convey a survival advantage remains an open question.

Notre Dame researchers report fundamental malaria discovery

A team of researchers led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease.

The researchers show how parasites target proteins to the surface of the red blood cell that enables sticking to and blocking blood vessels. Strategies that prevent this host-targeting process will block disease.

A new way to stimulate the immune system and fight infection

These new data are an essential step towards understanding the operation of these key cells in the immune system, and they could provide a new therapeutic approach to fighting infection. They also suggest that the operation of NK cells must be precisely regulated to guarantee an optimum immune reaction. Details of this work are published in the 20 January 2012 issue of the journal Science.

3 is the magic number: A chain reaction required to prevent tumor formation

The expression of p53 and Mdm2 is closely related. In an article published this week in the Cancel Cell review, Robin Fahraeus and his collaborators from Inserm Unit 940 ("Therapeutic Targets for Cancer"), demonstrate that cellular response to DNA damage requires involvement from the protein kinase ATM so that Mdm2 can positively or negatively control protein p53.