Body

BEAVERTON, Ore. - While vaccines are perhaps medicine's most important success story, there is always room for improvement. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) appear to have done just that. As explained in a newly published research paper, Mark Slifka, Ph.D., and colleagues have discovered a new method for creating vaccines that is thought to be safer and more effective than current approaches. The research results are published online in the journal Nature Medicine.

AURORA, Colo. (May 29, 2012) – A Colorado School of Public Health researcher has found that laws designed to illuminate financial links between doctors and pharmaceutical companies have little or no effect on what drugs physicians prescribe.

UCLA geneticists have identified the mutation responsible for IMAGe syndrome, a rare disorder that stunts infants' growth. The twist? The mutation occurs on the same gene that causes Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome, which makes cells grow too fast, leading to very large children.

May 29, 2012, Shenzhen, China – The Asian Cancer Research Group (ACRG)—an independent, not-for-profit company established by Eli Lilly and Company, Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada) and Pfizer Inc.—in collaboration with BGI—the world's largest genomics organization—today announced the publication of results from a whole genome-wide study of recurrent hepatitis B virus (HBV) integration in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Nature Genetics.

NEW YORK (May 29, 2012) -- Cancer researchers have known for well over a century that different tumor types spread only to specific, preferred organs. But no one has been able to determine the mechanisms of organ specific metastasis, the so-called "soil and seed" theory of 1889. New details that could help shed light on this hypothesis have been provided by a team of researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and their collaborators, proposing a new mechanism controlling cancer metastasis that offers fresh diagnostic and treatment potential.

A rare disease which often first presents in newborn babies has been traced to a novel genetic defect, scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have found.

The research, published online in Nature Genetics (27 May) discovered 20 distinct mutations in a specific gene found in patients with the rare adrenal disease, Familial Glucocorticoid Deficiency (FGD).

The potentially fatal disease means affected children are unable to produce a hormone called cortisol which is essential for the body to cope with stress.

In an "elaboration and explanation" of the REMARK (Reporting Recommendations for Tumor Marker Prognostic Studies) checklist, Doug Altman of the University of Oxford, UK and colleagues provide a detailed reference for authors on important issues to consider when designing, conducting, analyzing and reporting tumor marker prognostic studies. Writing in this week's PLoS Medicine (and co-published in BMC Medicine) the authors explain the checklist items in detail and illustrate each one with published examples of good reporting.

CHICAGO (May 29, 2012)—Cigarette smoking contributes to significantly higher hospital costs for smokers undergoing elective general surgery, according to a study published in the June 2012 issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. When researchers analyzed data on more than 14,000 patients, they found that postoperative respiratory complications help drive up these health care costs.

According to a new study, children exposed to high levels of the common air pollutant naphthalene are at increased risk for chromosomal aberrations (CAs), which have been previously associated with cancer. These include chromosomal translocations, a potentially more harmful and long-lasting subtype of CAs.

The Greenland ice sheet continues to lose mass and thus contributes at about 0.7 millimeters per year to the currently observed sea level change of about 3 mm per year. This trend increases each year by a further 0.07 millimeters per year. The pattern and temporal nature of loss is complex. The mass loss is largest in southwest and northwest Greenland; the respective contributions of melting, iceberg calving and fluctuations in snow accumulation differing considerably.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – May 29, 2012 – Older adults who don't get enough vitamin D – either from diet, supplements or sun exposure – may be at increased risk of developing mobility limitations and disability, according to new research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Researchers studying rare genetic disorders have uncovered insights into those diseases in biological structures that regulate chromosomes when cells divide. Focusing on the cohesin complex, a group of proteins forming a bracelet that encircles chromosome pairs, scientists have discovered mutations that disrupt cohesin, causing a recently recognized class of diseases called cohesinopathies.

CLEVELAND, OH (May 29, 2012) — A great deal has been learned in the decade since the first results from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) were published on July 9, 2002. The WHI was the largest and longest trial of postmenopausal women using hormone therapy (HT). The 27,000 women were prescribed estrogen-alone therapy, estrogen-progestogen therapy, or a placebo for 5 to 7 years, respectively.

Professor Adrian Mulholland and Dr Christopher Woods from Bristol's School of Chemistry, together with colleagues in Thailand, used graphics processing units (GPUs) to simulate the molecular processes that take place when these drugs are used to treat the H1N1-2009 strain of influenza – commonly known as 'swine flu'.

Their results, published today [29 May] in Biochemistry, provide new insight that could lead to the development of the next generation of antiviral treatments for flu.

To speed progress against cancer and other diseases, the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project today announced the largest-ever release of comprehensive human cancer genome data for free access by the global scientific community. The amount of information released more than doubles the volume of high-coverage, whole genome data currently available from all human genome sources combined. This information is valuable not just to cancer researchers, but also to scientists studying almost any disease.