Body

HEIDELBERG, 22 May 2012 – The impact and influence of thirty years of research into the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway are highlighted in a special issue of The EMBO Journal. "Three decades of Wnt signalling" summarizes many of the crucial scientific developments that have taken place since the discovery of the first mammalian Wnt gene in 1982. The reviews also describe many of the crucial research findings that have established the pathway as one of the fundamental signal transduction mechanisms in development and disease.

ATS 2012, SAN FRANCISCO – Residents of Lower Manhattan who suffered home damage following the September 11 terrorist attacks are more likely to report respiratory symptoms and diseases than area residents whose homes were not damaged, concludes a study conducted by researchers in Atlanta and New York City. The researchers based their study on data collected in the World Trade Center Health Registry (WTCHR), a cohort study of more than 71,000 rescue/recovery workers and survivors of the World Trade Center attacks.

CLEVELAND – A novel pancreatic cancer vaccine shows promise in improving survival when added to standard treatment, according to new research out of University Hospitals Case Medical Center's Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The Phase 2 data was presented today (embargoed 11:00 am ET) at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, part of Digestive Disease Week in San Diego.

SAN DIEGO, CA (May 22, 2012) — New research being presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) offers key insights into the progression of diseases leading to liver damage, which affect diverse populations, including young people. Studies show that the increasing rates of obesity are putting teens at risk for developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and are decreasing the availability of healthy livers for organ donations, which are urgently needed as people continue to experience complications from diseases, such as hepatitis C and drug-induced liver toxicity.

May 22, 2012, Shenzhen, China – In a highlighted paper published online in Nature Communications, researchers from Sichuan Agricultural University and BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, reported the atlas of DNA methylomes in porcine adipose and muscle tissues, providing a valuable epigenomic source for obesity prediction and prevention as well as boosting the further development of pig as a model animal for human obesity research.

Research at the University of Liverpool suggests that the failure of the current bovine tuberculosis (TB)

Bovine TB is a bacterial disease that in 2011 resulted in the slaughter of approximately 25,000 cattle in England, at a cost to the country of more than £90 million. Solutions for eradicating the infection have included badger culling, but new research, published in Nature Communications, now suggests that the spread of the disease may also be due to problems in diagnosing TB in cattle infected with the common livestock parasite, liver fluke.

The failure of the current bovine tuberculosis (TB) eradication programme could be partly due to a parasitic worm that hinders the tests used to diagnose TB in cows, according to new research published this week.

Scientists at The Universities of Nottingham and Liverpool have discovered that a parasitic flatworm often found in cattle reduces the sensitivity of skin tests used to diagnose TB in the animals. The flatworm is called Fasciola hepatica, otherwise known as the common liver fluke.

SAN ANTONIO (May 22, 2012) — An international task force this week unveiled a revised definition of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a disease first recognized during the Vietnam War in casualties with limb injuries who had trouble breathing.

RICHMOND, Va. (May 22, 2012) – The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new test to help physicians diagnose a group of rare cell disorders. The test, or assay, was developed by an expert at Virginia Commonwealth University in the field of mast cells.

HONOLULU- A team of University of Hawaii Cancer Center scientists led by James Turkson, Ph.D. have created a new type of anti-cancer drug named BP-1-102. The drug, which can be orally administered, targets a key protein that triggers the development of many types of cancer including lung, breast and skin cancers.

The development of BP-1-102 was guided by the research teams computer based molecular analysis of the cancer causing Stat 3 protein that causes cancer by promoting abnormal cell growth in otherwise healthy cells.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A University of Michigan Health System study provides new clues about the health-damaging molecular changes set in motion by eating high-fat foods.

A better understanding of the body's response to indulgent eating could lead to new approaches for treating diabetes and metabolic syndrome. High-fat foods can contribute to obesity, which increases the risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

In a step toward understanding possible genetic differences in smoking behaviors, a team of researchers co-led by SRI International has identified a genetic marker associated with smoking quantity in people of African ancestry. The study's findings may help guide future public health decisions related to smoking, because the more people smoke, the higher their risk of lung cancer.

"Although we recognized that the male mating call of this species differs from all what we had heard before and therefore suspected it to be new, much effort was involved to finally spot it in the dense vegetation", said Hertz. "When we finally caught the first individuals by hand, we noticed that it dyes one's fingers yellow when it is handled. The scientific name (Diasporus citrinobapheus) of this new frog refers to this characteristic and means yellow dyer rainfrog."

Besides the obvious differences between plants and animals, subtle ones lie concealed within the cell, even within the nucleus. In both plant and animal cells, the nucleus contains DNA, which condenses into chromosomes during cell division. Chromosomes can be counted at that stage, revealing the chromosome number for each species.

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (MAY 21, 2012) – Researchers from the University of Minnesota and Washington University in St. Louis have found folic acid fortification of grain products in the United States may have an impact on lowering some childhood cancers.

The new research, published online today in the journal Pediatrics, shows fortification does not appear to be causing childhood cancer rates to increase, and also finds a notable decrease in two types of childhood cancer.