Body

Ovarian cancer cells are "addicted" to a family of proteins produced by the notorious oncogene, MYC.

Blocking these Myc proteins halts cell proliferation in the deadliest cancer of the female reproductive system, according to a presentation by University of California, Berkeley scientists at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco.

In 30-60 percent of human ovarian tumors, MYC is overly active, or amplified, usually as a result of extra chromosomal copies of the cancer-causing gene.

Ovarian cancer cells are "addicted" to a family of proteins produced by the notorious oncogene, MYC, and blocking these Myc proteins halts cell proliferation in the deadliest cancer of the female reproductive system, according to a presentation by University of California, Berkeley scientists at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco.

In 30-60 percent of human ovarian tumors, MYC is overly active, or amplified, usually as a result of extra chromosomal copies of the cancer-causing gene.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--- A carbon nanotube-coated "smart yarn" that conducts electricity could be woven into soft fabrics that detect blood and monitor health, engineers at the University of Michigan have demonstrated.

Nearly one-fifth of all Californians under age 65 were without health insurance for all or some of 2007, according to a policy brief released today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Drawing on comprehensive new data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the policy brief's authors found that 6.4 million Californians lacked any health insurance coverage for all or some of 2007, the most recent year for which comprehensive statewide data is available.

Atherosclerosis – a disease that includes the buildup of fatty, cholesterol-laden lumps of cells inside the artery wall – is the underlying cause of heart attacks and strokes.

A team of Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators has now demonstrated that a receptor for prostaglandin-E2 plays a key role in the development of atherosclerosis. The findings, reported this month in Cell Metabolism, point to this receptor and its signaling pathways as molecular targets for modulating atherosclerosis development.

NEW YORK (Dec. 15, 2008) -- In the aftermath of a heart attack, the body's own defenses may contribute to future heart failure. Authors of a new study believe they have identified a protein that plays an important role in a process that replaces dead heart muscle with stiffening scar tissue. The researchers are hopeful that the findings will lead to the development of new therapies to prevent this damage.

NEW YORK (Dec. 15, 2008) – Using stem cell lines not typically combined, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have designed a new way to "grow" bone and other tissues.

CHAPEL HILL – Cancer cells and nervous system neurons may not look or act alike, but both use strikingly similar ways to survive, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

The study published in the December issue of Nature Cell Biology is the first to describe how neurons (nerve cells) and cancer cells achieve the common goal of inhibiting the series of biochemical events called apoptosis that eventually causes cells to break down and die.

That's good in the case of neurons, but bad when it comes to cancer.

BOSTON – [Dec. 15, 2008] – Three-quarters of youths with type 1 diabetes were found to have insufficient levels of vitamin D, according to a study by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center – findings that suggest children with the disease may need vitamin D supplementation to prevent bone fragility later in life.

New studies from Tel Aviv University suggest that waiting until a man can give his son "all the advantages" may have a disadvantage, too.

Tel Aviv University researchers found in several consecutive studies that older dads are more likely to have boys with autism and lower IQs. Most recently, they found that the older a father's age, the greater the chance that his son will display poor social abilities as a teen. Dr. Mark Weiser from TAU's Sackler School of Medicine and his team of researchers are now studying what causes this phenomenon.

AUSTIN, Texas—Bicyclists in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio are more concerned with being involved in vehicle crashes compared to bicyclists in other Texas cities, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Transportation Research at The University of Texas at Austin.

"This is quite intuitive, given the high levels of traffic congestion in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio," said Professor Chandra Bhat, who spearheaded the survey and is one of the world's foremost authorities on travel behavior.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— MIT researchers have created a microbial ecosystem smaller than a stick of gum that sheds new light on the plankton-eat-plankton world at the bottom of the aquatic food chain.

The work, reported in the January print issue of American Naturalist, may lead to better predictions of marine microbes' global-scale influence on climate.

Consumers face a barrage of product claims each day. What makes those claims believable? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research says both marketers and consumers can benefit from information about the way people process product claims.

Most atmospheric models predict that the rate of transport of air from the troposphere to the above lying stratosphere should be increasing due to climate change. Surprisingly, Dr. Andreas Engel together with an international group of researchers has now found that this does not seem to be happening. On the contrary, it seems that the air air masses are moving more slowly than predicted. This could also imply that recovery of the ozone layer may be somewhat slower than predicted by state-of-the-art atmospheric climate models.

Many products have numbers attached: megapixels for cameras, wattage ratings for stereos, cotton counts for sheets. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that consumers are heavily influenced by quantitative specifications, even meaningless ones.