Body

OAK BROOK, Ill. – November 26, 2008 – The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) heralds the recent news of a decline in U.S. cancer deaths and incidence rates, with colorectal cancer among the top three cancers with significant declines. ASGE, representing the specialists in colorectal cancer screening, is excited by the report showing that colorectal cancer deaths among men and women dropped 4.3 percent per year between 2002 and 2005.

The Stowers Institute's Rong Li Lab has published findings that shed light on the ability of cells to adapt to disruptions to their basic division machineries – findings that may help explain how cancer cells elude the body's natural defense mechanisms or chemotherapy treatment. The work was published in the November 26 issue of Cell.

The Galápagos Islands, which provided impetus and inspiration for Charles Darwin's seminal work, "On the Origin of Species", are home to unique populations of reptiles. Since the time of man's first visit in the 16th century to this crucial incubator for evolutionary theory, the islands' native plants and animals have faced grave challenges, including severe pressures from introduced species, habitat destruction and predation by man himself.

In developing a model to explain the motion of atoms in a magnetic field, scientists have overcome a decades-old obstacle to understanding a key component of magnetic resonance.

The new understanding may eventually lead to better control of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and higher resolution MRI diagnoses.

BOSTON, Mass. (Nov. 26, 2008)—Like our current financial crisis, the aging process might also be a product excessive deregulation.

Researchers have discovered that DNA damage decreases a cell's ability to regulate which genes are turned on and off in particular settings. This mechanism, which applies both to fungus and to us, might represent a universal culprit for aging.

A comprehensive mouse model of inherited prion disease exhibits cognitive, motor, and neurophysiological deficits that bear a striking resemblance to the symptoms experienced by patients with the human version of "mad cow disease," Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The research, published by Cell Press in the November 26th issue of the journal Neuron, provides exciting insight into the mechanism of disease and may lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies for this devastating neurodegenerative disorder.

A very small fraction of our genetic material--about 2%-- performs the crucial task scientists once thought was the sole purpose of the genome: to serve as a blueprint for the production of proteins, the molecules that make cells work and sustain life. This 2% of human DNA is converted into intermediary molecules called RNAs, which in turn carry instructions within cells for protein manufacture.

Although there has been an increase in the number of new arthritis treatments in recent years, the best results will come from more effective use of the drugs we have. Research published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Arthritis Research and Therapy investigates the effectiveness of available arthritis drugs and concludes that better management is the most important factor.

In breast tissue, cells lining the breast's ducts have a certain shape that is required to maintain both organ structure and function. All breast cancers display a loss of this characteristic organization, but very little is known about the molecules and pathways that regulate tissue structure and the role they play during cancer.

Intensive research into new processes and materials is carried out in the transport industry and in aircraft manufacturing with the objective of reducing the weights of vehicles and airplanes. The trend in these areas is towards the use of polymer-metal hybrid structures so-called multi-material structures. Securely joining such widely dissimilar materials presents difficulties for the engineers.

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - Car and airplane trips, holiday goodies, new toys, and unfamiliar surroundings. The holidays are a crazy time for kids, often causing their bathroom habits to get out of whack. What might sound like a minor inconvenience is actually a common, sometimes serious problem for children, and not just around the holidays. Now a new study finds childhood constipation is costing us all.

Urging employees to simply rethink their jobs was enough to drop absenteeism by 60 per cent and turnover by 75 per cent, a new University of Alberta study shows.

A 'Spirit at Work' intervention program, designed to engage employees and give a sense of purpose, significantly boosted morale and job retention for a group of long-term health-care workers at the center of the study.

Malaria, one of the oldest diseases known to man, has shown no signs of slowing down as it ages. More than 1 million children die from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa each year, and in areas along the Thailand/Cambodian border multiple drug-resistant strains of the disease are becoming commonplace.

For kidney transplant recipients with a serious complication called BK virus-associated nephropathy (BKVAN), promptly cutting back on anti-rejection drugs reduces the risk of losing the kidney (graft loss), according to a report in the November Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).

BOSTON - (November 26, 2008) Vitamin K slowed the development of insulin resistance in elderly men in a study of 355 non-diabetic men and women ages 60 to 80 who completed a three-year clinical trial at the Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (USDA HNRCA).