Body

STANFORD, Calif. — Since 1928, the way breast cancer characteristics are evaluated and categorized has remained largely unchanged. It is done by hand, under a microscope. Pathologists examine the tumors visually and score them according to a scale first developed eight decades ago. These scores help doctors assess the type and severity of the cancer and, accordingly, to calculate the patient's prognosis and course of treatment.

A new method for visualizing mechanical forces on the surface of a cell, reported in Nature Methods, provides the first detailed view of those forces, as they occur in real-time.

"Now we're able to measure something that's never been measured before: The force that one molecule applies to another molecule across the entire surface of a living cell, and as this cell moves and goes about its normal processes," says Khalid Salaita, assistant professor of biomolecular chemistry at Emory University. "And we can visualize these forces in a time-lapsed movie."

Researchers have today revealed a key discovery in understanding how the most deadly species of malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, invades human red blood cells. Using a technique developed at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, they have found that the parasite relies on a single receptor on the red blood cell's surface to invade, offering an exciting new focus for vaccine development.

Malaria kills approximately one million people every year, mostly children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently no licensed vaccine is available.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Football players experience repeated head trauma throughout their careers, which results in short and long-term effects to their cognitive function, physical and mental health. University of Missouri researchers are investigating how other lifestyle factors, including diet and exercise, impact the late-life health of former collision-sport athletes.

A natural lipid in the fluid lining the lungs inhibits influenza infections in both cell cultures and mouse models, according to researchers at National Jewish Health. These findings, combined with previous studies demonstrating effectiveness against respiratory syncytial virus, suggest that the molecule, known as POPG, may have broad antiviral activity.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Effective management of childhood asthma should extend beyond the doctor's office into communities, homes and schools where children spend most of their time dealing with the disease, according to a collection of newly published studies. A key to successful implementation of childhood asthma management programs in "real-world" settings is a community-based care coordination approach that combines evidence-based science, asthma education and community engagement. These findings from five asthma management programs funded by the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc.

PHILADELPHIA - Scientists at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine Center for Research in FOP and Related Disorders have developed a new genetic approach to specifically block the damaged copy of the gene for a rare bone disease, while leaving the normal copy untouched.

Lead author Josef Kaplan, PhD, postdoctoral fellow; and senior authors Eileen M. Shore, PhD, and Frederick S. Kaplan, MD, both from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, published this new proof-of-principle approach for treating the disease, called FOP, in the online edition of Gene Therapy.

TAMPA, Fla. -- A protein called "fascin" appears to play a critical transformation role in TGF beta mediated tumor metastasis, say researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., who published a study in a recent issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. – While some researchers look for new species in such exotic places as the deep sea, tropical regions, or extreme environments, a team headed by Tufts researchers turned their attention towards nests of an invasive paper wasp. What they found was a new species of fungus.

Critical genetic secrets of a bacterium that holds potential for removing toxic and radioactive waste from the environment have been revealed in a study by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The researchers have provided the first ever map of the genes that determine how these bacteria interact with their surrounding environment.

Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine researchers found the human body is better at fighting gum disease when fat cells, which trigger inflammation, disappear.

Findings come from a pilot study of 31 obese people with gum disease. Half of the group with an average body mass index (BMI) of 39 had gastric bypass surgery and had fat cells from the abdomen removed. That half fared better than a control group of obese people with a BMI of 35 who also were treated for gum disease but did not have the gastric bypass surgery or fat removed.

PHILADELPHIA -- Patients with recurrent metastatic non-small cell lung cancer have a morbid prognosis, but a new epigenetic therapy may have potential in this population, according to data published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

A research team at Johns Hopkins University tested a combination epigenetic therapy of azacitidine and entinostat among patients with recurrent metastatic non-small cell lung cancer who had been heavily pretreated but showed no response.

Strange, stranger, strangest! To the weird nature of one of the simplest chemical compounds -- the stuff so familiar that even non-scientists know its chemical formula -- add another odd twist. Scientists are reporting that good old H2O, when chilled below the freezing point, can shift into a new type of liquid. The report appears in ACS' Journal of Physical Chemistry B.

Home nursing visits are as safe and effective as office-based care for initial post-delivery well-baby check-ups, according to medical researchers.

"Generally, moms and babies are discharged from the hospital less than 48 hours after delivery," said Ian Paul, M.D., professor of pediatrics and public health sciences, Penn State College of Medicine. "A follow-up appointment is scheduled, and they don't always show up. This is unsettling because it is such an at-risk time of life for both baby and mom."

Scientists are reporting development of a fast, reliable new test that could help people avoid a terrible type of food poisoning that comes from eating fish tainted with a difficult-to-detect toxin from marine algae growing in warm waters. The report appears in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry.