Body

Stockholm, Sweden: Children born after their mothers were treated with chemotherapy during pregnancy appear to be unaffected by the experience in terms of the development of their mental processes and the normal functioning of their hearts, according to new research presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress [1].

A genomic study of chronic blood cancer - a precursor to leukaemia - has discovered gene mutations that could enable diagnosis using only a blood test, avoiding the need for an invasive and painful bone marrow biopsy.

The risk of depression appears to decrease for women with increasing consumption of caffeinated coffee, according to a report in the September 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

For decades, laboratory mice have been widely used in research aimed at understanding which genes are involved in various illnesses. But actual variations in past gene sequences of mice were unknown. While researchers were able to determine that a variant affecting disease was in a certain region, they couldn't pinpoint the exact set of variants in that region.

Cold Spring Harbor, NY – Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and the University of Southern California (USC) have uncovered intriguing new evidence helping to explain one of the ways in which a stem cell's fate can be determined.

A shorter course of radiation treatment that delivers higher doses of radiation per day in fewer days (hypofractionation) is as effective in decreasing intermediate to high-risk prostate cancer from returning as conventional radiation therapy at five years after treatment, according to a randomized trial presented at the plenary session, October 3, 2011, at the 53rdAnnual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

Individuals with oculocutaneous albinism, type 1 (OCA1) have white hair, very pale skin, and light-colored irises because they have none, or very little, of the pigment melanin in their skin, hair, and eyes. Affected individuals have impaired eyesight and a substantially increased risk of skin cancer. Current treatment options are limited to attempts to correct eyesight and counseling to promote the use of sun protective measures.

"They spend the day burrowed beneath the soil and leaf material, but even though they are blind, they somehow sense when night falls, and come to the surface to forage and mate and to go about their millipede business," said Marek, who conducted this work under the NIH Postdoctoral Excellence in Research and Training program in the labs of Wendy Moore, an assistant professor of entomology and curator of the University of Arizona Insect Collection and Dan Papaj, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.

Athens, Ga. – Researchers have found that a species invasion that starts at the upstream edge of its range may have a major advantage over downstream competitors, at least in environments with a strong prevailing direction of water or wind currents.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Continuing a global effort to prevent malaria infections, Michigan State University researchers have created a new malaria vaccine – one that combines the use of a disabled cold virus with an immune system-stimulating gene – that appears to increase the immune response against the parasite that causes the deadly disease.

The fact that certain smells cause us pleasure or disgust would seem to be a matter of personal taste. But new research at the Weizmann Institute shows that odors can be rated on a scale of pleasantness, and this turns out to be an organizing principle for the way we experience smell. The findings, which appeared today in Nature Neuroscience, reveal a correlation between the response of certain nerves to particular scents and the pleasantness of those scents.

Dr Jonathan Blount, who led the research, said: "We believe this is the first time that adaptation to local environmental conditions has been demonstrated in sea turtles, which is all the more remarkable because the beaches in question are just six kilometres apart".

Heat-tolerant populations may be crucial in allowing species to adapt to a warming world, highlighting the need for conservation strategies which protect diversity in animal populations.

A drug used to protect bone may extend survival in older breast cancer patients, according to researchers at the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds.

The AZURE trial, led by Professor Robert Coleman from the University of Sheffield, has revealed that the bisphosphonate drug zoledronic acid boosts disease-free survival in postmenopausal breast cancer patients but may have an adverse effect on younger women.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Sept. 26, 2011 – Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have made a discovery that brings them one step closer to being able to better predict which patients have the best chance of surviving breast cancer.

The group has identified 16 genes, or proteins, all involved in iron metabolism, that provide better prognostic information than conventional, standard markers of prognosis.