Body

One of the latest attempts to boost the body's defenses against cancer is called adoptive cell transfer, in which patients receive a therapeutic injection of their own immune cells. This therapy, currently tested in early clinical trials for melanoma and neuroblastoma, has its limitations: Removing immune cells from a patient and growing them outside the body for future re-injection is extremely expensive and not always technically feasible.

July 25, 2011 – Shenzhen, China -- The study on single-nucleotide resolution structural variations (SVs) of an Asian and African genome was published online in Nature Biotechnology. This study was performed by BGI (previously known as the Beijing Genomics Institute), the largest genomics organization in the world, and demonstrates that whole genome de novo assembly could serve as a new solution for developing a more comprehensive SV map of individuals.

How much do our children influence our consumption behavior? Much more than we thought.

A new study by a Temple University Fox School of Business professor finds that teenage girls have a strong influence on the products their mothers buy solely for personal use, as in makeup or clothing, and that mothers have a much stronger tendency to mimic their daughters' consumption behavior than vice versa.

Washington, DC -- There are major differences between oncologists and primary care physicians regarding knowledge, attitudes, and practices required to care for American's 12 million cancer survivors. That is the key finding of the first nationally representative survey of doctors that reveals how these differences pose significant barriers to effective communication and coordination of care following initial cancer treatment.

Children who are excluded from discussions about their hospital care often feel scared and angry that no-one is listening to them or telling them what is going on. That's why health professionals and parents need to do more to consult them and include them in decisions, according to research published in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Researchers funded by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the French Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) have found that ground beetles reduce the amount of weed seeds in the soil. Weeds reduce crop yields and these findings support the need to conserve farmland biodiversity as it plays an important supporting role to herbicides in controlling weeds and improving food security.

A new analysis has found that many doctors report that they do not appropriately offer breast and ovarian cancer counseling and testing services to their female patients. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that efforts are needed to encourage these services for high-risk women and discourage them for average-risk women.

Philadelphia, PA, July 25, 2011 – As childhood obesity rises and the American diet shifts towards increasing consumption of foods eaten or prepared outside of the home, concerns about the nutritional quality and the total consumption of such foods are also increasing. According to a study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and published in the August 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, eating location and food source significantly impact daily energy intake for children.

Tel Aviv — Since 1999, several outbreaks of West Nile Virus, which causes fever or severe neurological symptoms and is transmitted from birds to humans by blood-sucking mosquitoes, have been seen in the U.S., usually during the summer months. But researchers aren't certain how the virus migrated here — and they don't know how, or where, it will appear next.

MIAMI – July 25, 2011 – A new study by top global fisheries experts presents an alarming assessment of several economically important fish populations. The analysis of 61 species of "scombrids," which include tunas, bonitos, mackerels and Spanish mackerels, and billfishes, which include swordfish and marlins, classified seven as threatened with extinction and four as "near threatened" for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

A genome-wide association study published in the August issue of Nature Medicine has found two tiny genetic variations that can predict which patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma are most likely to develop radiation-induced second cancers years after treatment. Knowing in advance who is at risk could help physicians tailor treatment to reduce the risks for patients who are most susceptible to long-term damage.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Glucose meters aren't just for diabetics anymore. Thanks to University of Illinois chemists, they can be used as simple, portable, inexpensive meters for a number of target molecules in blood, serum, water or food.

Chemistry professor Yi Lu and postdoctoral researcher Yu Xiang published their findings in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) at the John Innes Centre have made a discovery, reported this evening (24 July) in Nature, that explains how an organism can create a biological memory of some variable condition, such as quality of nutrition or temperature. The discovery explains the mechanism of this memory – a sort of biological switch – and how it can also be inherited by offspring.

A new target for nitric oxide has been revealed in studies of how it inhibits the growth of Salmonella. This bacterium is a common cause of food-poisoning.

"Nitric oxide is naturally produced in the nose and the gut and other tissues in the body to ward off infection," explained the senior author of the paper, Dr. Ferric Fang. He is a University of Washington (UW) professor of laboratory medicine, microbiology and medicine.