Body

Around a quarter of all operating room errors are caused by technology/equipment problems, indicates an analysis of the available evidence, published online in BMJ Quality & Safety.

Inability to use the technology/equipment, lack of availability, and faulty devices/machines made up the bulk of the problems, the analysis indicates.

MADISON, Wis., July 25, 2013 – U.S. Forest Service researchers have identified what may be a key to unraveling some of the mysteries of White Nose Syndrome: the closest known non-disease causing relatives of the fungus that causes WNS. These fungi, many of them still without formal Latin names, live in bat hibernation sites and even directly on bats, but they do not cause the devastating disease that has killed millions of bats in the eastern United States. Researchers hope to use these fungi to understand why one fungus can be deadly to bats while its close relatives are benign.

The path of the peanut from a snack staple to the object of bans at schools, day care centers and beyond offers important insights into how and why a rare, life-threatening food allergy can prompt far-reaching societal change, according to a Princeton University researcher.

For decades, doctors have understood that microbes in the human gut can influence how certain drugs work in the body – by either activating or inactivating specific compounds, but questions have long remained about exactly how the process works.

Harvard scientists are now beginning to provide those answers.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke researchers have devised a way to quickly and easily target and tinker with any gene in the human genome. The new tool, which builds on an RNA-guided enzyme they borrowed from bacteria, is being made freely available to researchers who may now apply it to the next round of genome discovery.

The new method also has obvious utility for gene therapy and for efforts to reprogram stem or adult cells into other cell types – for example, to make new neurons from skin cells.

(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) – A Miriam Hospital researcher has joined forces with international colleagues to call for new strategies to better manage and improve assessment and treatment for hepatitis C (HCV) infection in individuals who inject drugs.

TORONTO, Canada -- Scientists at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have discovered a function of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN that helps explain why certain promising therapies fail in many cancer patients, a finding that could aid in delivering tailored, personalized cancer medicine based on an individual's genetics.

Boston, Mass., July 25, 2013 – Though existing research has shown gastric bypass surgery resolves type 2 diabetes, the reason has remained unclear. A research team, led by Nicholas Stylopoulos, MD, Boston Children's Hospital's Division of Endocrinology, has identified the small intestine—widely believed to be a passive organ—as the major contributor to the body's metabolism, based on a study in rats. The report will appear in Science on July 26, 2013.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Color in living organisms can be formed two ways: pigmentation or anatomical structure. Structural colors arise from the physical interaction of light with biological nanostructures. A wide range of organisms possess this ability, but the biological mechanisms underlying the process have been poorly understood.

PHILADELPHIA — The taller a postmenopausal woman is, the greater her risk for developing cancer, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

This news release is available in German.

The findings are reported in the current issue of the "Journal of Clinical Investigation" (published online on July 25, 2013).

LA JOLLA, CA----More than 11,000 Americans suffer spinal cord injuries each year, and since over a quarter of those injuries are due to falls, the number is likely to rise as the population ages. The reason so many of those injuries are permanently disabling is that the human body lacks the capacity to regenerate nerve fibers. The best our bodies can do is route the surviving tissue around the injury site.

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2013 —Developing ways to treat cancer patients with drugs that kill only cancer cells and that have fewer side effects is one of the topics in the premiere segment of the 2013 season of a popular video series from the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

Most pro basketball fans would assume that TV executives want to see teams from the largest markets go the furthest in the playoffs. But in college basketball, however, the most fans tune in for teams they probably hadn't heard of a month ago.

AUSTIN, Texas — For decades, the movement of an ancient ape species called Oreopithecus bambolii has been a matter of debate for scientists. Did it walk like a human across its swampy Mediterranean island or did it move through the trees like other apes?

According to a new study, led by University of Texas at Austin anthropologists Gabrielle A. Russo and Liza Shapiro, the 9- to 7-million-year-old ape from Italy did not, in fact, walk habitually on two legs.