Body

(SAN DIEGO, December 10, 2011) – Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), the transplantation of blood-forming stem cells from the bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood, is the primary option for treatment for many patients who suffer from various hematologic disorders, including blood cancers, sickle cell disease, bone marrow deficiencies, bleeding disorders, and autoimmune disorders. Research investigating breakthroughs in hematopoietic cell transplantation will be presented today at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

A new analysis has found that breast cancer survivors may experience problems with certain mental abilities several years after treatment, regardless of whether they were treated with chemotherapy plus radiation or radiation only. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that there may be common and treatment-specific ways that cancer therapies negatively affect cancer survivors' mental abilities.

A new study has found that alcohol consumption directly impacts a person's intention to have unsafe sex. In other words, the more you drink, the stronger becomes your intention to engage in unsafe sex.

MAYWOOD, Il. -- In 1989, Madeline Mann became the world's smallest surviving baby after she was born at Loyola University Medical Center. She weighed 280 g. (9.9 oz.) -- about the size of an iPhone.

In 2004. Rumaisa Rahmam set a Guinness World Record after she was born at Loyola, weighing 260 g. (9.2 oz.).

Remarkably, Madeline and Rumaisa both have normal motor and language development, Loyola physicians wrote in a case report in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The article was published online Dec. 12.

(SAN DIEGO) – A new method to boost the number of immune cells in umbilical cord blood prior to cord blood transplants for cancer patients appears to lead to a quicker rebuilding of a new immune system in the patient's body than with a conventional cord blood transplant procedure, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented today at the 53rd American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting.

JUPITER, FL -- For years, science has generally considered the phosphorylation of proteins -- the insertion of a phosphorous group into a protein that turns it on or off -- as perhaps the factor regulating a range of cellular processes from cell metabolism to programmed cell death. Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified the importance of a novel protein-regulating mechanism -- called sulfenylation -- that is similar to phosphorylation and may, in fact, open up opportunities to develop new types of drugs for diseases such as cancer.

A rare genetic disorder has given researchers at the University of Exeter a surprising insight into how the pancreas develops. The finding provides a clue to how it may be possible to 'programme' stem cells – master cells in the body that can develop into specialised cells – to become pancreatic cells.

Cambridge, MA and Shenzhen, China – BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, announced that a study on resequencing 50 accessions of cultivated and wild rice was published online today in Nature Biotechnology. The study provides one of the largest genome variation data sets for wild and cultivated rice, which is valuable for breeding and for identifying agronomically important genes in rice. This data also yields new insights for geneticists and biologists to deeply explore the domestication history of cultivated rice.

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine report that they have identified the molecular pathway through which physical force contributes to scarring in mice.

"Our study exposes one of the fundamental mechanisms by which the mechanical environment can directly increase inflammation, which is strongly implicated in scarring," said Geoffrey Gurtner, MD, professor and associate chair of surgery.

SAN DIEGO -- Research on the same protein that was a primary mediator of the birth defects caused by thalidomide now holds hope in the battle against multiple myeloma, says the study's senior investigator, Keith Stewart, M.B., Ch.B. of Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Dr.

SAN DIEGO - A new, targeted approach to treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia has produced durable remissions in a Phase I/II clinical trial for patients with relapsed or resistant disease, investigators report at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Danish research team leads the way for future biodiversity monitoring using DNA traces in the environment to keep track of threatened wildlife – a lake water sample the size of a shot-glass can contain evidence of an entire lake fauna.

CLEVELAND: Researchers from Seidman Cancer Center at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine presented new research findings in 25 presentations this weekend at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) at the San Diego Convention Center.

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – December 10, 2011) Symptoms improved significantly in adults with the bleeding disorder hemophilia B following a single treatment with gene therapy developed by researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis and demonstrated to be safe in a clinical trial conducted at the University College London (UCL) in the U.K.

Naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) live in a 'hive' society with one reproducing queen and between one and three reproducing males. The rest of the mole rats in the colony are workers either defending the burrow or finding food – not an easy task when you are virtually blind and all the tunnels smell of mole rat. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology shows that mole rat sperm has become simple and degenerate, probably due to 'orthogenic' (straight line) evolution.