Body

Thought experiment: a carbon dioxide molecule—think of a cheerleader's baton—comes slanting in at high speed over a dense liquid, strikes the surface and ricochets. How does it tumble? Fast or slow? Forward, backward or sideways? These are not idle questions because simple events like the tumbling molecule go to the heart of the chemistry and physics of gas-liquid interactions. These cover a broad swath of important chemical processes—including breathing—for which details of the encounter are just coming into view.

High food prices, concern over dwindling supplies of fossil fuels and the desire for clean, renewable energy have led many to seek ways to make ethanol out of cellulosic sources such as wood, hay and switchgrass. But today's processes are notoriously inefficient. In a new paper,* researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have detailed some of the most fundamental processes involved in extracting sugars from biomass, the first step in producing ethanol by fermentation.

A new chemical probe can rapidly detect ricin, a deadly poison with no known antidote that is feared to be a potential weapon for terrorists and cannot quickly be identified with currently available tests.

The probe, developed by chemists at UC San Diego, glows when bound to a ricin-damaged part of the body's protein-making machinery, they report in the international edition of the journal Angewandte Chemie. Because the test pinpoints the specific injury underlying the poison's toxicity, it could also help to develop drugs to counteract the effect of ricin.

CHICAGO, August 7, 2008—The American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) today announced results from a survey conducted by Harris Interactive highlighting communication between people with diabetes that require insulin injections and their healthcare providers.

NEW YORK, August 6, 2008 – Researchers at the NYU Cancer Institute and the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology have identified mebendazole, a drug used globally to treat parasitic infections, as a novel investigational agent for the treatment of chemotherapy-resistant malignant melanoma.

Corresponding report lays out strategies for a better organized, more efficient health care system

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (August 6, 2008) – A drug-like molecule called Wnt can be substituted for the cancer gene c-Myc, one of four genes added to adult cells to reprogram them to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, according to Whitehead researchers. Researchers hope that such embryonic stem-cell-like cells, known as induced pluripotent (IPS) cells, eventually may treat diseases such as Parkinson's disease and diabetes.

COLLEGE STATION, Aug. 6, 2008 — Think researchers know all there is to know about Escherichia coli, commonly known as E. coli? Think again. "E. coli has more than four thousand genes, and the functions of one-fourth of these remain unknown," says Dr. Deborah Siegele, a biology professor at Texas A&M University whose laboratory specializes in carrying out research using the bacterium.

Harmless E. coli strains are normally found in the intestines of many animals, including humans, but some strains can cause diseases.

A new study suggests that monitoring levels of a hormone called fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23) may provide information crucial to the treatment of patients with kidney failure. In the Aug. 7 New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report that patients with elevated levels of FGF-23 when beginning hemodialysis had a significantly increased risk of death within the first year of treatment, regardless of whether they had other risk factors.

BOSTON, August 7, 2008 - The death sentence that too often accompanies a diagnosis of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) can be commuted if an individualized outpatient therapy program is followed – even in countries with limited resources and a heavy burden of TB.

The research was published today in an advanced, online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The cell cycle, which allows cells to replicate their DNA and produce new cells, is controlled by a complex concert of enzymes and other components. In addition there are "checkpoint" mechanisms that can block continuation of the process if something goes amiss. Via mechanisms still poorly understood, a checkpoint in the reproduction process can detect problems that interfere with DNA copying. This detection can in turn trigger several potential responses.

August 6, 2008 -- Periodontal disease may be an independent predictor of incident Type 2 diabetes, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. While diabetes has long been believed to be a risk factor for periodontal infections, this is the first study exploring whether the reverse might also be true, that is, if periodontal infections can contribute to the development of diabetes. The full study findings are published in the July 2008 issue of Diabetes Care.

Raritan, NJ, August 6, 2008 – The nation's first, prospective registry of complicated skin and soft tissue infections (cSSTIs), known as SSTIR (the Skin and Soft Tissue Infection Hospital Registry), has begun enrolling patients. The SSTIR, plans to enroll more than 1,200 hospitalized patients by the end of this year, and is designed to better understand treatment patterns and provide data to help improve patient outcomes. The registry is sponsored by Ortho-McNeil, division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

CHICAGO—Chest pain and shortness of breath are common symptoms that send tens of thousands of heart failure (HF) patients into U.S. hospitals each month. Cardiologists at the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute of Northwestern Memorial Hospital may be able to curb such visits for some of their HF patients as they recently became Chicago's first researchers using a new wireless pressure sensor technology that allows them to track the pulmonary artery pressure of the subjects while these subjects remain at home.

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