Body

Iron is the workhorse of trace minerals. An essential component of red blood cells, disruption of iron levels in the body will result in a myriad of serious conditions, and life cannot be sustained without it.

In novel research, investigators at the University at Buffalo’s School of Public Health and Health Professions, have learned that iron is only one half of an all-important duo of trace minerals -- the other being copper -- that work in tandem to maintain proper iron balance, or homeostasis. It appears the workhorse has a helper.

Studying chimpanzees trained to use treadmills, a team of anthropologists has gathered new evidence suggesting our earliest apelike ancestors started walking on two legs because it required less energy than getting around on all fours.A chimpanzee walks upright on a treadmill as part of UC Davis anthropologist Michael Sockol's research into the origins of bipedalism. The face mask helps scientists measure oxygen consumption. Credit: Copyright Cary Wolinsky

USC structural biologists reveal workings of nicotine receptor in 'landmark accomplishment.'

When nicotine binds to a neuron, how does the cell know to send the signal that announces a smoker’s high?

As with other questions involving good sensations, the answer appears to be sugar.

A University of Southern California study appearing with a commentary in Nature Neuroscience online proposes a role for sugar as the hinge that opens a gate in the cell membrane and brings news of nicotine’s arrival.

The adverse effects of using prescription drugs side by side with natural health products (NHP) are being under-reported, so the potential risks may be underestimated by health-care professionals and the public, a study from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada shows.

Individuals who receive blood transfusions from donors with undiagnosed cancers are at no higher risk of developing malignant disease than people who receive blood from donors without cancer, according to the results of a retrospective study published in The Lancet last month.

In the first operations of their kind in the Northeast, a bariatric surgery team at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, New York has performed a unique non-invasive weight loss procedure that uses a new device that reduces the size of a patient’s stomach without the need for any incisions.

Shawn Garber, MD, Chief of Bariatric Surgery at Mercy, is one of the first five surgeons in the United States to learn the StomaphyX(tm) procedure for endoluminal gastric pouch reduction in patients with previous gastric bypass surgery.

Joint research by Dr. Leonid Brodsky, of the Institute of Evolution of the University of Haifa, and Dr. Milton Taylor, of Indiana University, led to the discovery of a mathematical method which can identify which genes in our bodies conduct the battle against the various viruses that attack us. In their research, they identified 37 genes out of 22,000 possible genes which fight the hepatitis C virus.

A protein that is largely absent in one type of skin cancer protects an important gene in a cell's defense against harmful mutations from being silenced, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the July 20 edition of Molecular Cell.

University of Florida researchers have successfully used molecular probes to detect subtle differences in leukemia cells from patient samples, an achievement that could lead to more effective ways to diagnose and treat cancer.

The strategy, described in a recent issue of Clinical Chemistry, involves engineering short, single strands of DNA or RNA called aptamers to seek out and bind with specific proteins in body fluids.

Rice University physicists have unveiled an innovative way of finding out how proteins get their shape based on how they unfold when pulled apart. The experimental method could be of widespread use in the field of protein folding science, which has grown dramatically in the past decade, due in part to the discovery that misfolded proteins play a key role in diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Scientists report they have merged two of nature’s most elegant strategies for wet and dry adhesion to produce a synthetic material that one day could lead to more durable and longer-lasting bandages, patches, and surgical materials.

A decade ago, scientists announced the ability to introduce foreign genes into the mosquito genome. A year ago, scientists announced the successful use of an artificial gene that prevented a virus from replicating within mosquitoes. But how does one apply what can be done with a small number of mosquitoes in a lab to the tens of millions of mosquitoes that spread disease worldwide"

Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have taken a step toward simplifying the creation of nanostructures by identifying the first inorganic material to phase separate with near-perfect order at the nanometer scale.

The finding provides an atomically tuneable nanocomposite “workbench” that is cheap and easy to produce and provides a super-lattice foundation potentially suitable for building nanostructures.

University of Southern California biologists have developed a method for sequencing both chromosomes of an organism.

Their study appears in a recent issue of Genome Research.

The statistical method is significant because when researchers announce they have sequenced an organism’s genome, they really mean that they have created a mosaic of two chromosomes, said USC computational biologist Lei Li.

“A mosaic means it’s not real,” Li said.

Little evidence supports using rosiglitazone (Avandia) to improve the quality or length of life among adults with diabetes, according to a systematic review of data by German researchers.

Furthermore, data suggest that the drug might worsen complications of the disease such as weight gain, swelling, bone fractures and heart disease. The new review supports findings from an analysis of studies, published in May, which reported an increased risk of death from cardiovascular causes in patients taking the medication.