Body

Boston, MA – Each year, nearly 2 million people die from tuberculosis – a treatable disease that has been brought under control in the United States, but continues to ravage other parts of the world. This health inequity should prompt a complete rethinking of the way tuberculosis is fought on a global level, argue Salmaan Keshavjee, MD, PhD, and Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). Their argument appears in an essay published September 6 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

NEWPORT, Ore. – Magellanic penguins have a high level of variation in genes associated with the ability to fight infectious disease, but a recent study found that the mechanism the penguins use to ensure that diversity is far from black and white.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Only about 1 percent of the human genome contains gene regions that code for proteins, raising the question of what the rest of the DNA is doing. Scientists have now begun to discover the answer: About 80 percent of the genome is biochemically active, and likely involved in regulating the expression of nearby genes, according to a study from a large international team of researchers.

Montreal, September 5, 2012 – Being the last one picked for the team, getting left out of the clique of cool girls, having no one to sit with at lunch… For children, social exclusion can impact everything from emotional well being to academic achievements.

But what does it mean for the kids doing the excluding? Is the cure a one-size-fits-all approach that requires kids to include others, regardless of the situation at hand? Not necessarily, says new research from a professor now at Concordia University.

The most-studied mass extinction in Earth history happened 65 million years ago and is widely thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. New University of Washington research indicates that a separate extinction came shortly before that, triggered by volcanic eruptions that warmed the planet and killed life on the ocean floor.

Population Council scientists have found that a vaginal ring releasing an anti-HIV drug can prevent the transmission of SHIV in macaques. This study provides the first efficacy data on the delivery of a microbicide from a vaginal ring, and indicates strong potential for the success of such rings in women. Microbicides are compounds that can be applied inside the vagina or rectum to protect against sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV.

Attention men: The day may be coming soon when you can take your own birth control pill with no side effects, according to a study done by a group of scientists that includes a Texas A&M University researcher.

Qinglei Li, an assistant professor in Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, is part of a team of researchers led by Martin Matzuk at Baylor College of Medicine and James Bradner at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who made the discovery, and their work is published in the journal Cell.

The National Human Genome Research Institute today announced the results of a five-year international study of the regulation and organization of the human genome. The project is named ENCODE, which stands for the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements. In conjunction with the release of those results, the Journal of Biological Chemistry has published a series of reviews that focus on several aspects of the findings.

(Boston) – Results of a study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System indicate that the proposed changes to the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will not substantially affect the number of people who meet criteria for the disorder.

Scientists have completed a comprehensive map of genetic mutations linked to an aggressive and lethal type of lung cancer.

Among the errors found in small cell lung cancers, the team of scientists, including those at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, found an alteration in a gene called SOX2 associated with early embryonic development.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Aiming to cut expenses and improve care, a 2008 Medicare policy stopped paying hospitals extra to treat some preventable, hospital-acquired conditions – including urinary tract infections (UTIs) in patients after bladder catheters are placed.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The rhetoric is relentless: America is a place of unparalleled opportunity, where hard work and determination can propel a child out of humble beginnings into the White House, or at least a mansion on a hill.

But the reality is very different, according to a University of Michigan researcher who is studying inequality across generations around the world.

JEJU, SOUTH KOREA (September 5, 2012) — Will the tiger go the way of the passenger pigeon or be saved from extinction like the American bison?

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) today released a list of Asian species that are at a conservation crossroads calling for governments to take immediate action with The Three R's Approach: Recognition, Responsibility, Recovery.

Researchers at the University of Washington have determined that the majority of genetic changes associated with more than 400 common diseases and clinical traits affect the genome's regulatory circuitry. These are the regions of DNA that contain instructions dictating when and where genes are switched on or off. Most of these changes affect circuits that are active during early human development, when body tissues are most vulnerable.

The hundreds of researchers working on the ENCODE project have revealed that much of what has been called 'junk DNA' in the human genome is actually a massive control panel with millions of switches regulating the activity of our genes. Without these switches, genes would not work – and mutations in these regions might lead to human disease. The new information delivered by ENCODE is so comprehensive and complex that it has given rise to a new publishing model in which electronic documents and datasets are interconnected.