Body

Park Ridge, Ill. (August 12, 2009) – Research published online in the journal Epidemiology found that higher levels of total blood choline are associated with a 2.5-fold reduction in risk for neural tube birth defects (NTDs).(1) NTDs are birth defects of the brain and spinal cord, and the two most common NTDs are spina bifida and anencephaly. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), an estimated 3,000 pregnancies in the U.S.

The brute force of Bacillus anthracis, the ancient scourge that causes anthrax, can sweep through and overpower a two-ton animal in under 72 hours. But when it isn't busy claiming livestock and humans throughout the world -- up to 100,000 annually -- it resides ominously in the soil as a spore waiting for its next victim. Researchers at Rockefeller University now reveal that this deadly bacterium isn't the only master of its fate.

University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine researchers have discovered how some recently approved drugs act against cancer cells. The finding may lead to a more effectively targeted anti-cancer strategy.

In a new study reported in the journal PLoS ONE online, UIC researchers show how a class of drugs inhibits a protein called FoxM1 and suggest that the drugs' ability to inhibit FoxM1 may account for their anti-cancer activity.

August 12, 2009 – The smallest organisms to use a biological compass are magnetotactic bacteria, however mysteries remain about exactly how these bacteria create their cellular magnets. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have used genome sequencing to unlock new secrets about these magnetic microbes that could accelerate biotechnology and nanotechnology research.

PHILADELPHIA – Patients with stage III or IV melanoma taking ipilimumab and the oral steroid budesonide to reduce side effects did not have less diarrhea, a known side effect of ipilimumab, according to results of a phase II trial published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

OKLAHOMA CITY – The dean of the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health and a team of scientists worldwide have found a better way to prevent deadly blood clots after joint replacement surgery – a major problem that results in thousands of unnecessary deaths each year. The research appears this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

GALVESTON, Texas — University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have found that a single enzyme is apparently critical to most allergen-provoked asthma attacks — and that activity of the enzyme, known as aldose reductase, can be significantly reduced by compounds that have already undergone clinical trials as treatments for complications of diabetes.

As a result of a major inter-laboratory study, the standards body ASTM International has been able to update its guidelines for a commonly used technique for measuring the size of nanoparticles in solutions. The study, which was organized principally by researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory of the National Cancer Institute, enabled updated guidelines that now include statistically evaluated data on the measurement precisions achieved by a wide variety of laboratories applying the ASTM guide.

During about the last 20 years, the risk of delivery-related death at birth or shortly thereafter for term infants has decreased nearly 40 percent in Scotland, with the largest contributing factor being a decrease in the number of deaths caused by a lack of oxygen for the baby during the childbirth process, according to a study in the August 12 issue of JAMA.

A commonly held belief that severe influenza pandemics are preceded by a milder wave of illness arose because some accounts of the devastating flu pandemic of 1918-19 suggested that it may have followed such a pattern. But two scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, say the existing data are insufficient to conclude decisively that the 1918-19 pandemic was presaged by a mild, so-called spring wave, or that the responsible virus had increased in lethality between the beginning and end of 1918.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new calibration technique that will improve the reliability and stability of one of NIST's most versatile technologies, the microhotplate. The novel NIST device is being developed as the foundation for miniature yet highly accurate gas sensors that can detect chemical and biological agents, industrial leaks and even signs of extraterrestrial life from aboard a planetary probe.

University of Central Florida researchers have shown for the first time that light energy can gently guide and change the orientation of living cells within lab cultures. That ability to optically steer cells could be a major step in harnessing the healing power of stem cells and guiding them to areas of the body that need help.

New research out of the University of Cincinnati is a rare examination of the social impact of armed conflict and militarization. Steve Carlton-Ford, a UC associate professor of sociology, presented the findings Aug. 11 at the 104th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in San Francisco.

New York, NY (August 11, 2009) Researchers from the field in South Africa demonstrate that threatened big cats truly can be saved through strategic and science-based conservation practices, according to a study published this week in the scientific journal Biological Conservation.

Taking dexamathasone prophlyactically may improve exercise capacity in some mountaineers, according to Swiss researchers. Dexamathasone, known popularly to climbers as "dex," has been used for years to treat altitude-related symptoms in mountaineers, but has never been tested for its ability to improve exercise capacity at high altitude.