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Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the brain cancer that killed Sen. Edward Kennedy and kills approximately 13,000 Americans a year, is aggressive and incurable. Now a Northwestern University research team is the first to demonstrate delivery of a drug that turns off a critical gene in this complex cancer, increasing survival rates significantly in animals with the deadly disease.

NEW YORK – October 30, 2013 – EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization that focuses on local conservation and global health issues, announced the discovery of a new SARS-like coronavirus (CoV) in Chinese horseshoe bats. Ten years after the SARS outbreak, EcoHealth Alliance scientists and an international group of collaborators have uncovered genome sequences of a new virus closely related to the SARS coronavirus that erupted in Asia in 2002 – 2003, which caused a global pandemic crisis.

Scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen and the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, together with scientists in the USA, have developed a new therapeutic approach for treatment of Type 2 diabetes. A novel single molecule hormone, which acts equally on the receptors of the insulin-stimulating hormones GLP-1 and GIP, was observed to reduce weight and improve blood sugar.

The results have now been published in the medical journal Science Translational Medicine, and include data from successful clinical studies in partnership with the pharmaceutical company Roche.

HIV infection, not antiretroviral therapy (ART), is associated with risk for atherosclerosis in patients with no history of smoking, particularly those infected for eight years or more. Results of the study led by Moïse Desvarieux, MD, PhD, at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and at the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), are published in the latest issue of the journal AIDS.

Chevy Chase, MD—A new testing method can better detect potentially fatal hormone imbalances in patients with end-stage kidney disease, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Chevy Chase, MD—Older individuals hospitalized with a serious condition may face a slimmer risk of surviving if their thyroid hormone levels are low, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

The thyroid gland, located in the neck, produces hormones that regulate the body's temperature, consumption of oxygen and metabolism. The gland produces two hormones, triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4), which travel through the blood to spur activity in various tissues.

Chevy Chase, MD—New research refutes the scientific community's long-held belief that the body needs a specific protein to produce steroid hormones like testosterone, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's journal Endocrinology.

A new strategy for emergency anticoagulant treatment for patients with acute myocardial infarction has been put in place by a team led by Philippe-Gabriel Steg at Inserm Unit 698 (Haemostasis, Bioengineering, Immunopathology and Cardiovascular Remodelling), at Hôpital Bichat, AP-HP, Université Paris Diderot). These results from the EUROMAX clinical trial are published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

DURHAM, N.H. – Humpback whales are known for the complexity of their feeding techniques, which include "trapping" krill and other prey within bubble nets they produce and gulping up to two-thirds their weight in prey-laden water. Now, scientists have confirmed that humpback whales in the southern Gulf of Maine are spending more feeding time on the ocean floor than in any of these other feeding behaviors. Because entanglement in fishing gear is a major risk to humpbacks, these findings have implications on bottom-set gear like those used in lobster traps.

A review article by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) suggests that epigenetics may be a useful target to stop the growth, spread and relapse of cancer. The findings are published online in Volume 14 of the International Journal of Molecular Science.

The term epigenetics refers to the external modifications to DNA that turn genes "on" or "off." These modifications do not change the DNA sequence, but instead, they affect how cells read genes.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – October 30, 2013 – According to a new study, administering the blood thinner bivalirudin to patients experiencing an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI, the most serious form of a heart attack) in a pre-hospital setting can reduce the risk of death and major bleeding complications compared to heparin with optional use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors.

GALVESTON, Texas -- Initiation and completion rates for the human papillomavirus vaccine series are significantly lower in the South than any other geographic region, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The new findings are especially disconcerting because cervical cancer — which is caused almost exclusively by HPV — is more prevalent in the South than in any other region.

WORCESTER, MA – New insights into how human cytomegalovirus (CMV), the leading cause of birth defects associated with infection spreads from pregnant mother to fetus and from organ to organ in newborns provides translational researchers an exciting new avenue for investigation that may lead to the development of therapeutic interventions. Using next generation sequencing and population genetic modeling, scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have found that CMV evolves rapidly and dramatically in humans.

This news release is available in French.

Divorced people are more likely to die from preventable accidents than married counterparts, according to a new study from sociologists at Rice University and the University of Pennsylvania. The study also found that single people and those with low educational attainment are at greater risk for accidental death.