Body

LA JOLLA, CA-A recent study from scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggests that a strawberry a day (or more accurately, 37 of them) could keep not just one doctor away, but an entire fleet of them, including the neurologist, the endocrinologist, and maybe even the oncologist.

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers have identified six subtypes of an aggressive and difficult-to-treat form of breast cancer, called "triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)."

SAN ANTONIO (June 27, 2011) — In the constant battle to lose inches or at least stay the same, we reach for the diet soda. Two studies presented June 25 and 27 at the American Diabetes Association's Scientific Sessions in San Diego suggest this might be self-defeating behavior.

A review of documentation relating to a clinical trial of the epilepsy drug gabapentin suggests that the study may have been a "seeding trial" used to promote the drug and increase prescribing, according to a report in the June 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

STANFORD, Calif. — A combination of calcium and vitamin D may cut the chance of melanoma in half for some women at high risk of developing this life-threatening skin cancer, according to a new study by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers.

Stress management programs like Transcendental Meditation should be implemented to significantly reduce depression, heart attacks, strokes and deaths in coronary heart disease patients, according to a new editorial written by a Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute physician, C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, and published in Archives of Internal Medicine.

A team of Yale Cancer Center researchers has confirmed that between 10-20% of breast cancers classified as Estrogen Receptor (ER) negative are really positive. Understanding when and why breast cancers may be misclassified has important implications for treatment and outcomes for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Its findings are published online in the June 28 Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that a clinical trial of the epilepsy drug gabapentin may have been a "seeding trial" used by a pharmaceutical company to promote the drug and increase prescriptions, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Researchers at UCLA have identified a new stem cell that participates in the repair of the large airways of the lungs, which play a vital role in protecting the body from infectious agents and toxins in the environment.

The airways protect the body by producing and clearing mucus from the airways. The mucus is largely produced by specialized mucus glands in the airway and the mechanisms of normal and excessive mucus production are not well understood. However, this newly discovered lung stem cell for the mucus glands will likely yield new insights into this critical process.

The largest study yet of adult childhood cancer survivors found that the first cancer is just the beginning of a lifelong battle against different forms of the disease for about 10 percent of these survivors.

A revolutionary species-preservation approach based on whole-genome analyses of two Tasmanian devils -- one that had died of a contagious cancer known as Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) and one healthy animal -- has been used to develop a theoretical model to predict which individuals would need to be kept in captivity to maximize chances of preserving enough genetic diversity for the species to survive.

COLUMBIA, Mo. –While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration notes "some concern" with the controversial chemical BPA, and many other countries, such as Japan and Canada, have considered BPA product bans, disagreement exists amongst scientists in this field on the effects of BPA in animals and humans.

A new study by a team of University of Notre Dame researchers offers a wealth of information about the rhythmic nature of gene expression in Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito species that transmits the malaria parasite from person to person. Each year, roughly 250 million people suffer from malaria and that results in one million deaths, mostly pregnant women and children under five years of age.

Bacteria are common sources of infection, but these microorganisms can themselves be infected by even smaller agents: viruses. A new analysis of the interactions between bacteria and viruses has revealed patterns that could help scientists working to understand which viruses infect which bacteria in the microbial world.

A meta-analysis of the interactions shows that the infection patterns exhibit a nested structure, with hard-to-infect bacteria infected by generalist viruses and easy-to-infect bacteria attacked by both generalist and specialist viruses.

New York, NY — June 24 — Scientists have long known that, to form tissue structures and organs, stem cells migrate and differentiate in response to the other cells, matrix, and signals in their environment. But not much is known about these developmental processes nor how to distinguish between normal and pathological behaviors.