Body

Two Perelman School of Medicine microbiologists may have found a way to use statins, the well-known blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drugs, to fight the hantavirus, a mysterious and lethal microorganism that appeared suddenly in the US southwest over 20 years ago. That first outbreak led to the deaths of more than a dozen people, most of them in their prime. The last reported outbreak happened in Yellowstone Park in 2012.

The researcher Manuel Palacín, head of the Heterogenic and Multigenic Diseases lab at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), in Barcelona, is among the world's experts in HATs (heteromeric amino acid transporters).

Brussels, Belgium, 11 February 2014 -- Inaccurate diagnosis is a major obstacle for the proper treatment of patients with rare cancers. A Consensus on Improving the Pathologic Diagnosis of Rare Cancers was presented today by RARE CANCERS EUROPE, together with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the European Society of Pathology (ESP) in Brussels.

In the 1990s advance care planning (ACP) developed as an alternative to the traditional approach to creating advance directives. In contrast to the traditional approach, the ACP concept views advance health care planning as a lifelong communication process. All persons in a target group are actively offered professional facilitation. Furthermore, the relevant institutions and professionals are involved and receive regular training and updates. They thus assume responsibility for ensuring that newly written advance directives are relevant, valid, available when needed, and honored reliably.

The drug tamoxifen appears to kill a fungus associated with a deadly brain infection that afflicts HIV/AIDS patients, according to a University of Rochester study published online today by mBio, the journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

This news release is available in German.

Once the snow melts, Canada's bee population will be back in business -- pollinating, making honey and keeping busy doing bee things. For at least two urban bee species, that means making nests out of plastic waste.

A new study by a University of Guelph graduate and a U of G scientist reveals that some bees use bits of plastic bags and plastic building materials to construct their nests. The research was published recently in the journal Ecosphere.

Make the honor roll, go for the promotion, or try the tastiest entrée on the menu. In almost every facet of our culture, we are told to "go for the gold." So, why settle for "good enough" when "something better" is within reach? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, constantly striving for the best may be magnifying negative feelings like regret and dissatisfaction in other parts of our daily lives.

New Rochelle, NY, February 11, 2013—When the time comes for postmenopausal women to discontinue hormone therapy (HT), little is known about the best way to do so with minimal symptoms. A new study that explores optimal approaches to manage symptoms such as trouble sleeping, mood swings, and depression on discontinuation of HT is published in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

As human beings, we expend a great deal of time, money, and energy in the pursuit of happiness. From exotic travel to simply spending time with our grandchildren, the things that make us happy change as we age. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research explores the role of age on the happiness we receive from both the ordinary and the extraordinary experiences in our lives.

A University of York scientist's experience in seeing his partner in hospital recovering from a double lung transplant prompted him to design and synthesise new chemical agents that could revolutionise post-operative patient care.

Professor Dave Smith, of the University's Department of Chemistry, led an international team which developed the agents that bind and potentially remove the anti-coagulant heparin.

From keeping up a daily exercise routine to eating healthy foods and avoiding impulse purchases, self-control is hard work. Ironically, when it comes to making decisions about our bodies, a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research finds we make better health care decisions when we're feeling tired and run down.

New research looking at the biological process involved in breast cancer development has strengthened the argument for a potential link between alcohol consumption and the disease.

Scientists from The University of Manchester – part of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre – and the University of Salford looked at a particular enzyme, a biological molecule that accelerates chemical reactions - known as CYP2E1.

Their findings offer a possible target to improve outcomes for patients in the later stages of the disease.

Reality television has turned the spotlight on to people with excessive behaviors like hoarding and stockpiling. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, controlling the chaotic environment may be one of the biggest factors in helping people stop.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2014—To improve their chances of success, in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics need to assess the viability of the sperm they use. Now doctors may soon have a new technique to help them sort the good sperm cells from the less viable ones: a tracking system, developed by a team of researchers from four European institutions, that takes 3-D movies of living sperm.