Body

Needham, MA.–JBJS Case Connector, an online case report journal published by The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, has issued a "Watch" regarding femoral neck fractures in patients whose implants used modular head-neck and neck-stem designs.

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a new genetic platform that allows efficient production of naturally occurring molecules, and have used it to produce a novel antibiotic compound. Their study, published this week in PNAS, may open new avenues for natural product discoveries and drug development.

An anti-malaria drug combination might be useful in helping to prevent pregnancy complications in women with lupus and the related disorder antiphospholipid syndrome, Yale School of Medicine researchers have found in a new study published in the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Excess abdominal fat can be a precursor to diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. A person's measure of belly fat is reflected in the ratio of waist circumference to hip circumference, and it is estimated that genetics account for about 30-60 percent of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).

Girls treated for Hodgkin's disease during adolescence acquire a considerable risk of developing breast cancer, as shown by an observational study published in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111 (1–2): 3–9). The study, which was carried out by Günther Schellong and his colleagues in the German Working Group on the Long-Term Sequelae of Hodgkin's Disease, has an unusually long follow-up time (average 17.8 years, maximum 33 years).

Rice University scientists have created a way to fine tune a process critical to the pharmaceutical industry that could save a lot of time and money.

A combination of the Rice technique that provides pinpoint locations for single proteins and a theory that describes those proteins' interactions with other molecules could widen a bottleneck in the manufacture of drugs by making the process of isolating proteins five times more efficient.

Two years ago, researchers from Iowa State University (USA) published a study which concluded that spider silk conducts heat as well as metals. Now, a team from the University of the Basque Country (Spain) has repeated the experiment and the results throw this discovery into question. This has reaffirmed the need to validate scientific findings before proclaiming their validity in the press.

New Rochelle, NY, January 22, 2014—Metastatic melanoma has a poor prognosis, but treatment with high-dose interleukin-2 (IL2) can extend survival. Now, a combination of IL2 therapy and activation of patients' immune systems using personalized vaccines made from their own tumor cells has been shown to improve survival rates even more than IL2 alone, according to a new article in Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

A new study has revealed that fungi, often seen as pests, play a crucial role policing biodiversity in rainforests.

The Oxford University-led research found that fungi regulate diversity in rainforests by making dominant species victims of their own success. Fungi spread quickly between closely-packed plants of the same species, preventing them from dominating and enabling a wider range of species to flourish.

Cambridge, MA. Wed. January 22, 2014 – Researchers from the Broad Institute and several partnering institutions have taken a closer look at the human genome to learn more about the genetic underpinnings of schizophrenia. In two studies published this week in Nature, scientists analyzed the exomes, or protein-coding regions, of people with schizophrenia and their healthy counterparts, pinpointing the sites of mutations and identifying patterns that reveal clues about the biology underlying the disorder.

NEW YORK, NY The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai today announced the publication of two papers in the journal Nature that reveal new information about the genetic complexity underpinning schizophrenia. These collaborative studies represent the largest exome sequencing efforts to date to elucidate this mental illness, and together found that the disorder is likely caused by far more rare genetic mutations than previously suspected.

Flies living with their brothers cause less harm to females during courting than those living with unrelated flies, say Oxford University scientists.

The study, published this week in Nature, found that unrelated male flies compete more fiercely for females' attention than related flies, resulting in shorter lifespans for males and reduced fecundity for females.

DALLAS - Jan. 22, 2014 - Scientists have known for years that stem cells in male and female sexual organs are regulated differently by their respective hormones. In a surprising discovery, researchers at the Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) and Baylor College of Medicine have found that stem cells in the blood-forming system — which is similar in both sexes — also are regulated differently by hormones, with estrogen proving to be an especially prolific promoter of stem cell self-renewal.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – It may take a legion of scuba divers armed with nets and spears, but a new study confirms for the first time that controlling lionfish populations in the western Atlantic Ocean can pave the way for a recovery of native fish.

Even if it's one speared fish at a time, it finally appears that there's a way to fight back.

Responsive holograms that change colour in the presence of certain compounds are being developed into portable medical tests and devices, which could be used to monitor conditions such as diabetes, cardiac function, infections, electrolyte or hormone imbalance easily and inexpensively.