Body

Rice University researchers have delivered a scientific one-two punch with a pair of papers that detail how synthetic collagen fibers self-assemble via their sticky ends.

Collagen is the most common protein in mammals, a major component of bone and the fibrous tissues that support cells and hold organs together. Discovering its secrets may lead to better synthetic collagen for tissue engineering and cosmetic and reconstructive medicine.

The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), which is native to Southeast Asia, was spotted in Houston in 1985. By 1986 it had reached St. Louis and Jacksonville, Fla. Today it can be found in all of the southern states and as far north as Maine.

An aggressive daytime biter, Ae. albopictus has an affinity for humans and is also a vector for human disease, said Kim Medley, PhD, interim director of the Tyson Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

The price tag for informal caregiving of elderly people by friends and relatives in the United States comes to $522 billion a year, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Replacing that care with unskilled paid care at minimum wage would cost $221 billion, while replacing it with skilled nursing care would cost $642 billion annually.

For decades, honeybees have been battling a deadly disease that kills off their babies (larvae) and leads to hive collapse. It's called American Foulbrood and its effects are so devastating and infectious, it often requires infected hives to be burned to the ground.

Treating Foulbrood is complicated because the disease can evolve to resist antibiotics and other chemical treatments. Losing entire hives not only disrupts the honey industry, but reduces the number of bees for pollinating plants.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A new study by researchers at The Kinsey Institute and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that the timeless, multicultural tradition of grandmothering might have an unexpected benefit: helping some women temper their hot flashes and night sweats during menopause.

This news release is available in French.

A key to aortic valve disease prevention: Lowering cholesterol early

A paper in The Journal of Experimental Medicine finds potentially lethal bacterium protects itself by causing immune tunnel vision. By tricking the immune system into focusing on one bug-associated factor, the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus dodges the production of antibodies that would otherwise protect against infection.

Tiny, soapy bubbles can reorganize their membranes to let material flow in and out in response to the surrounding environment, according to new work carried out in an international collaboration by biomedical engineers at the University of California, Davis, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. This behavior could be exploited in creating microbubbles that deliver drugs or other payloads inside the body — and could help us understand how the very first living cells on Earth might have survived billions of years ago.

ROCHESTER, Minn. –The International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) today announced that it has updated the criteria for diagnosing multiple myeloma. A paper outlining the new criteria was published in the journal Lancet Oncology. Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell.

Washington, DC, October 27, 2014—New results from a safety and immunogenicity study, which included a challenge phase to test efficacy, indicate that a live attenuated enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) vaccine candidate, given in combination with a novel adjuvant, provided significant protection against disease. This represents the first efficacy data for this vaccine/adjuvant combination, which was 58.5 percent efficacious in protecting against diarrhea of any severity using a highly rigorous ETEC human challenge model.

Amoebas aren't the only cells that crawl: Movement is crucial to development, wound healing and immune response in animals, not to mention cancer metastasis. In two new studies from Johns Hopkins, researchers answer long-standing questions about how complex cells sense the chemical trails that show them where to go — and the role of cells' internal "skeleton" in responding to those cues.

Berlin, 27 October 2014. Not everyone who contracts the Ebola virus dies, the survival rate is around 30% suggesting that some kind of immunity to the disease is possible. Experimental treatments and vaccines against Ebola exist but have not yet been tested in large groups for safety and efficacy (phase 2 trials).

A new study has found that patients who received chest radiation for Wilms tumor, a rare childhood cancer, face an increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life due to their radiation exposure. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings suggest that cancer screening guidelines might be re-evaluated to facilitate the early diagnosis and prompt treatment of breast cancer among Wilms tumor survivors.

Today, the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) has published an educational slide deck highlighting 60 original scientific abstracts presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) in September 2014.

The succinct slide kit can be downloaded free of charge by all individual IOF members (free sign up on the IOF website).

VANCOUVER ─ Heart surgery patients who received newly donated blood have significantly fewer post-operative complications than those who received blood that had been donated more than two weeks before their surgery, a study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress has shown.