Body

Tropical biodiversity is about the neighbors

Tropical biodiversity is about the neighbors

Messenger RNAs are regulated in far more ways than previously appreciated, CSHL team finds

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – One way of regulating protein levels in cells is to shorten the lifespan of messenger RNAs (mRNAs). These are intermediary molecules that are first copied from DNA in the cell's nucleus via a process called transcription and then transported into the cell's body to be translated into protein.

Glasgow's high mortality rates are not explained by deprivation alone

London, 25 June, 2010 - New research, published by Elsevier in the Royal Society for Public Health's journal Public Health, provides compelling evidence that deprivation alone cannot explain the poor health experienced by Glasgow's residents.

A life-changing partnership

A life-changing partnership

Industry fishing for profits, not predators

People who fish for a living pursue top profits, not necessarily top predators, according to the first-ever analysis of worldwide catch and economic data for the past 55 years.

This differs from the observation raised 10 years ago that humans were "fishing down" the food web. It was assumed that catches of the predators at the top of the food chain, such as halibut and tuna, were declining after fishers started landing more fish from lower on the food chain, such as herring and anchovies.

New ISHLT cardiac allograft vasculopathy standardized nomenclature

New York, New York, June 25, 2010 – Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV), the major limitation to long term survival after heart transplantation, occurs when blood vessels in a transplanted heart progressively narrow and lead to dysfunction of the heart muscle or sudden death. Ascertaining benefit from appropriate treatment for this condition has been hampered in part because of the lack of a standard nomenclature.

Ronin recruits protein 'allies' to sustain embryonic stem cell growth

HOUSTON -- (June 25, 2010) – Ronin, crucial to the self-renewal of embryonic stem cells, and a co-regulator called Hcf-1, binds to a small strand of DNA called a hyperconserved enhancer element to control a gene "program" that stimulates growth of the stem cells and may even play a role in cancer, said a group of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine in a current report in the journal Genes and Development.

Ingredient in red wine may prevent some blinding diseases

Ingredient in red wine may prevent some blinding diseases

Resveratrol — found in red wine, grapes, blueberries, peanuts and other plants — stops out-of-control blood vessel growth in the eye, according to vision researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

New diagnostic test for bladder cancer

Copenhagen, Denmark – Researchers from the Danish Cancer Society and the Herlev University Hospital of Copenhagen have developed a novel assay to test for multiple tumor markers in bladder cancer. The related report by Serizawa et al, "Custom-designed MLPA using multiple short synthetic probes: application to methylation analysis of five promoter CpG islands in tumor and urine specimens from patients with bladder cancer," appears in the July 2010 issue of The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

Genetics in bloom

Genetics in bloom

Some of the molecular machinery that governs flower formation has been uncovered in the daisy-like Gerbera plants. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Plant Biology have published a pair of articles detailing how the complex Gerbera inflorescence is formed and how this process differs from other model plants, such as the more simple flowers of Arabidopsis species.

Do spending cuts cost lives?

Radical cuts to social welfare spending to reduce budget deficits could cause not just economic pain but cost lives, warn experts in a study published on bmj.com today.

While there is a major debate under way about the potential economic impacts of radical budget cuts in Europe, David Stuckler from the University of Oxford and his colleagues dissect the effect of public spending on people's health.

Polarized arguments about breast screening are not helping women, warns expert

Polarised arguments about the benefits and harms of breast screening are not helping women to make an informed decision, argues a senior doctor on bmj.com today.

Klim McPherson, Professor of Public Health Epidemiology at the University of Oxford looks at the evidence and calls for dispassionate analysis of all available data.

Despite the guidelines, lower blood pressure might be unhealthy for kidney patients

Despite the guidelines, lower blood pressure might be unhealthy for kidney patients

Popular heart drug may be unsafe for some kidney patients

Popular heart drug may be unsafe for some kidney patients

For patients with kidney disease on dialysis, the widely used heart medication digoxin may lead to an increased risk of premature death, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

23andMe novel, Web-based/participant-driven GWAS replicates genetic associations

23andMe novel, Web-based/participant-driven GWAS replicates genetic associations