Body

One way to tackle a tumor is to take aim at the metabolic reactions that fuel their growth. But a report in the February Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press Publication, shows that one metabolism-targeted cancer therapy will not fit all. That means that metabolic profiling will be essential for defining each cancer and choosing the best treatment accordingly, the researchers say.

The evidence comes from studies in mice showing that tumors' metabolic profiles vary based on the genes underlying a particular cancer and on the tissue of origin.

For all those who have wondered where they'd be without their mothers, a study reported in the February Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, puts a whole new spin on the question. Mice whose mothers pass along a mutant copy of a single imprinted gene can't keep themselves warm and die soon after leaving the comfort of the nest. The findings also reveal that the babies require a second round of heat-generating brown fat to survive.

"When that second wave is delayed, it gets them in the end," said Anne Ferguson-Smith of the University of Cambridge.

HOUSTON -- (Feb. 8, 2012) -- A protein kinase known as ROCK1 can exacerbate an important process called fission in the mitochondria, the power plants of cells, leading to diabetic kidney disease, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online today in the journal Cell Metabolism. (ROCK1 stands for (Rho-associated coiled-coil containing protein kinase 1.)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have learned how to improve the performance of sensors that use tiny vibrating microcantilevers to detect chemical and biological agents for applications from national security to food processing.

The microcantilevers - slivers of silicon shaped like small diving boards - vibrate at their natural, or "resonant," frequency. Analyzing the frequency change when a particle lands on the microcantilever reveals the particle's presence and potentially its mass and composition.

CHICAGO (February 7, 2012) – Two outcomes-based measures from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) were recently endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF). The two measures, surgical site infection (SSI) and urinary tract infection (UTI), were developed by ACS in partnership with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as possible national outcomes measures that could be adopted by the governmental body as early as 2015.

CHICAGO --- Brooding in your apartment on Saturday afternoon? A new smart phone intuits when you're depressed and will nudge you to call or go out with friends.

It's the future of therapy at a new Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine center where scientists are inventing web-based, mobile and virtual technologies to treat depression and other mood disorders. The phone and similar projects bypass traditional weekly therapy sessions for novel approaches that provide immediate support and access to a much larger population.

TAMPA, Fla. (Feb. 7, 2012) – In a study conducted by researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues from 11 other institutions in the Unites States and the United Kingdom, genes that are known to be involved in inflammation were found to be related to risk of ovarian cancer.

Their study appeared in a recent issue of Cancer Research, published by the American Association for Cancer Research.

An international team of scientists has demonstrated a revolutionary new way of magnetic recording which will allow information to be processed hundreds of times faster than by current hard drive technology.

The researchers found they could record information using only heat - a previously unimaginable scenario. They believe this discovery will not only make future magnetic recording devices faster, but more energy-efficient too.

A new immunotherapy for companion dogs with advanced-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has been shown to improve survival while maintaining quality of life, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. The study resulted from a collaboration between The University of Texas MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital in Houston and Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine in College Station.

When it comes to diets, cookies and cake are off the menu. Now, in a surprising discovery, researchers from Tel Aviv University have found that dessert, as part of a balanced 600-calorie breakfast that also includes proteins and carbohydrates, can help dieters to lose more weight — and keep it off in the long run.

Charlottesville, VA (February 7, 2012). Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center's VCU Massey Cancer Center and Harold F. Young Neurosurgical Center (Richmond, VA) and Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA) have discovered that suppression of Wilms tumor 1 protein (WT1) results in downregulation of CD97 gene expression in three glioblastoma cell lines and reduces the characteristic invasiveness exhibited by glial tumor cells.

In 2010, Dr. Svante Pääbo and his colleagues presented a draft version of the genome from a small fragment of a human finger bone discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. The DNA sequences showed that this individual came from a previously unknown group of extinct humans that have become known as Denisovans. Together with their sister group the Neandertals, Denisovans are the closest extinct relatives of currently living humans.

In the U.S., there are nearly three million youth soccer players, and half of them are female. New research presented today at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) found that despite reporting appropriate body perception and attitudes toward eating, elite youth soccer athletes (club level or higher) face an increased risk for delayed or irregular menstruation. In addition, female soccer players are more likely to suffer a stress fracture or ligament injury.

Philadelphia, PA, February 7, 2012 – With no lab tests to guide the clinician, psychiatric diagnostics is challenging and controversial. Antisocial personality disorder is defined as "a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood," according to the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) of the American Psychiatric Association.

TEMPE (Feb. 6, 2012) - As an ice age crept upon them thousands of years ago, Neanderthals and modern human ancestors expanded their territory ranges across Asia and Europe to adapt to the changing environment.

In the process, they encountered each other.