Body

(New York City) December 6, 2013 -- In one of the largest epidemiological studies of human gut bacteria and colorectal cancer ever conducted, a team of researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center has found a clear association between gut bacteria and colorectal cancer. The study, published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, discovered that colorectal cancer patients had fewer beneficial bacteria and more harmful bacteria than people without the disease.

DURHAM, N.C. -- For years, scientists have believed that preserving more species, no matter which ones, is a key component to enhancing how well an ecosystem performs.

Not so fast, say scientists at Duke University and the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

In a new study of biodiversity loss in a salt marsh, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they find that it's not just the total number of species preserved that matters, it's the number of key species.

WHAT:

The avian H7N9 influenza virus that emerged earlier this year in China is poorly adapted for sustained transmission between humans, suggesting that the current form of the virus is unlikely to cause a pandemic, according to a new study led by Ian A. Wilson, Ph.D., and James C. Paulson, Ph.D., of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). The study, published today in Science, was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and other organizations.

A microchip-based device developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators may greatly simplify the monitoring of patients' response to treatment for ovarian cancer – the most lethal form of gynecologic cancer – and certain other malignancies. The team from the MGH Cancer Center and the Center for Systems Biology reports using their device to isolate and identify tumor cells from ascites, an accumulation of fluid in the abdomen that often occurs in abdominal cancers.

HOUSTON – Researchers have caught a protein they previously implicated in a variety of cancer-promoting roles performing a vital function in cell division, survival and development of brain tumors.

In a paper published in Molecular Cell, Zhimin Lu, Ph.D., professor of Neuro-Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and colleagues report how a tumor-specific protein flips a crucial switch in an irregular mechanism for mitosis that allows cancer cells to safely divide.

Sophisticated recent experiments with ultrashort laser pulses support the idea that intuition-defying quantum interactions between molecules help plants, algae, and some bacteria efficiently gather light to fuel their growth. But key details of nature's vital light-harvesting mechanisms remain obscure, and the exact role that quantum physics may play in understanding them is more subtle than was once thought, according to an Overview Article in the January issue of BioScience.

Taking probiotics has health benefits but preventing childhood asthma isn't one of them, shows newly published research led by medical scientists at the University of Alberta.

New Rochelle, NY, December 6, 2013—Erectile dysfunction (ED) is caused by the inability of the artery that supplies blood to the penis to expand and contract properly. The study of this mechanism has led to a new understanding of the important link between ED and the development of coronary artery disease, and to new strategies for prevention and treatment, as described in Journal of Men's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

A new study conducted by scientists from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden presents very promising results for the treatment of the cancer form multiple myeloma. The drug candidate used in the research has been developed by scientists from Karolinska Institutet and a Swedish company following its initial identification at the same university. The findings are so promising that the scientists are teaming up with Harvard to bring the drug to clinical trials on patients.

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have discovered that the skin is capable of communicating with the liver. The discovery has surprised the scientists, and they say that it may help our understanding of how skin diseases can affect the rest of the body.

1. Scientists at A*STAR's Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) and Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IMCB) have identified a gene encoding a hormone that could potentially be used as a therapeutic molecule to treat heart diseases. The hormone - which they have chosen to name ELABELA - is only 32 amino-acids long, making it amongst the tiniest proteins made by the human body.

DNA sequencing seems to be an eternal theme for human due to the desire of ascertaining the nature of life. Professor QIAN Linmao and his group from Tribology Research Institute, Southwest Jiaotong University were working on the optimization of the third-generation sequencing technique based on nanopore. They found that long chain DNA with low salt concentration is more conducive to the nanopore sequencing process. Their work, entitled "Effect of chain length on the conformation and friction behaviour of DNA", was published in SCIENCE CHINA Technological Sciences.

PHILADELPHIA — Men who continued to smoke after a cancer diagnosis had an increased risk of death compared with those who quit smoking after diagnosis, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013, Cleveland: A Cleveland Clinic-led study shows that a specific type of diabetes drug can decrease the risk of cancer in female patients with type 2 diabetes by up to 32 percent.

People with type 2 diabetes have a higher rate of cancer development and recurrence compared to the general population. This study – published online today by the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism – shows that widely prescribed anti-diabetes drugs can be linked to either an increased or decreased risk of cancer, depending on the type of medication prescribed.

Feeding wildlife is an increasingly common tourist activity, but a new study published online today by the journal Conservation Physiology shows that already-imperilled iguanas are suffering further physiological problems as a result of being fed by tourists.