Body

Claudia Bagni (VIB/KU Leuven, Belgium, and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy), has identified the way Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein or FMRP contributes to the progression of breast cancer. For this research the group of Bagni collaborated with colleagues from the VIB/KU Leuven departments of Bart De Strooper and Peter Carmeliet (VIB/KU Leuven), with Patrick Neven (UZ Leuven) and with several research centers and Hospitals in Italy and the UK.

SYDNEY: By collecting water samples up to six kilometres below the surface of the Southern Ocean, UNSW researchers have shown for the first time the impact of ocean currents on the distribution and abundance of marine micro-organisms.

The sampling was the deepest ever undertaken from the Australian icebreaker, RSV Aurora Australis.

Microbes are so tiny they are invisible to the naked eye, but they are vital to sustaining life on earth, producing most of the oxygen we breathe, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and recycling nutrients.

University of Adelaide researchers have identified a likely molecular pathway that causes a group of untreatable neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease.

The group of about 20 diseases, which show overlapping symptoms that typically include nerve cell death, share a similar genetic mutation mechanism ‒ but how this form of mutation causes these diseases has remained a mystery.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A new gonorrhea treatment, based on an anti-cancer therapy developed by a Buffalo startup company, has successfully eliminated gonococcal infection from female mice and prevented reinfection, according to research published today by University at Buffalo scientists in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Todd Dunlap, 62, arrived at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center's emergency room on Aug. 8 suffering from shortness of breath, fatigue and extreme cold. When a CT scan revealed a 24-inch clot stretching from his legs into his heart, doctors feared the mass could break loose and lodge in his lungs, blocking oxygen and killing him instantly.

Energy budget adjustments

Results of EORTC trial 10853 appearing in the Journal of Clinical Oncology show that breast conserving treatment combined with radiotherapy reduces the risk of local recurrence in women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The incidence of DCIS has been increasing in the past decades, and this has been attributed to increased detection through breast cancer screening using mammograms.

Recurrent episodes of malaria cause chronic inflammation in blood vessels that might predispose to future infections and may increase susceptibility to cardiovascular disease, a Wellcome Trust study in Malawian children finds.

The findings could explain the indirect burden of malaria on childhood deaths in areas where the disease is highly prevalent and children experience multiple clinical episodes of malaria in a year.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Sept. 18, 2013 — Researchers have discovered why multiple myeloma, a difficult to cure cancer of the bone marrow, frequently recurs after an initially effective treatment that can keep the disease at bay for up to several years.

Working in collaboration with colleagues at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, researchers from Mayo Clinic in Arizona and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix were part of the team that conducted the study published in the Sept. 9 issue of Cancer Cell.

LOS ANGELES (Embargoed Until 9 a.m. EDT/6 a.m. PDT on Sept. 18, 2013) – Post-menopausal women whose doctors prescribe hormone replacement therapy for severe hot flashes and other menopause symptoms may want to consider taking low doses of Food and Drug Administration-approved bioidentical forms of estrogen or getting their hormones via a transdermal patch.

California biologists have discovered four new species of reclusive legless lizards living in some of the most marginal habitat in the state: a vacant lot in downtown Bakersfield, among oil derricks in the lower San Joaquin Valley, on the margins of the Mojave desert, and at the end of one of the runways at LAX.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) – A new UC Santa Barbara study shows that threats created by overfishing can be identified decades before the fish species at risk experience high overly harvest rates and subsequent population declines. Researchers developed an Eventual Threat Index (ETI) that quantifies the biological and socioeconomic conditions that eventually cause some fish species to be harvested at unsustainable rates. The findings are published in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — An experimental vaccine against human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, which endangers the developing fetus, organ transplant recipients, patients with HIV and others who have a weakened immune system, proved safe and more effective than previous vaccines developed to prevent infection by the ubiquitous virus.

UCLA researchers have discovered that diamonds on a much, much smaller scale than those used in jewelry could be used to promote bone growth and the durability of dental implants.

Pregnant women with a body mass index (BMI) that is too high or too low are more likely to have maternal complications, require additional hospital care and incur higher medical costs, according to a new study published today (18 September) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.