Body

A comparison of three methods of predicting the risk of recurrence in women treated for estrogen-receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer finds that only the breast cancer index (BCI) – a biomarker based on the expression levels of seven tumor-specific genes – accurately identifies patients who continue to be at risk after five years of treatment with either tamoxifen or the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole. The study comparing the BCI with two other prognostic tests has been published online in Lancet Oncology.

PHILADELPHIA (September 11, 2013) –Do you love chomping on raw broccoli while your best friend can't stand the healthy veggie in any form or guise? Part of the reason may be your genes, particularly your bitter taste genes.

Over the past decade, scientists at the Monell Center and elsewhere have made headway in understanding how variants of bitter taste receptor genes can help account for how people differ with regard to taste perception and food choice.

Just as the symptoms of menopause in women are attributed to a sharp drop in estrogen production, symptoms often seen in middle-aged men – changes in body composition, energy, strength and sexual function – are usually attributed to the less drastic decrease in testosterone production that typically occurs in the middle years. However, a study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers finds that insufficient estrogen could be at least partially responsible for some of these symptoms.

Spider venoms are usually toxic when injected into prey, but a new protein discovered in the venom of Australian tarantulas can also kill prey insects that consume the venom orally. The protein is strongly insecticidal to the cotton bollworm, an important agricultural pest, according to research published September 11 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Glenn King and Maggie Hardy from the Institute of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland, Australia, and colleagues from other institutions.

Humpback whale populations are on the rise in the coastal fjords of British Columbia, doubling in size from 2004 to 2011, according to results published September 18 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Erin Ashe from the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St. Andrews and colleagues from other institutions.

Japanese researchers have identified a mutation associated with a higher incidence of lung cancer in Japanese women who do not smoke, but better survival in lung cancer patients. In a study published today in the journal PLOS ONE, the team from the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies shows that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a gene that protects cells from oxidative stress is found four times more frequently in women than in men.

It is hardly possible to talk about fossil insects in amber without the 1993 movie Jurassic Park entering the debate. The idea of recreating dinosaurs by extracting DNA from insects in amber has held the fascination of the public for two decades. Claims for successful extraction of DNA from ambers up to 130 million-years-old by various scientists in the early 1990s were only seriously questioned when a study at the Natural History Museum, London, was unable to replicate the process.

Peru's cloud forests are some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world. A profusion of tree and plant species as well as one third of Peru's mammal, bird and frog species make their home in these perennially wet regions, located along the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains. The high elevation (6,500-11,000 feet), and remote location of these areas makes them some of the hardest to reach and therefore hardest to study ecosystems in the world. To date, scientists only believe a fraction of cloud forest tree and plant species have been discovered.

MINNEAPOLIS – People who get occasional migraines are more likely to be obese than people who do not have migraines, according to a study published in the September 11, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers have transported two endangered freshwater mussel species from Pennsylvania to Illinois in an attempt to re-establish their populations in the western part of the Ohio River Basin.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Many climate studies have predicted that tree species will respond to global warming by migrating via seed dispersal to cooler climates. But a new study of 65 different species in 31 eastern states finds evidence of a different, unexpected response.

Nearly 80 percent of the species aren't yet shifting their geographic distributions to higher latitudes. Instead, they're staying in place -- but speeding up their life cycles.

Hanover, NH – In a study to be published in the journal Nature, two Dartmouth researchers have found that the protein cyclin A plays an important but previously unknown role in the cell division process, acting as a master controller to ensure the faithful segregation of chromosomes during cell division.

NEW YORK, NY (September 11, 2013) —The level of expression of three genes associated with aging can be used to predict whether seemingly low-risk prostate cancer will remain slow-growing, according to researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center. Use of this three-gene biomarker, in conjunction with existing cancer-staging tests, could help physicians better determine which men with early prostate cancer can be safely followed with "active surveillance" and spared the risks of prostate removal or other invasive treatment.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The first proteomic analysis of an animal model of a rare, sometimes deadly birth defect, Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome (SLOS), has revealed that the molecular mechanisms that cause it are more complex than previously understood. SLOS involves multiple neurosensory and cognitive abnormalities, mental and physical disabilities, including those affecting vision and in severe cases, death before the age of 10.

PORTLAND, Ore. — An HIV/AIDS vaccine candidate developed by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University appears to have the ability to completely clear an AIDS-causing virus from the body. The promising vaccine candidate is being developed at OHSU's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. It is being tested through the use of a non-human primate form of HIV, called simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, which causes AIDS in monkeys. Following further development, it is hoped an HIV-form of the vaccine candidate can soon be tested in humans.