Body

Resolving a fundamental question in cell biology and showing off the powers of new high-resolution 3-D imaging, NIH scientists have discovered where the Golgi apparatus, which sorts newly synthesized proteins for transport inside and outside the cell, goes when it disassembles during cell division, according to research to be presented on Sunday, Dec. 15, at the American Association for Cell Biology (ASCB) annual meeting in New Orleans.

Much of the debate in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has focused on whether the protein amyloid-beta or the tau protein is the symptom or the cause of the disease.

But George Bloom, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Virginia (UVA) have pursued another hypothesis: much earlier interactions between the two proteins them drive adult neurons into the forbidden pathway of "cell cycle re-entry" (CCR).

Reducing glucose metabolism dials down influenza viral infection in laboratory cell cultures, providing an entirely new approach for combating seasonal flu, according to research that will be presented on Sunday, Dec. 15, at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) annual meeting in New Orleans.

While annual flu shots are based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)'s predictions of the viruses that will be in widest circulation each flu season, the new approach targets one metabolic requirement of all influenza viruses: glucose.

Daily exercise lessens many of the harmful physiological effects of short-term overeating and inactivity, shows a new study [published 15 December] in The Journal of Physiology, which is well timed with the Christmas holiday approaching.

The body that appraises the clinical and cost effectiveness of new drugs in England would do well to take a leaf out of its sister organisations' books in Wales and Scotland, says an editorial in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB).

Between 30% and 40% of all new drug appraisals in the three countries have to be jettisoned, because the manufacturer in question has failed to supply the evidence needed to make the case for the drug, says DTB.

The theory of evolution suggests that present-day organisms evolved from earlier life forms.

At the molecular level, evolution reshaped some of the enzymes that help complete chemical processes—such as converting food into energy—in humans and all other life forms.

ITHACA, N.Y. – With a new smartphone device, you can now take an accurate iPhone camera selfie that could save your life – it reads your cholesterol level in about a minute.

Forget those clumsy, complicated, home cholesterol-testing devices. Cornell engineers have created the Smartphone Cholesterol Application for Rapid Diagnostics, or "smartCARD," which employs your smartphone's camera to read your cholesterol level.

(SALT LAKE CITY)—In this age of surveillance cameras, computer algorithms for tracking website visits, and GPS-imbedded cell phones, many people feel their right to privacy is slipping away. This perception extends into the medical realm as well where information gleaned from Electronic Health Records and clinical tissues are being used for medical research purposes with and without patient consent in some situations, though compliant with federal regulations.

A new UCSF-led study of nearly 3,000 individuals links obesity to the development of kidney disease. The work also shows that, when properly measured, declines in kidney function are detectable long before the emergence of other obesity-related diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

Healthy kidneys are vital to the proper functioning of the heart and brain, as well as the skeletal and immune systems, and the research adds additional urgency to the call for doctors to intervene early in life with obese patients, the researchers said.

Rising water temperatures due to climate change are putting coral reefs in jeopardy, but a surprising discovery by a team of marine biologists suggests that very similar looking coral species differ in how they survive in harsh environments. "We've found that previously unrecognized species diversity was hiding some corals' ability to respond to climate change," said Iliana Baums, associate professor of biology at Penn State University.

DURHAM, N.C. -- A Duke research team has developed a better recipe for synthetic replacement cartilage in joints.

Combining two innovative technologies they each helped develop, lead authors Farshid Guilak, a professor of orthopedic surgery and biomedical engineering, and Xuanhe Zhao, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, found a way to create artificial replacement tissue that mimics both the strength and suppleness of native cartilage. Their results appear Dec. 17 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered a way to block a disease pathway that could be a breakthrough in defeating some of the world's most devastating human infections.

Rickettsioses are a group of insect-borne diseases caused by bacteria. One type, typhus fever, has been cited as a high-level threat by the National Institutes of Health because the bacteria can spread and multiply very easily, and the untreated infection can lead to death.

LEBANON, NH (Dec. 12, 2013) – Approximately 10 percent of Medicare spending is for cancer care, and Medicare spending is nearly four times higher for beneficiaries with cancer than in those without the disease. Little is known about how to curb spending growth while maintaining or improving quality of care for these high-risk, high-cost patients.

SAN ANTONIO— In a nationwide study of women with "triple-negative" breast cancer, adding the chemotherapy drug carboplatin or the angiogenesis inhibitor Avastin to standard chemotherapy drugs brought a sharp increase in the number of patients whose tumors shrank away completely, investigators will report at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

MAYWOOD, Ill. – The first investigator results from an unprecedented nationwide effort to test promising new breast cancer drugs before the tumor is removed were presented during the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

The research initiative, called I-SPY 2, employs an innovative clinical trial design in the curative setting that is enabling researchers to quickly drop drugs and drug combinations that don't work, while fast-tracking effective regimens for further study.