Body

CHICAGO – Healthy adults who consumed energy drinks high in caffeine and taurine had significantly increased heart contraction rates one hour later, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

To be published online Monday, Dec. 2, a special issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology addresses imaging-based screening and radiology's increasing role in preventive medicine. Topics covered include breast density legislation, digital breast tomosynthesis (or 3-D mammography), lung cancer screening and computed tomography colonography (CTC) reimbursement. The December screening issue was guest edited by Ruth Carlos, M.D., M.S., from the University of Michigan, and Christoph I. Lee, M.D., M.S.H.S., from the University of Washington.

BOSTON (December 2, 2013) – An editorial by Harry P. Selker, MD, MSPH, William H. Frist, MD, and Stuart Altman, PhD, published in the November 27 issue of Science Translational Medicine says the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is an example of the role of experimentation in improving health at the public policy level.

Looking back on a nation's past can prompt action that leads to a greener future, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The research, conducted by NYU Stern researcher Hal Hershfield and colleagues H. Min Bang and Elke U. Weber of Columbia University, suggests that one strong way to encourage environmentally-friendly behavior is to emphasize the long life expectancy of a nation, and not necessarily its imminent downfall.

(TORONTO, Canada – Dec. 1, 2013) - Scientists and surgeons at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have discovered a promising new approach to treating colorectal cancer by disarming the gene that drives self-renewal in stem cells that are the root cause of disease, resistance to treatment and relapse. Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the Western world.

Nanosponges that soak up a dangerous pore-forming toxin produced by MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) could serve as a safe and effective vaccine against this toxin. This "nanosponge vaccine" enabled the immune systems of mice to block the adverse effects of the alpha-haemolysin toxin from MRSA—both within the bloodstream and on the skin. Nanoengineers from the University of California, San Diego described the safety and efficacy of this nanosponge vaccine in the December 1 issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

NEW YORK, NY — For the first time, scientists have succeeded in transforming human stem cells into functional lung and airway cells. The advance, reported by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers, has significant potential for modeling lung disease, screening drugs, studying human lung development, and, ultimately, generating lung tissue for transplantation. The study was published today in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

(PHILADELPHIA) – Cyclin D1, a protein that helps push a replicating cell through the cell cycle also mediates the processing and generation of mature microRNA (miRNA), according to new research publishing November 29 in Nature Communications. The research suggests that a protein strongly implicated in human cancer also governs the non-protein-coding genome. The non-coding genome, previously referred to as junk DNA, makes up most of the human genome, and unlike the coding genome, varies greatly between species.

Sea coral could soon be used more extensively in bone grafting procedures thanks to new research that has refined the material's properties and made it more compatible with natural bone.

By partially converting calcium carbonate―found in the exoskeleton of sea coral―into coralline hydroxyapatite (CHA), the refined material, called coralline hydroxyapatite/calcium carbonate (CHACC), has been shown to 'considerably improve' the outcome of bone grafts in 16 patients.

When sunlight strikes a photosynthesizing organism, energy flashes between proteins just beneath its surface until it is trapped as separated electric charges. Improbable as it may seem these tiny hits of energy eventually power the growth and movement of all plants and animals. They are literally the sparks of life.

The three clumps of protein — a light-harvesting antenna called a phycobilisome and photosystems I and II — look like random scrawls in illustrations but this is misleading. They are able to do their job only because they are positioned with exquisite precision.

DURHAM, N.C. – A byproduct of cholesterol functions like the hormone estrogen to fuel the growth and spread of the most common types of breast cancers, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute report.

The researchers also found that anti-cholesterol drugs such as statins appear to diminish the effect of this estrogen-like molecule.

LA JOLLA, CA—November 28, 2013—Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have determined the most detailed picture yet of a crucial part of the hepatitis C virus, which the virus uses to infect liver cells. The new data reveal unexpected structural features of this protein and should greatly speed efforts to make an effective hepatitis C vaccine.

The findings, which appear in the November 29, 2013 issue of the journal Science, focus on a protein known as E2 envelope glycoprotein.

A team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators working to create "protocells" – primitive synthetic cells consisting of a nucleic acid strand encased within a membrane-bound compartment – have accomplished an important step towards their goal. In the November 28 issue of Science, the investigators describe a solution to what could have been a critical problem – the potential incompatibility between a chemical requirement of RNA copying and the stability of the protocell membrane.

Using quantitative models of bacterial growth, a team of UC San Diego biophysicists has discovered the bizarre way by which antibiotic resistance allows bacteria to multiply in the presence of antibiotics, a growing health problem in hospitals and nursing homes across the United States.

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that males of the laboratory roundworm secrete signaling molecules that significantly shorten the lifespan of the opposite sex.

The scientists speculate that, if carried out after reproduction, this "male-induced demise" could serve to conserve precious resources for a male's offspring or to decrease the supply of mates for other males.