Body

LIVERMORE, Calif. --Skin cells shed from livestock infected with foot and mouth disease could very well spread the disease.

In a new paper appearing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Michael Dillon proposed that virus-infected skin cells could be a source of infectious foot and mouth disease virus aerosols. His proposal is based on the facts that foot and mouth disease virus is found in skin and that airborne skin cells are known to transmit other diseases.

SALT LAKE CITY—Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer; it also occurs in adults. Now researchers working with zebrafish at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have identified previously undiscovered high-risk genetic features in T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (T-ALL), according to an article published online May 9, 2011, in the cancer research journal Oncogene.

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Hamilton, ON (May 10, 2011) – It's a disease affecting those closest to us – our fathers, brothers and sons.

Prostate cancer impacts one in six men in Canada. Last year, roughly 24,600 men were diagnosed with the disease.

Most types of prostate cancer are curable if caught and treated early. But little is understood about the mechanisms that cause a tumour to metastasize and spread to other parts of the body.

Until now, the scientific community had assumed that wild animals died before they got old. Now, a Spanish-Mexican research team has for the first time demonstrated ageing in a population of wild birds (Sula nebouxii) in terms of their ability to live and reproduce.

"It was always thought that senescence was something particular to humans and domestic animals, because we have an extended life expectancy", Alberto Velando, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Ecology and Animal Biology Department of the University of Vigo, tells SINC.

Salmonella enterica, one of the main causes of gastrointestinal infections, modulates its virulence gene expression, adapting it to each stage of the infection process, depending on the free iron concentration found in the intestinal epithelium of its host. Researchers at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have demonstrated for the first time that the pathogen activates these genes through the Fur protein, which acts as a sensor of iron levels in its surroundings.

LOS ANGELES (May 9, 2011) – A common, tiny tropical fish plays a key role in a new model for Cushing disease, giving researchers a powerful tool to conduct extensive searches for effective treatments for this serious hormonal disorder, testing up to 300 drugs weekly.

The model – published online on May 2 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences -- was created in the laboratory of Shlomo Melmed, MD, dean of the medical faculty at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, by his research team led by Ning-Ai Liu, MD, PhD.

According to new research at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, high rates of chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV) are found in pregnant minority and immigrant women in the New York City area, and most of them do not receive education, appropriate follow-up testing or referral, which is considered the standard of care for all persons newly identified as HBV carriers.

Mitochondria are the body's energy producers, the power stations inside our cells. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have now identified a group of mitochondrial proteins, the absence of which allows other protein groups to stabilise the genome. This could delay the onset of age-related diseases and increase lifespan.

SPOKANE, WASH. –A research study conducted at Washington State University Spokane offers hope to those suffering from facial nerve damage. According to the study, which was published online this week in the journal Developmental Neurohabilitation, muscle weakness resulting from facial nerve damage incurred during childhood can improve with intensive facial exercise, years after injury.

Reef fishes and many other marine species live all their adulthood in one place but early in their lives, when they're eggs and larvae, spend a short period of time drifting and swimming in the open ocean. It seems intuitive that the duration of this open water period should determine the geographic extent over which species are found as species that spend longer drifting at sea are likely to reach greater distances.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Tuesday, May 10, 2011 – A new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center sheds light on what causes certain kidneys to do better than others after being transplanted, providing doctors with an easy way to screen for donor kidneys that have the best chance of survival.

Researchers have mapped out the diversity of bat ears in a hope to inspire the design of new intuitive methods of manipulating waves with physical shapes, such as SONAR and RADAR.

Published today, Tuesday, 10 May, in IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, the study provides key insights into the variability of the shapes of bat ears that exists between different species, and shows how this variability may affect the functionality of one of the most impressive navigational systems in nature.

An international team of researchers led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has deciphered the genome of a tropical marine organism known to produce substances potentially useful against human diseases.

Los Angeles, CA (APRIL XX, 2011) Despite contrary belief, reducing unemployment in locations with active insurgencies does not decrease the rate of insurgent attacks against government and allied forces. Additionally, it was found that unemployment in these same locations also had no impact in reducing the deaths of civilians.