Body

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) can become any type of cell in the adult body, offering great potential in disease modeling, drug discovery and creating replacement cells for conditions ranging from cardiovascular to Alzheimer's disease.

Ottawa, ON (10 November 2015) - Using computer analysis prior to drilling could limit seismic events as a result of hydraulic fracturing, according to new research published in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Right now, in any American hospital, about half of the patients have a prescription for an acid-reducing drug to reduce heartburn or prevent bleeding in their stomach and gut.

But that well-intentioned drug may actually boost their risk of dying during their hospital stay, a new study finds - by opening them up to infections that pose more risk than bleeding would.

An international research team led by a scientist at New Zealand's University of Otago has resolved the mystery of the processes involved in the Mediterranean Sea drying up around 5.6 million years ago.

The event, known as the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), saw the Mediterranean become a 1.5km deep basin for around 270,000 years. It also left a kilometers-deep layer of salt due to seawater evaporation.

A study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that a new test for prostate cancer is better at detecting aggressive cancer than PSA. The new test, which has undergone trial in 58,818 men, discovers aggressive cancer earlier and reduces the number of false positive tests and unnecessary biopsies. The results are published in the scientific journal The Lancet Oncology.

A study of adults up to age 70 shows a dramatically increased risk of heart attack in those who were born with heart disease.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- New research shows that drinking one 16-ounce energy drink can increase blood pressure and stress hormone responses significantly. This raises the concern that these response changes could increase the risk of cardiovascular events, according to a study presented today at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2015. The findings also are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Antiretroviral drugs can suppress HIV for years, but a residual inflammatory imbalance contributes to health problems in infected individuals who are infected with the virus. A novel combination treatment aimed at repairing the immune system has shown encouraging effects in a nonhuman primate model of HIV infection, both during and after a course of antiretroviral drug treatment.

The results are scheduled for publication in Journal of Clinical Investigation on November 9, 2015.

Institutional and cultural pressures lead scientists to avoid risk-taking and choose inefficient research strategies, two new University of Chicago papers conclude. Despite increased opportunities for groundbreaking experiments, most scientists choose conservative research strategies to reduce personal risk, which makes collective discovery slower and more expensive.

MADISON, Wis. - University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have created a molecular structure that attaches to a molecule on highly aggressive brain cancer and causes tumors to light up in a scanning machine. In mouse models of human brain cancer, their tag is easily seen in a PET scanner, which is commonly used to detect cancer.

The most rigorous genetic sequencing ever carried out on a single tumor reveals far greater genetic diversity among cancer cells than anticipated. Researchers from the University of Chicago and the Beijing Institute of Genomics estimate that the tumor, about 3.5 centimeters in diameter, contained more than 100 million distinct mutations within the coding regions of its genes--thousands of times more than expected.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine developed a method to expand the types of chromosomal abnormalities that noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) can detect. The study, published November 9 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses a semiconductor sequencing platform to identify small chromosomal deletions or duplications, such as occur in Cri du Chat Syndrome and DiGeorge Syndrome, with a simple blood test from the expectant mother.

One minute your wireless Internet is working fine. The next minute, it takes an infuriatingly slow five seconds to load a single Web page. You paid for the fastest Internet speed available but during these all-too-frequent times, it seems like the connection barely works at all.

"Most people think it's a mystery," said Aleksandar Kuzmanovic, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering. "They get upset at their routers. But what's really happening is that your neighbor is watching Netflix."

DENVER - Sorafenib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) targeting the receptors for vascular endothelial growth factor, platelet derived growth factor, and mast/stem cell growth factor, modestly increases progression-free survival (PFS), time to progression, and disease control rate in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who have relapsed or failed two or three previous treatment regimens.

The La Brea Tar Pits, the world's richest Ice Age fossil site, is famous for saber-toothed cats, mammoths, and giant sloths, but it also has numerous insect and plant fossils. New research on fossil galls--abnormal plant growths caused, in this case, by tiny wasps--helps reconstruct the local habitats of Southern California at the end of the last Ice Age. The work, led by Anna R. Holden of the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History and the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, was recently published in the journal Quaternary Research.