Body

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An innovative high school health program helped students maintain healthier weights and even alleviated severe depression for a full year after the program ended.

Researchers found that 12 months after completing the COPE Healthy Lifestyles TEEN Program, students had markedly lower body mass index than students who received a more standard health curriculum. Additionally, COPE teens who began the program with extremely elevated depression had symptoms in the normal range after 12 months.

A study comparing rates of preterm birth among non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white women in Canada found that the rates were substantially higher among black women than white women, mirroring the disparity in the United States. The research study, published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), is based on new cohort data from the Canadian Live Birth, Infant Death and Stillbirth Database linked with 2006 Canadian census data.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James) identifies a key pathway used by cancer cells to make the lipids by integrating oncogenic signaling, fuel availability and lipid synthesis to support cell division and rapid tumor growth.

Arthritis, the leading cause of disability in the U.S., involves the loss of a special type of cartilage cell lining the joints. In a study appearing on the cover of the latest issue of Developmental Cell, first author Amjad Askary -- a PhD student in the USC Stem Cell lab of Gage Crump -- and his colleagues identify roles for a family of genes, called Iroquois (Irx) genes, in protecting these joint cartilage cells.

Researchers from the University of Bradford have joined forces with German high-tech company, Avant-garde Materials Simulation, to successfully predict the crystal structures of small organic molecules by computational methods without experimental input.

Dr. Lily Calderwood, a researcher at the University of Vermont, and a team of researchers have published an open-access article in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management that should help hop farmers in the northeastern U.S. to manage insect pests. The article provides a comprehensive assessment of hop pests and methods for managing them.

In a new study published in the journal PLOS Genetics, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have revealed new discoveries about how animal venom evolves.

Venom is a complex mixture of proteins and other toxic chemicals produced by animals such as snakes and spiders, either to incapacitate their prey or to defend against predators. The influence of positive selection (the process by which a protein changes rapidly over evolutionary time scales) in expanding and diversifying animal venoms is widely recognized.

Researchers at Oxford and Liverpool universities have identified genetic markers that could be used to understand people's risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Their work is published in Nature Genetics (Monday, 9 Nov 2015).

Using a high-tech imaging method, a team of biomedical engineers at the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis was able to see early-developing cancer cells deeper in tissue than ever before with the help of a novel protein from a bacterium.

Genome editing techniques for blood stem cells just got better, thanks to a team of researchers at USC and Sangamo BioSciences.

In an upcoming study in Nature Biotechnology, co-first authors Colin M. Exline, PhD, from USC and Jianbin Wang, PhD, from Sangamo BioSciences describe a new, more efficient way to edit genes in blood-forming or "hematopoietic" stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs).

Many patients in the California public mental health care system with severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, who were taking antipsychotic medications were not screened for diabetes despite a recommendation for annual screening, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Probiotic exposure during the first 27 days of an infant's life may be associated with reduced risk of islet autoimmunity among children at increased genetic risk for type 1 diabetes, although further studies are needed before any recommendations for probiotics can be made, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

Probiotics are live organisms that may confer health benefits. Animal studies have looked at manipulation of gut microbiota by probiotics and the risk of developing type 1 diabetes (T1DM) related to autoimmunity.

Researchers at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel have developed a new technique using nanobodies. Employing the so-called "Morphotrap", the distribution of the morphogen Dpp, which plays an important role in wing development, could be selectively manipulated and analyzed for the first time in the fruit fly. In the future, this tool may be applied for many further investigations of organ growth. The results of the study have been published in the current issue of Nature.

Scientists identify 3D structure of enzyme critical to the creation of anticancer and antimalarial compounds in plants

In a paper published today in Nature Chemical Biology, Professor Sarah O'Connor and Dr Dave Lawson have identified, for the first time, the 3D structure of the enzyme iridoid synthase responsible for a very specific form of cyclisation of monoterpenes which creates anticancer and antimalarial drugs.

Different studies have demonstrated that the ebola virus infection process starts when the virus reaches the cellular DC-SIGN receptor to infect the dendritic cells (of the immune system). European researchers have designed a "giant" molecule formed by thirteen fullerenes covered by carbohydrates which, by blocking this receptor, are able to inhibit the cell infection by an artificial ebola virus model.