Body

BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA, and CARDIFF, UK -- A special section on Protein Photonics in the Journal of Biomedical Optics celebrates the accomplishments and influence of Nobel Laureate Osamu Shimomura. His work in isolating green fluorescent protein (GFP) from jellyfish paved the way for numerous applications of fluorescent proteins in imaging of living tissue and in biological microscopy.

The resurgent HIV epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Netherlands is driven by several large, persistent, self-sustaining, and, in many cases, growing sub-epidemics shifting towards new generations of MSM, according to new research published this week in PLOS Medicine by Daniela Bezemer from HIV Monitoring Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Anne Cori from Imperial College London, UK, and colleagues.

Scientists have for the first time determined the ratio of males to females in a wild foraging group of green turtles in the Eastern Pacific, which suggests that sea turtles may be vulnerable to feminization from the temperature rises expected with climate change. The sex of sea turtles is determined by incubation temperatures on the nesting beaches, with warmer sand temperatures producing more females.

Diamonds may not be as rare as once believed, but this finding in a new Johns Hopkins University research report won't mean deep discounts at local jewelry stores.

A bizarre result of a routine lab experiment has led researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine to an unexpected new way to trigger the production of red blood cells. This could represent a significant step forward in the battle against anemia, benefitting people with diabetes, people with kidney disease or cancer, and older people for whom anemia can become a chronic problem.

Deciphering the mechanism that underlies the development of Alzheimer's disease in certain families but not in others, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Medicine have proposed that the malady is actually a collection of diseases that probably should be treated with a variety of different approaches.

Endurance expert suggests drugs could help 'lazy people' exerciseIn what has been described as 'doping for lazy people' a University of Kent endurance expert has advocated the use of psychoactive drugs to encourage sedentary people to exercise.

Between 1999-2012, overall prescription drug use increased among U.S. adults, with this increase seen for the majority of but not all drug classes, according to a study in the November 3 issue of JAMA.

Louise Kuhn, Ph.D., of Columbia University, New York, and colleagues evaluated whether HIV-infected children in South Africa who had achieved viral suppression with one treatment could transition to efavirenz-based therapy without risk of viral failure. The study appears in the November 3 issue of JAMA.

HIV-infected children exposed in the womb to nevirapine, a drug used to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, can safely and effectively transition to efavirenz, a similar drug recommended for older children and adults, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health.

NAPA, Calif. -- Only 1 in 5 U.S. pancreatic cancer patients receive a widely available, inexpensive blood test at diagnosis that can help predict whether they are likely to have a better or worse outcome than average and guide treatment accordingly, a Mayo Clinic study shows. People who test positive for elevated levels of a particular tumor marker tend to do worse than others, but if they are candidates for surgery and have chemotherapy before their operations, this personalized treatment sequence eliminates the elevated biomarker's negative effect, researchers found.

ATLANTA - November 3, 2015-Standing for at least one-quarter of the day has been linked to lower odds of obesity in a new study led by the American Cancer Society in collaboration with The Cooper Institute, the University of Texas, and the University of Georgia. The study appears in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

(Philadelphia, PA) - Past studies have shown an association between strict control of blood sugar and increased mortality. These studies have also suggested that a consequence of this strict control is low blood sugar (called hypoglycemia), which may have adverse effects on the heart.

Patients with unexplained low blood counts and abnormally mutated cells who do not fit the diagnostic criteria for recognized blood cancers should be described as having clonal cytopenias of undetermined significance (CCUS), suggest University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers in a recent paper published in the journal Blood. The researchers found the condition surprisingly common in older patients with low blood counts.

LONDON, ON - November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, highlighting the number one cause of cancer-related death in North America. While prognosis for the most common form, adenocarcinoma, has remained poor, new research has shown a link between the absence of a specific protein and improved patient outcomes.