Body

SEATTLE -- Oct. 29, 2015 ¬-- A new study in mice by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that a specialized type of immunotherapy -- even when used without chemotherapy or radiation -- can boost survival from pancreatic cancer, a nearly almost-lethal disease, by more than 75 percent. The findings are so promising, human clinical trials are planned within the next year.

Sharing genomic information among researchers is critical to the advance of biomedical research. Yet genomic data contains identifiable information and, in the wrong hands, poses a risk to individual privacy. If someone had access to your genome sequence -- either directly from your saliva or other tissues, or from a popular genomic information service -- they could check to see if you appear in a database of people with certain medical conditions, such as heart disease, lung cancer or autism.

Cleveland Clinic researchers have discovered a new gene associated with Cowden syndrome, an inherited condition that carries high risks of thyroid, breast, and other cancers, and a subset of non-inherited thyroid cancers, as published today in the online version of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Conventional methods of assessing cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular strength among people with multiple sclerosis may underestimate participants' capabilities, prompting clinicians to prescribe exercise therapies that are less effective than they could be, according to new research by scientists at the University of Illinois.

A research team led by UC San Francisco scientists has identified a molecular switch capable of converting unhealthy white fat into healthy, energy-burning brown fat in mice. Drugs that flip this switch rapidly reduced obesity and diabetes risk factors in mice fed a high fat diet.

A team of researchers has mapped out a universal dynamic that explains the production and distribution of proteins in a cell, a process that varies in detail from protein to protein and cell to cell, but that always results in the same statistical pattern. The findings, which appear in the journal Physical Review E, potentially offer new insights into explaining the variability in phenotypes, or physical appearances.

Everyone who has played in a band or orchestra knows that playing in time creates music, while playing out of time creates cacophony. In an orchestra, each player may be out of tune when warming up, but eventually, all players must reach the same pitch, rhythm, and timing to produce a viable piece of music.

CLEMSON -- While researchers at Clemson University have recently announced an array of breakthroughs in agricultural and life sciences, the size of the data sets they are now using to facilitate these achievements is like a mountain compared to a molehill in regard to what was available just a few years ago.

What happens after a well is drilled, fitted with a hand pump, and a community celebrates having access to clean water for the first time? Nearly half of them break down within a year.

Kuala Lumpur / Islamabad -- A Task Force of international experts, formed by the Muslim World Science Initiative, today released a report on the state of science at universities of the Muslim world.

The prestigious science journal Nature also published a commentary detailing the Task Force findings and recommendations.

Computer-based modeling is helping to further reduce length of hospital stay and duration of treatment with opioids that are used therapeutically to wean babies born in withdrawal from drugs their mothers have taken. This condition is known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).

October 29, 2015 - For patients undergoing plastic surgery procedures, there's no consistent evidence that taking antidepressants increases the risk of bleeding, breast cancer, or other adverse outcomes, concludes a research review in the November issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

October 29, 2015 - Abdominoplasty--sometimes called "tummy tuck"--has a higher risk of major complications than other cosmetic plastic surgery procedures, reports a study in the November issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

The use of superlatives to describe cancer drugs in news articles as "breakthrough," "revolutionary," "miracle" or in other grandiose terms was common even when drugs were not yet approved, had no clinical data or not yet shown overall survival benefits, according to an article published online by JAMA Oncology.

Patient self-esteem measures appear to be unconnected to a positive outcome after face-lift surgery because patients felt they looked almost nine years younger but there was no change in self-esteem, according to an article published by JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.