Body

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered how one antioxidant protein controls the activity of another protein, critical for the development of spinal cord neurons. The research, publishing this week in Cell, describes a never-before known mechanism of protein control.

Less than one third of healthcare workers have themselves vaccinated against classic influenza. This reluctance is astounding, firstly because vaccination against influenza viruses is considered safe and effective and secondly because it has been proved to prevent nosocomial transmission of disease to patients—provided at least 50% of employees have been vaccinated.

Korean computer scientists have developed a security policy specification for home networks that could make us more secure from cyber attack in our homes. They report details in the International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing.

University of Michigan (U-M) scientists have made an important step toward what could become the first vaccine in the U.S. to prevent urinary tract infections, if the robust immunity achieved in mice can be reproduced in humans. The findings are published September 18 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens.

As if a bad hangover wasn't enough of a deterrent, new research has shown how binge drinking weakens the body's ability to fight off infection for at least 24 hours afterwards. The study, published today in the open access journal BMC Immunology, focused on the effect of heavy drinking on toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), a protein that has an important role in immune system activation.

Losing weight may preserve kidney function in obese people with kidney disease, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The findings indicate that taking off the pounds could be an important step kidney disease patients can take to protect their health.

For kidney transplant recipients, infection with a virus called cytomegalovirus (CMV) may lead to devastating complications. New research suggests that extending the period of preventive treatment after kidney transplantation can reduce the risk of CMV disease, according to an upcoming report in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

Whether for introduced muskrats in Europe or oak trees in the United Kingdom, zebra mussels in United States lakes or agricultural pests around the world, scientists have tried to find new ways of controlling invasive species by learning how these animals and plants take over in new environs.

In a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Science, biologists Brett Melbourne of the University of Colorado and Alan Hastings of the University of California at Davis report a previously unknown high variability in the rates of invasive species spread.

AMES, Iowa - Looking at the genetic makeup of cattle to determine their value is nothing new.

An examination of a small sample of hair or blood can reveal if a calf has any genetic diseases that will lower the market price.

Now, a team of clinicians and diagnosticians and genetic researchers at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine are looking to test those calves earlier . . . before they are born . . . even before their mother is pregnant.

HERSHEY, PA– Penn State College of Medicine researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Southern California, have taken an important step in understanding the role of stem cells in development of liver cancer. Using a unique approach that involves study of individual cells, the team, led by C. Bart Rountree, M.D., has demonstrated for the first time a population of cancer stem cells in the liver prior to tumor formation. The research, published in the journal Stem Cells, shows a potential link between liver stem cells and liver cancer.

(WASHINGTON) – Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a group of blood disorders that can lead to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in some patients, often cause severe anemia (when the body lacks a sufficient number of functional red blood cells). While certain treatments can help manage the symptoms of anemia, some studies have suggested that they may lead to complications.

A team of scientists led by U of C grad Casey Hubert has detected high numbers of heat loving, or thermophilic, bacteria in subzero sediments in the Arctic Ocean off the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The bacterial spores might provide a unique opportunity to trace seepages of fluids from hot sub-seafloor habitats, possibly pointing towards undiscovered offshore petroleum reservoirs.

LA JOLLA, Calif., September 17, 2009 -- Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham), University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) and other institutions have constructed a complete model, including three dimensional protein structures, of the central metabolic network of the bacterium Thermotoga maritima (T. maritima).

MENLO PARK, Calif. –September 17, 2009 - Using a new software protocol called the Interoperable Telesurgical Protocol, nine research teams from universities and research institutes around the world recently collaborated on the first successful demonstration of multiple biomedical robots operated from different locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. SRI International operated its M7 surgical robot for this demonstration.

The Stowers Institute's Baumann Lab has demonstrated how human cells protect chromosome ends from misguided repairs that can lead to cancer. The work, published in The EMBO Journal, a publication of the European Molecular Biology Organization, follows the team's 2007 in vitro demonstration of the role of the hRAP1 protein in preventing chromosome ends from being fused to new DNA breaks.