Body

TUCSON, Ariz. – Researchers from The University of Arizona Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine are teaming up to try to invent a novel non-invasive lung test for cystic fibrosis sufferers.

Eric Snyder, PhD, assistant professor at the UA College of Pharmacy, is the principal investigator on the study, "Quantification of Exhaled Condensate Using Bronchoalveolar Lavage in Cystic Fibrosis." Dr. Snyder will work with UA College of Medicine faculty members Cori Daines, MD, and Wayne Morgan, MD, on the project.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Approximately one-fifth of Americans follow health news very closely, according to the Pew Research Center. To identify how the demand for health stories is met, University of Missouri researchers surveyed national health journalists about their development of story ideas and use of expert sources and public relations materials. The researchers found that health journalists determine what information is newsworthy by examining the work of their peers and the issues raised by their colleagues and audiences.

Pandemic swine flu can infect cells deeper in the lungs than seasonal flu can, according to a new study published today in Nature Biotechnology. The researchers, from Imperial College London, say this may explain why people infected with the pandemic strain of swine-origin H1N1 influenza are more likely to suffer more severe symptoms than those infected with the seasonal strain of H1N1. They also suggest that scientists should monitor the current pandemic H1N1 influenza virus for changes in the way it infects cells that could make infections more serious.

New research points to huge inequalities in both national prevention policies and levels of cardiovascular mortality seen across the EU

Research that highlights striking differences across different countries in Europe both in terms of national prevention policies and cardiovascular mortality is being presented today (September 10, 2009) by the EuroHeart mapping project at a major European Conference 'Combating heart disease and stroke: Planning for a Healthier Europe' (www.euroheart2009.eu).

A rare opportunity has allowed a team of biologists to evaluate corals and the essential, photosynthetic algae that live inside their cells before, during, and after a period in 2005 when global warming caused sea-surface temperatures in the Caribbean Ocean to rise. The team, led by Penn State Assistant Professor of Biology Todd LaJeunesse, found that a rare species of algae that is tolerant of stressful environmental conditions proliferated in corals as the more-sensitive algae were being expelled from corals.

Traffic noise raises blood pressure. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health have found that people exposed to high levels of noise from nearby roads are more likely to report suffering from hypertension.

Bee colonies are well known for high levels of cooperation, but new research published in Molecular Ecology demonstrates a conflict for reproduction between worker bees and their Queens, leading some workers to selfishly exploit the colony for their own needs.

The study focused on Melipona scutellaris a Brazilian species of highly social stingless bees, found throughout the Atlantic rainforest. Colonies contain around 1,500 workers and are headed by one single-mated Queen.

Until now, the mode of action of nitrogen-containing bisphosphonate (N-BP) cancer drugs, used to relieve bone pain and to prevent skeletal complications in bone metastasis, has been almost entirely unknown. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology have used 'barcoded' yeast mutants to identify new biological processes involved in the cellular response to N-BPs, opening up opportunities for the development of new anticancer drugs.

Children in Africa with sickle cell anaemia are dying unnecessarily from bacterial infections, suggests the largest study of its kind, funded by the Wellcome Trust. The results are published today in the journal the Lancet. The study has prompted calls for all children in Africa to receive vaccinations against the most common bacterial infections.

Native American Indian populations experience significant nutrition-related health disparities compared to other racial and ethnic groups within the US. American Indian adults have the highest age-adjusted rates for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity of any racial or ethnic group. Age-adjusted rates of diabetes among Native people vary from 14% to 72%, which range from 2.4 to more than 6 times the rate of the general US population.

MADISON — Late blight caused the 19th century famine that sparked a wave of emigration from Ireland to the United States, but the disease has also infected tomatoes and potatoes this year. Potatoes, the world's fourth-largest food crop, were raised on 65,500 acres in Wisconsin in 2007. If a potato field is not treated with pesticide, late blight can destroy the crop in a few days.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A large team of researchers has successfully sequenced the entire genome of one of the most famous pathogens in world history - the cause of the Irish potato famine in the 1840s - in work that could ultimately help address a resurgence of this pathogen that is still causing almost $7 billion dollars of agricultural losses around the world every year.

A new type of stem cell discovered in the prostate of adult mice can be a source of prostate cancer, according to a new study by researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Michigan Technological University researchers have linked three genes to the most common type of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), generally known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Professor Shuanglin Zhang leads the team of mathematicians that isolated the genes from the many thousands scattered throughout human DNA. He notes that their discovery does not mean an end to ALS, but it could provide scientists with valuable clues as they search for a cure.

The large group of segmented worms known as annelids, which includes earthworms, leeches and bristle worms, evolved millions of years ago and can be found in every corner of the world. Although annelids are one of the most abundant animal groups on the planet, scientists have struggled to understand how the different species of this biologically diverse group relate to each other in terms of their evolutionary history. Now a team of scientists from Yale University and Dartmouth College has used a groundbreaking method to untangle some of that history.