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April 4, 2009 – A new study by NYU dental researchers has uncovered evidence that pregnant women with periodontal (gum) disease face an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes even if they don't smoke or drink, a finding that underscores how important it is for all expectant mothers – even those without other risk factors – to maintain good oral health.

Protecting new inventions is vital, everyone agrees – but most also agree that the system that has evolved is in need of serious overhaul.

The current international patent process is complex and costly. New technologies – stem cells, software, the Internet – raise legal quandaries that the patent authorities are only gradually resolving. The current economic crisis adds new urgency.

There is a need for more IP cooperation at an international level, as initiated by the five large offices around the world (EPO, USPTO, JPO, SIPO and KPO). So what’s the best way forward?

An international team of scientists has discovered a new acarine species (Ophionyssus schreibericolus) that lives off black green lizards from the Iberian Peninsula. This involves the first recording of the Ophionyssus genus that feeds off and lives on animals endemic to the peninsula. The researchers now think that these parasites could be found in other reptiles in the region.

Is there a prospective association between obesity and periodontal disease?

This is the question asked by a team of investigators from the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Puerto Rico, reporting their findings today during the 87th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research, convening at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Periodontal (gum) disease is a chronic inflammation initiated by bacteria that affect the gums and bone supporting the teeth, and may eventually result in tissue and tooth loss. It is similar to other chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, where inflammation causes tissue damage and is responsible for the disease.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) provide a potentially unlimited source of oral mucosal tissues that may revolutionize the treatment of oral diseases. When fully exploited in the future, this source of cells will be able to produce functional tissues to treat a broad variety of oral diseases. However, little is known about how hESC can be developed into complex, multilayer oral tissues that line the gums, cheeks, lips, and other intra-oral sites.

Scientists at the 87th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research, convening today in Miami Beach, report new studies on the connection between oral disease and systemic disease. A recurring theme is the relationship between periodontal (gum) disease and infant prematurity, diabetes, or stroke.

(Boston) - Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine's (BUSM) New England Centenarian Study have noted specific personality traits associated with healthy aging and longevity amongst the children of centenarians. The work was conducted in collaboration with scientists from the National Institute on Aging. These findings currently appear on-line in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

That sinking feeling when your hard disk starts screeching and you haven't backed up your holiday photos is a step closer to becoming a thing of the past thanks to research into a new kind of computer memory.

Physicists at the University of Leeds and scientists at IBM Research's Zurich lab have made new advances in researching a new kind of memory, called 'racetrack' memory, which could become the standard method of storing information on home computers.

More than 80 undersea volcanoes and a multitude of islands are dotted along the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain like pearls on a necklace. A sharp bend in the middle is the only blemish. The long-standing explanation for this distinctive feature was a change in direction of the Pacific oceanic plate in its migration over a stationary hotspot – an apparently unmoving volcano deep within the earth.

Today, during the 87th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research, convening at the Miami Beach Convention Center, a group of scientists from Nihon University (Tokyo, Japan) will present findings suggesting that periodontal disease could act as a risk factor for reactivating latent HIV-1 in affected individuals.

Smokers who do not want to quit right now, but are prepared to try to reduce their smoking are twice as likely to stop smoking in the long-term if they use nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to help them cut down gradually, according to research published on bmj.com today.

The research is the first of its kind to focus on sustained smoking abstinence using NRT for smokers who have no immediate plans to stop smoking.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have figured out the orientation of a protein in the antenna complex to its neighboring membrane in a photosynthetic bacterium, a key find in the process of energy transfer in photosynthesis.

LA JOLLA, Calif., April 3, 2009 -- Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have demonstrated that attacks on the mitochondrial protein Drp1 by the free radical nitric oxide—which causes a chemical reaction called S-nitrosylation—mediates neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer's disease. Prior to this study, the mechanism by which beta-amyloid protein caused synaptic damage to neurons in Alzheimer's disease was unknown. These findings suggest that preventing S-nitrosylation of Drp1 may reduce or even prevent neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's patients.