| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Working memory and the brain
(American Physiological Society) Visual working memory is not as specialized in the brain as visual encoding, study finds. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Chinese scientists Zhen-Yi Wang and Zhu Chen awarded 7th annual Szent-Gyorgyi Prize
(Deane, Smith & Partners) The National Foundation for Cancer Research announced today that Dr. Zhen-Yi Wang and Dr. Zhu Chen have been awarded the 7th annual Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research for their innovative research that led to the successful development of a new therapeutic approach to acute promyelocytic leukemia. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Highlights of the Biophysical Society 56th Annual Meeting
(American Institute of Physics) The latest news and discoveries in medicine, physics, environmental science, and interdisciplinary fields will be featured at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society. The following summaries highlight a few of the meetings many noteworthy talks. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Spinning sessions trigger the same biochemical indications as heart attacks
(University of Gothenburg) A short spinning session can trigger the same biochemical indications as a heart attack -- a reaction that is probably both natural and harmless, but should be borne in mind when people seek emergency treatment for chest pain, reveals a study from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM CIHR invests in Queen's-led study on end-of-life decision making
(Queen's University) At a time when there is tremendous concern about the utilization of technology at the end of life and the costs of technology, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has funded a multi-center study aimed to improve end of life decision making amongst seriously ill, elderly hospitalized patients. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Researchers examine consequences of non-intervention for infectious disease in African great apes
(University of California - Santa Barbara) Infectious disease has joined poaching and habitat loss as a major threat to the survival of African great apes as they have become restricted to ever-smaller populations. Despite the work of dedicated conservationists, efforts to save our closest living relatives from ecological extinction are largely failing, and new scientific approaches are necessary to analyze major threats and find innovative solutions. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM It's not solitaire: Brain activity differs when one plays against others
(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Researchers have found a way to study how our brains assess the behavior -- and likely future actions -- of others during competitive social interactions. Their study, described in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to use a computational approach to tease out differing patterns of brain activity during these interactions, the researchers report. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Exercise triggers stem cells in muscle
(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) University of Illinois researchers determined that an adult stem cell present in muscle is responsive to exercise, a discovery that may provide a link between exercise and muscle health. The findings could lead to new therapeutic techniques using these cells to rehabilitate injured muscle and prevent or restore muscle loss with age. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Hormel Institute study makes key finding in stem cell self-renewal
(University of Minnesota) A University of Minnesota-led research team has proposed a mechanism for the control of whether embryonic stem cells continue to proliferate and stay stem cells, or differentiate into adult cells like brain, liver or skin. The work has implications in two areas. In cancer treatment, it is desirable to inhibit cell proliferation. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Study shows electron-beam irradiation reduces virus-related health risk in lettuce, spinach
(Texas A&M AgriLife Communications) The recent study by scientists from the National Center for Electron Beam Research (Texas A&M University) and other entities has quantified the theoretical health-risk reduction from virus-related food-borne illness through the use of electron-beam irradiation. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Scientists make strides toward fixing infant hearts
(Rice University) Researchers at Rice University and Texas Children's Hospital have turned stem cells from amniotic fluid into cells that form blood vessels. Their success offers hope that such stem cells may be used to grow tissue patches to repair infant hearts. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM ECNP expresses concern at AstraZeneca neuroscience pull-out
(European College of Neuropsychopharmacology) The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology expresses its deep concern at the recently announced withdrawal by AstraZeneca from neuroscience drug research. AstraZeneca's pull-out is especially disturbing given that it follows a series of similar withdrawals in the last two years by major pharmaceutical companies. There is a growing sense that neuroscience in Europe is now facing a severe crisis. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM New database aims to improve emergency general surgery care and outcomes
(Weber Shandwick Worldwide) Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., have successfully created and implemented an emergency general surgery registry that will advance the science of acute surgical care by allowing surgeons to track and improve surgical patient outcomes, create performance metrics, conduct valid research and ensure quality care for all emergency general surgery patients. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Easy-to-use blood thinners likely to replace Coumadin
(Loyola University Health System) Within a few years, a new generation of easy-to-use blood-thinning drugs will likely replace Coumadin for patients with irregular heartbeats who are at risk for stroke, according to a journal article by Loyola University Medical Center physicians. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM 'ROCK' off: Study establishes molecular link between genetic defect and heart malformation
(University of North Carolina School of Medicine) UNC researchers have discovered how the genetic defect underlying one of the most common congenital heart diseases keeps the critical organ from developing properly. According to the new research, mutations in a gene called SHP-2 distort the shape of cardiac muscle cells so they are unable to form a fully functioning heart. The study also shows that treatment with a drug that regulates cell shape rescues the cardiac defect. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Donation opens new opportunities for more effective diabetes treatment
(Karolinska Institutet) The Swedish medical university, Karolinska Institutet, has received a grant of 1.6 million euros from the Stichting af Jochnick Foundation for research into the fundamental causes of diabetes. The grant will make it possible to use unique methods to study how the release of insulin is regulated in living organisms -- and this will create new opportunities for developing more effective drugs against diabetes. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Grading the online dating industry
(Association for Psychological Science) The report card is in, and the online dating industry won't be putting this one on the fridge. A new scientific report concludes that although online dating offers users some very real benefits, it falls far short of its potential. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Sharp images from the living mouse brain
(Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) Max Planck scientists in Goettingen have for the first time made finest details of nerve cells in the brain of a living mouse visible. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Geometry, not gender
(American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons) Much orthopaedic research has been devoted to determining why women are far more susceptible to knee ligament injuries than men. According to a new study, the answer may lie in geometry -- the length and shape of a patient's knee bone -- more than gender. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Do patients pay when they leave against medical advice?
(University of Chicago Medical Center) There are ways in which patients who leave the hospital against medical advice wind up paying for that decision. Being saddled with the full cost of their hospital stay, however, is not one of them. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Group schema therapy for borderline personality disorder
(International Society of Schema Therapy) Therapists, patients and families dealing with borderline personality disorder now have an unprecedented guide to a way out of the misery and chaos in the form of the soon to be release book "Group Schema Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: Treatment Manual and Patient Workbook." Recent studies have shown that Schema Therapy (both individual and group forms) leads to full recovery across the complete range of symptoms for many patients suffering from borderline personality disorder. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM The butterfly effect in nanotech medical diagnostics
(Inderscience Publishers) Tiny metallic nanoparticles that shimmer in the light like the scales on a butterfly's wing are set to become the color-change components of a revolutionary new approach to point-of-care medical diagnostics, according to a study published in International Journal of Design Engineering. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Combined asthma medication therapy shown to reduce attacks
(Henry Ford Health System) A Henry Ford Hospital study has found that using two types of common asthma medications in combination reduces severe asthma attacks.Researchers say using long-acting beta-agonists in fixed-dose combination with inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) appear to reduce asthma attacks as well as or better than corticosteroids alone. Patient groups who had in greatest benefits were patients 18 and older, African-American patients, male patients, and patients with moderate to severe asthma. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Women born to older mothers have a higher risk of developing breast cancer
(FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) A new study analyses the influence that certain birth and infancy characteristics have on mammographic density -- an important indicator of breast cancer risk. The results reveal that women born to mothers aged over 39 years and women who were taller and thinner than the average girl prior to puberty have a higher breast density. This brings with it an increased risk of developing breast cancer. |
| 02/06/2012
12:00 AM Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University form research consortium
(Case Western Reserve University) Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University are joining forces to form the Cleveland Traumatic Neuromechanics Consortium, which will investigate and develop better protection and treatment strategies for head, neck and spinal injuries related to sports, military service and automobile accidents. Rawlings Sporting Goods has provided a gift of cash and traumatic neuromechanics analysis equipment. |
