DZIF scientists from the University of Bonn have shown that not all conventional Zika virus molecular diagnostic tests for are sufficiently reliable. They developed optimised assays and a control for quantifying viruses in blood and urine.
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Since 2013, the mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus has spread rapidly through South America and the Caribbean, and is now threatening Southern Europe and the southern US. It causes flu-like symptoms with fever and joint pains, which in some cases can last for months with occasional fatalities. No treatment or vaccine exists so far - serving as an urgent reminder of just how poorly the time-consuming process of drug development is able to meet the threat posed by newly emerging viruses.
Brussels -- May 12, 2016--The lack of an adequately trained workforce of surgical oncologists can be a major detriment in efforts to address the rising global cancer burden, according to two leading international surgical oncology societies.
No two bacteria are identical - even when they are genetically the same. A new study from researchers from Eawag, ETH Zurich, EPFL Lausanne, and the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen reveals the conditions under which bacteria become individualists and how they help their group grow when times get tough.
Whether you are a human or a bacterium, your environment determines how you can develop. In particular, there are two fundamental problems: What resources can you draw on to survive and grow and how do you respond if your environment suddenly changes?
Because of their sedentary life, plants have to make the most of their surroundings. To do so, they take advantage of hitherto unknown molecular mechanisms to determine what benefits them and what harms them. They also grant microorganisms access to their roots in exchange for essential nutrients in the soil. The soil fungus Colletotrichum tofieldiae serves the model plant Arabidopsis as such a subtenant when required.
Anesthesia is used every day, but surprisingly little is known about one of its most dangerous side effects--depressed heart function. Now, thanks to a team of Johns Hopkins researchers who published a new research article in The FASEB Journal, this mystery is clarified as they identify which proteins in heart muscle are affected by anesthesia. This, in turn, opens the doors to the development of new anesthetics that would not have depressed heart function as a side effect.
Four people meet for dinner in a restaurant and split the check four ways. Anyone who ordered more or something more expensive than the others gains an advantage from the situation. Social dilemmas like this one also occur in animals - such as during communal offspring care. Biologists from the University of Zurich studied how house mice are able to prevent social dilemmas and still cooperate. The results of their study reveal that house mice adjust their willingness to cooperate to the to the expected pay-off.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - A rare, severe form of pulmonary hypertension, which up until now, has only been classified as a human lung disease, has also been discovered in dogs according to a Michigan State University study.
"Our research is the first to document the existence of pulmonary veno-occlusive disease, or PVOD, in dogs," said Kurt Williams, the lead author of the study and an expert in respiratory pathology in MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine. "PVOD is considered one of the most severe forms of pulmonary hypertension."
A diabetes medication described in some studies as an effective treatment for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) works no better than a placebo, report researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, after conducting the first randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial of sitagliptin, an oral antihyperglycemic marketed by Merck & Co. under the name Januvia.
New Orleans, LA - In invited commentary on a comparative study of the protective properties of windshields and side-windows in cars against harmful UV rays, Dr. Jayne Weiss, Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, has a take-home message for both ophthalmologists and consumers - UV protection should be used not just outdoors, but inside cars, too.
HOUSTON - (May 12, 2016) - Wellbores drilled to extract oil and gas can be dramatically reinforced with a small amount of modified graphene nanoribbons added to a polymer and microwaved, according to Rice University researchers.
A mutation that affects the proteins that package DNA--without changing the DNA itself--can cause a rare form of cancer, according to new findings in this week's Science from researchers at The Rockefeller University.
People with depression are significantly less likely to recover well after treatment for colorectal cancer compared to those without depression, according to new research by Macmillan Cancer Support and the University of Southampton.
(TORONTO, Canada - May 13, 2016) - Cancer researchers have identified a marker that shows up in a blood test that determines which patients with colorectal cancer that has spread would benefit from receiving the drug cetuximab.
Florence, Italy - 13 May 2016: Arterial switch to the 12 o'clock position is associated with abnormal coronary perfusion in adolescence, reveals research presented today at EuroCMR 2016.1 Babies born with transposition of the great arteries (TGA) undergo the arterial switch operation in the first days of life.