New York, NY--April 21, 2016--Researchers from Columbia University, with colleagues at Genia Technologies (Roche), Harvard University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report achieving real-time single molecule electronic DNA sequencing at single-base resolution using a protein nanopore array.
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BOSTON (April 21, 2016) - Do survivors of childhood cancer return to normal health as they grow up? According to new research from Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, overall health-related quality of life in young adult survivors of childhood cancer resembles that of middle-aged adults.
Pediatric researchers have devised an innovative, safe and minimally invasive procedure that helps relieve rare but potentially life-threatening airway blockages occurring in children who had surgery for congenital heart defects.
The physician-researchers developed new imaging tools and used minimally invasive catheterization techniques to treat plastic bronchitis, a condition in which abnormal circulation causes lymphatic fluid to dry into solid casts that clog a child's airways.
Brooklyn, NY - In a newly published, pilot study in the journal Ethnicity & Disease, researchers report a relatively low prevalence of vascular risk among participants of the Southwest Heart Mind Study, especially among those treated for hypertension and hyperlipidemia despite overweight and obesity.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., April XX, 2016--The oceans hold more than four billion tons of uranium--enough to meet global energy needs for the next 10,000 years if only we could capture the element from seawater to fuel nuclear power plants. Major advances in this area have been published by the American Chemical Society's (ACS) journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
While scientists have known for many years that there are cells living in the cavities surrounding various organs such as the heart, lung and liver, their function has remained unknown. A recent Cumming School of Medicine study examined these cells, and discovered they play an integral role in fast tissue repair. The study was published in the journal Cell this month.
Dr. William "Barney" Balch's team at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has been sampling the waters of the Gulf of Maine regularly over the same transect for the last 18 years as part of a NASA-funded study. Working with scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Thomas Huntington and Dr. George Aiken, Balch reported in a recent paper an overall reduction in productivity in the Gulf of Maine.
The leading infectious cause of severe respiratory disease in infants, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), is also a major cause of respiratory illness in the elderly. Approved vaccines do not yet exist, and despite the development of partial immunity following infection during childhood, individuals remain susceptible to RSV reinfection life-long. A comprehensive characterization of the antibody-response to RSV published on April 21st in PLOS Pathogens advances our understanding of the human immune response against RSV and has implications for vaccine design.
Cambridge, UK and Gland, Switzerland. To prevent a new mass extinction of the world's animal and plant life, we need to understand the threats to biodiversity, where they occur and how quickly change is happening. For this to happen, we need reliable and accessible data. A new study published in Science today reveals those data are largely missing. We are lacking key information on important threats to biodiversity such as invasive species, logging, bush meat harvesting, and illegal wildlife trade.
PHILADELPHIA - On top of the meaning and mystery that humans heap on the heart, it is first and foremost, a muscle. And one that beats about once a second for a person's entire life, with no rest. Given its vital importance, it's ironic researchers have only recently made direct observations of its subcellular parts in motion.
The most characteristic feature of Darwin's finches is the diversification of beak morphology that has allowed these species to expand their utilization of food resources in the Galápagos archipelago. A team of scientists from Uppsala University and Princeton University has now identified a gene that explains variation in beak size within and among species. The gene contributed to a rapid shift in beak size of the medium ground finch following a severe drought. The study is published in Science.
New Haven, Conn.-- A new Yale-led study suggests that death from influenza virus in older people may be primarily caused by a damaging immune response to flu and not by the virus itself. The insight could lead to novel strategies for combating flu in the most vulnerable patients, said the researchers.
The study, published online April 21 in Science, demonstrates that replication of the flu virus alone is not enough to drive the deaths caused by seasonal flu, the researchers noted.
Analysis of a new dinosaur fossil suggests that the largest species ever known to walk the Earth was born with adult-like proportions, perhaps allowing it to be more independent than some other species of dinosaur. While several fossils of the ginormous Rapetosaurus krausei have been analyzed to date, very little is known about this species around the time of hatching. R. krausei is a type of titanosaur, the largest land vertebrates to have evolved. It is estimated to have reached lengths of about 15 meters (49 feet), but even these giants had to start small.
Nearly 200 years ago, based on observations of finches in the Galápagos Islands, Charles Darwin proposed that a species may diverge in traits when competing for resources, and now, supporting this concept, a new study identifies the genetic locus that controls changes in beak size of these finches. A recent drought in the Galápagos further revealed this locus's role in beak size adaptation in scenarios when environmental conditions change, forcing species to compete for food differently, for example.
Everyone preparing for the London Marathon likely knows that to perform their best during the event, they need to rest up now. Research at the Babraham Institute just published in the journal Science describes a new mechanism through which B cells ensure that they rest up between intensive developmental events.