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GM food solutions at risk from lobbyists, research suggests

Powerful lobby groups opposed to genetically modified (GM) food are threatening public acceptance of the technology in Europe, research suggests.

They are also hampering Europe's response to the global challenge of securing food supplies for current and future generations, researchers claim.

Drawing upon a decade of evidence, researchers from the University of Edinburgh and Warwick University say that Europe's regulation of GM crops has become less democratic and less evidence-based since the 1980s.

2 new cost-effective ways to predict prostate cancer

Stockholm, Sweden: Two new risk indicators for prostate cancer will be unveiled at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress [1] today (Saturday).

First Phase III trial of an alpha-pharmaceutical

Stockholm, Sweden: Until recently, options for patients with bone metastases from advanced prostate cancer have been very limited. But now the first Phase III study of an alpha-pharmaceutical in these patients has shown that it can prolong survival significantly, according to research reported today (Saturday) at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress [1].

Living in damp river valleys leads to lung problems

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: A new study has shown that living in a river valley at low altitude can increase the risk of developing lung problems.

The research will be presented tomorrow (25 September 2011) at the European Respiratory Society's (ERS) Annual Congress in Amsterdam. The ERS Congress will officially open today (24 September 2011).

Protein 'switches' could turn cancer cells into tiny chemotherapy factories

Johns Hopkins researchers have devised a protein "switch" that instructs cancer cells to produce their own anti-cancer medication.

In lab tests, the researchers showed that these switches, working from inside the cells, can activate a powerful cell-killing drug when the device detects a marker linked to cancer. The goal, the scientists said, is to deploy a new type of weapon that causes cancer cells to self-destruct while sparing healthy tissue.

Dust makes light work of vehicle emissions

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers have identified a silver lining in the cloud of red dust that enveloped much of eastern Australia two years ago.

Research fellow Dr Rohan Jayaratne from QUT's International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health (ILAQH) said that data, from what is believed to be the first air quality test undertaken during an Australian dust storm, showed that large dust particles swept up the smaller, potentially fatal ultrafine particles caused by everyday vehicle emissions.

Tecnalia reduces costs of metal casting with plasma technology

Tecnalia Research & Innovation is undertaking the innovation of casting processes with its "plasma torch." This new system enables great precision when heating the metal, thus reducing operational costs, enhancing metallurgical quality and saving energy.

Keeping pets sweet: Treating diabetes in dogs

Diabetes has many severe consequences that can only be prevented by maintaining blood glucose levels at values that are extremely close to those of non-diabetics. There have recently been considerable advances in insulin treatment but these require a precise knowledge of fluctuations in blood glucose levels that is difficult to obtain. Measurements are generally taken while patients are in clinics but the results may be misleading as a result of differences in food intake and exercise, as well as the associated stress, all of which may lead to changes in the normal patterns.

What makes rainforests unique? History, not ecology

History and geology, not current ecology, are likely what has made tropical forests so variable from site to site, according to a new study published in the journal Science, co-authored by Liza Comita, research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

"The same ecological processes seem to be working worldwide. The difference is that tropical organisms have been accumulating for vast periods of time," said Nathan J.B. Kraft, post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Colombia, who led the research team.

All-access genome: New study explores packaging of DNA

While efforts to unlock the subtleties of DNA have produced remarkable insights into the code of life, researchers still grapple with fundamental questions. For example, the underlying mechanisms by which human genes are turned on and off—generating essential proteins, determining our physical traits, and sometimes causing disease—remain poorly understood.

UCLA scientists find H1N1 flu virus prevalent in animals in Africa

UCLA life scientists and their colleagues have discovered the first evidence of the H1N1 virus in animals in Africa. In one village in northern Cameroon, a staggering 89 percent of the pigs studied had been exposed to the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu.

Targeting HIV's sugar coating

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 23, 2011 – University of Utah researchers have discovered a new class of compounds that stick to the sugary coating of the AIDS virus and inhibit it from infecting cells – an early step toward a new treatment to prevent sexual transmission of the virus.

Development and laboratory testing of the potential new microbicide to prevent human immunodeficiency virus infection is outlined in a study set for online publication by Friday in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.

Virus discovery helps scientists predict emerging diseases

Fresh insight into how viruses such as SARS and flu can jump from one species to another may help scientists predict the emergence of diseases in future.

Researchers have shown that viruses are better able to infect species that are closely related to their typical target species than species that are distantly related.

Time to stop giving toxic drugs to kidney transplant patients?

Washington, DC (September 22, 2011) -- Patients who receive kidney transplants must take lifelong medications that, while preventing organ rejection, can also compromise other aspects of health. Immunosuppresive drugs called calcineurin inhibitors protect transplanted organs from being rejected, but they can be toxic to the kidneys over the long term and can make patients susceptible to infection, cancer, and other threats.

Over the hump: Ecologists use power of network science to challenge long-held theory

For decades, ecologists have toiled to nail down principles explaining why some habitats have many more plant and animal species than others.

Much of this debate is focused on the idea that the number of species is determined by the productivity of the habitat.Shouldn't a patch of prairie contain a different number of species than an arid steppe or an alpine tundra?

Maybe not, says an international team of scientists that pooled its resources to re-evaluate the relationship between species numbers and habitat productivity.