Body | Page 3513 | Science Codex

Breast cancer risk drops when diet includes walnuts, Marshall researchers find

The risk of breast cancer dropped significantly in mice when their regular diet included a modest amount of walnut, Marshall University researchers report in the journal Nutrition and Cancer.

The study, led by Elaine Hardman, Ph.D., of Marshall's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, compared the effects of a typical diet and a diet containing walnuts across the lifespan: through the mother from conception through weaning, and then through eating the food directly. The amount of walnut in the test diet equates to about 2 ounces a day for humans.

Dendritic cells in liver protect against acetaminophen toxicity

NYU School of Medicine researchers have discovered that dendritic cells in the liver have a protective role against the toxicity of acetaminophen, the widely used over-the-counter pain reliever and fever reducer for adults and children. The study's findings are published in the September issue of the journal Hepatology.

Persistent immunity: Wistar researchers find signals that preserve anti-viral antibodies

PHILADELPHIA – (September 1, 2011) – Our immune system is capable of a remarkable feat: the ability to remember infections for years, even decades, after they have first been encountered and defeated. While the antibodies we make last only about a month, we retain the means of making them for a lifetime. Until now, the exact mechanism behind this was poorly understood, but researchers at The Wistar Institute have discovered some of the protein signals responsible for keeping the memory of distant viral infections alive within our bodies.

McMaster study finds more gut reaction to arthritis drugs

Hamilton, ON (Sept. 1, 2011) – Patients often take drugs to lower stomach acid and reduce the chances they will develop ulcers from taking their anti-inflammatory drugs for conditions such as arthritis, but the combination may be causing major problems for their small intestines, McMaster researchers have found.

Profiler at the cellular level

Researchers led by ETH professor Yaakov Benenson and MIT professor Ron Weiss have successfully incorporated a diagnostic biological "computer" network in human cells. This network recognizes certain cancer cells using logic combinations of five cancer-specific molecular factors, triggering cancer cells destruction.

Up from the depths: How bacteria capture carbon in the 'twilight zone'

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Understanding the flow and processing of carbon in the world's oceans, which cover 70 percent of Earth's surface, is central to understanding global climate cycles, with many questions remaining unanswered. Between 200 and 1,000 meters below the ocean surface exists a "twilight zone" where insufficient sunlight penetrates for microorganisms to perform photosynthesis.

Discovery: new woolly rhino species Coelodonta thibetana

August 28, 2011 –A paper in Science reveals the discovery of a primitive woolly rhino fossil in the Himalayas, which suggests some giant mammals first evolved in present-day Tibet before the beginning of the Ice Age. The extinction of Ice Age giants such as woolly mammoths and rhinos, giant sloths, and saber-tooth cats has been widely studied, but much less is known about where these giants came from, and how they acquired their adaptations for living in a cold environment.

Glowing, blinking bacteria reveal how cells synchronize biological clocks

Biologists have long known that organisms from bacteria to humans use the 24 hour cycle of light and darkness to set their biological clocks. But exactly how these clocks are synchronized at the molecular level to perform the interactions within a population of cells that depend on the precise timing of circadian rhythms is less well understood.

Starving inflammatory immune cells slows damage caused by multiple sclerosis

In a paper published today in the journal Scientific Reports, a pair of researchers at the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report that inhibiting the ability of immune cells to use fatty acids as fuel measurably slows disease progression in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Tree-killing pathogen traced back to California

Berkeley – Genetic detective work by an international group of researchers may have solved a decades-long mystery of the source of a devastating tree-killing fungus that has hit six of the world's seven continents.

In a study published today (Thursday, Sept. 1) in the peer-reviewed journal Phytopathology, California emerged as the top suspect for the pathogen, Seiridium cardinale, that is the cause of cypress canker disease.

Structural Genomics Project creates blueprint for infectious disease and biodefense research

Sept. 1, 2011, SEATTLE – The September issue of the online scientific journal Acta Crystallographica: Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications (Acta Cryst F) will consist entirely of work done at the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID), a consortium of researchers from Seattle BioMed, Emerald BioStructures, the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

Crippling condition associated with diabetes is often misdiagnosed and misunderstood

Van Nuys, CA—Robert Winkler says he limped around on his painful left foot for six months, suffering unnecessarily from a misdiagnosis by a physician who didn't know about the symptoms and treatments for Charcot foot, a form of localized osteoporosis linked to diabetes that causes the bones to soften and break, often resulting in amputation.

RIT conducts flood mapping of New York's hard hit Schoharie County

The New York State Office of Emergency Management is using imagery of the widespread flooding in Schoharie County captured by Rochester Institute of Technology and Kucera International Inc.

On Tuesday, a crew from RIT and Kucera International remotely imaged the destruction in eastern New York caused by downpours from Tropical Storm Irene. The downgraded hurricane caused devastation along the Schoharie Creek and the Mohawk River west of Schenectady.

Joining the dots: mutation-mechanism-disease

Individuals with an autoinflammatory syndrome experience episodes of prolonged fever and inflammation in the absence of infection. There are several different autoinflammatory syndromes identified by distinct symptoms and underlying genetic mutations. A team of researchers, led by Koji Yasutomo, at the University of Tokushima Graduate School, Japan, has now determined that a mutation of the PSMB8 gene causes Japanese autoinflammatory syndrome with lipodystrophy (JASL), a recently identified condition.

Orchestrator of waste removal rescues cells that can't manage their trash

Just as we must take out the trash to keep our homes clean and safe, it is essential that our cells have mechanisms for dealing with wastes and worn-out proteins. When these processes are not working properly, unwanted debris builds up in the cell and creates a toxic environment.