For the first time, scientists have used large-scale DNA sequencing data to investigate a long-standing evolutionary assumption: DNA mutation rates are influenced by a set of species-specific life-history traits. These traits include metabolic rate and the interval of time between an individual's birth and the birth of its offspring, known as generation time.
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A new study has determined predictors that can better identify patients who will benefit from a potentially toxic second course of treatment, which offers a small but real chance of cure in select patients with head and neck cancer. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings could help guide treatment decisions for head and neck cancer patients.
Hamilton, ON (June 13, 2011) - Proposals recommending routine screening of all children for autism gets a thumbs down from researchers at McMaster University.
In a study in the online edition of the journal Pediatrics, the researchers say there is "not enough sound evidence to support the implementation of a routine population-based screening program for autism."
Each one of us receives approximately 60 new mutations in our genome from our parents.
This striking value is reported in the first-ever direct measure of new mutations coming from mother and father in whole human genomes published today.
It sounds like something out of a comic book or a science fiction movie – a living laser – but that is exactly what two investigators at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed. In a report that will appear in the journal Nature Photonics and is receiving advance online release, Wellman researchers Malte Gather, PhD, and Seok Hyun Yun, PhD, describe how a single cell genetically engineered to express green fluorescent protein (GFP) can be used to amplify the light particles called photons into nanosecond-long pulses of laser light.
A dramatically better computer tool for finding the genetic missteps that fuel cancer has been developed by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project investigators. Researchers are using the new algorithm to help identify the chromosomal rearrangements and DNA insertions or deletions unique to cancer.
The use of bariatric surgery among older, severely obese patients was not associated with a decreased risk of death, according to a study in the June 15 issue of JAMA. This study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Only 35% of anaesthesiologists are carrying out a simple procedure during high-risk surgery that can make a significant impact on how well patients recover from their operations, according to new research presented today (Sunday 12 June) at the European Anaesthesiology Congress in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Using a combination of hypnosis and local anaesthesia (LA) for certain types of surgery can aid the healing process and reduce drug use and time spent in hospital, anaesthesiologists have found. The combination could also help avoid cancer recurrence and metastases, according to new research to be presented today (Sunday) at the European Anaesthesiology Congress in Amsterdam.
DETROIT – The incidence of internal bleeding was higher in the most commonly implanted heart device than in an earlier model, according to two studies at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
The HeartMate II, a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is a continuous-flow mechanical pump connected to the patient's heart that takes over the pumping of the weakened heart's left ventricle.
Cells grow abundant when oxygen is available, and generally stop when it is scarce. Although this seems straightforward, no direct link ever has been established between the cellular machinery that senses oxygen and that which controls cell division. Now, in the June 10 issue of Molecular Cell, researchers at Johns Hopkins report that the MCM proteins, which promote cell division, also directly control the oxygen-sensing HIF-1 protein.
An outbreak of Escherichia coli causing a severe illness called hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) began in Germany on May 2, 2011 and has killed more than 20 people and sickened more than 2,000. The organism causing the outbreak has been identified as a strain of E. coli O104:H4 that produces a Shiga toxin and causes an illness similar to infection with E. coli O157:H7. Two isolates from this outbreak have been sequenced.
Proactive telephone counseling helps smokers quit regardless of how they are recruited to a telephone quitline, according to a study published online June 10th in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Smokers who use telephone counseling quitlines may do so in response to active recruitment methods, such as physician referral or direct mail or phone calls, or passive methods, such as posters or television ads. Whether quitlines are equally effective for actively recruited smokers and passively recruited smokers has been a key question.
Satellites provide a lot of useful information and the Landsat 5 satellite captured an image of the long damage track created on June 1, 2011 when a tornado tracked from Springfield to Sturbridge, Mass. An earlier image is now available from 2010 that enables people to more clearly see the damage path the June 2011 twister created on its eastward track.
A Landsat 5 satellite image from October 8, 2010 has been released from NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey that shows the area between Springfield and Sturbridge, Mass. where the tornado touched down.