While the majority of children who were affected by consuming toxic melamine-contaminated products in China recovered, kidney abnormalities remained in 12% of the affected children, according to an article http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj091063.pdf in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) www.cmaj.ca.
Body
Ovarian and breast cancer treatments being developed that mix a protein inhibitor and traditional anticancer drugs are showing signs of success, according to a new review for Faculty of 1000 Biology Reports.
Susan Bates and Christina Annunziata looked at several recent papers on this form of treatment, which takes advantage of the synthetic lethality of BRCA (breast cancer susceptibility genes) and poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) proteins to attack cancerous cells whilst sparing healthy ones.
Montreal, February 22, 2010 – Moving to Canada could be hazardous for the health of young immigrants. A new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health has found that over time, immigrant children from multiethnic, disadvantaged, inner-city neighbourhoods are up to 3.5 times more likely to smoke. The findings are important since an estimated 45,000 school-aged children immigrate to Canada with their parents each year.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The business culture that companies emphasize has an effect on new product ideas that bubble back up from the workforce, a University of Illinois marketing study found.
Groundbreaking ideas spring most from companies that stress technology, rather than customer needs or staying ahead of competitors, according to research that will appear in the Journal of Product Innovation Management.
Thanks to the introduction of various non-native species to Australia throughout history, the country is overrun with feral animals. A new application developed by ecologists at the University of Adelaide to be published in the first issue of Methods in Ecology and Evolution, the new journal from the British Ecological Society, aims to improve the success of wildlife managers tasked with eradicating such problems.
Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and Karolinska Institutet have used novel technology to reveal the different genetic patterns of neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer. This discovery may lead to significant advances in the treatment of this malignant disease, which mainly affects small children.
Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth (UK), the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Cornell University in New York, Weil Medical College in New York and the Center for Neural Tumour Research in Los Angeles, have for the first time identified a key mechanism that makes certain cells become tumorous in the brain. The resulting tumours occur most often spontaneously but can also occur in numbers as part of the inherited disease Neurofibromatosis type 2.
The research is published in the highly respected journal, Cell.
Have you seen a spotted plaice? Probably. However, marine biologistHelen Nilsson Sköld at the University of Gothenburg is the firstperson to research the spotted insides of plaice.
Many species of animal have skin or fur with intricate pigmentationpatterns, which they use for camouflage, communication, regulation ofbody heat and protection against the sun. A study conducted byresearchers at the Department of Marine Ecology at the University ofGothenburg has found that several species of fish also havehighly-coloured internal pigmentation.
Adapts to its surroundings
Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is showing an extraordinary range of benefits from the network of protected marine reserves introduced there five years ago, according to a comprehensive new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The scientific team, a 'who's-who' of Australian coral reef scientists, describe the findings as "a globally significant demonstration of the effectiveness of large-scale networks of marine reserves".
Significant new research from Warwick Business School and Queen Mary, University of London, warns that delays and variability in the approvals process for clinical research could be causing pharmaceutical companies to look outside the UK and risks the country losing some of its most experienced researchers.
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have learned how an interval of DNA in an unexplored region of the human genome increases the risk for coronary artery disease, the leading cause of death worldwide.
Their research paints a fuller picture of a genetic risk for the disease that was discovered only three years ago and which lurks in one out of two people.
Move, adapt or die. Those are the options marine plants and animals have in the face of climate change, said Stanford biologist Steve Palumbi, who has been exploring how to help them go with the first two options, rather than the third. He's come up with some surprising answers.
Palumbi will be discussing the results of his research in two talks at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego.
Black women are at significantly increased risk for developing a potentially deadly weakening of the heart muscle around the time of childbirth, researchers report.
A study examining the incidence of peripartum cardiomyopathy in women who gave birth at a Medical College of Georgia's teaching hospital between July 2003 and July 2008, showed that while 55 percent of the women were white, 93 percent of those who developed cardiomyopathy were black, said Dr. Mindy B. Gentry, an MCG cardiologist.
Regulatory proteins common to all eukaryotic cells can have additional, unique functions in embryonic stem (ES) cells, according to a study in the February 22 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org). If cancer progenitor cells—which function similarly to stem cells—are shown to rely on these regulatory proteins in the same way, it may be possible to target them therapeutically without harming healthy neighboring cells.
A team of researchers led by Peter Calvert (SUNY Upstate Medical University) has, for the first time, measured the diffusion coefficient of a protein in a primary cilium and in other major compartments of a highly polarized cell. The study appears in the March issue of the Journal of General Physiology (www.jgp.org).