Body

New Rochelle, NY, February 3, 2010—Increasing numbers of research studies clearly demonstrate that genetics alone cannot explain the diversity of living organisms, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). Also driving the development of such complexity is epigenetics, and the February 1 issue of GEN contains three articles that illustrate the growing recognition of the importance of this emerging field of study.

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 3 – A simple blood test could predict which patients with the lung-scarring disease known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are soon to get far worse, an indicator that could one day influence their treatment, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Their findings, published online last week in PLoS One, indicate that the body's immune cells attack healthy lung tissue, suggesting that IPF is in fact an immunologic disease.

Many favorite breakfast cereals, candies, beers, and other foods and beverages owe much of their smooth, delicious flavor to malt. Malting barleys--the source of that malt--are the focus of studies at the Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) malting barley laboratory in Madison, Wis., part of the Cereal Crops Research Unit.

There, chemist Mark Schmitt and plant physiologist Allen Budde are discovering more about what goes on inside barley grains as they germinate, or sprout, in the malt house. Sprouting is one of many steps that go into making malt.

How do scientists decide what to investigate? Often, they choose an area that is in high demand, hoping to get their work into the best journals as soon as possible.

According to Uri Alon, of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, this strategy can be demotivating if the goals are not met, especially to younger scientists. Instead, he advises researchers to follow a less direct approach, where setbacks are considered part of the process of discovery.

Stem cell researchers exploring a new approach for the care of respiratory diseases report that an experimental treatment involving transplantable lung cells was associated with improved outcomes in tests on mice with acute lung injury. The lung cells were derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Findings by investigators at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston are scheduled to appear in the March issue of Molecular Therapy.

People who spend a lot of time browsing the net are more likely to show depressive symptoms, according to the first large-scale study of its kind in the West by University of Leeds psychologists.

Researchers found striking evidence that some users have developed a compulsive internet habit, whereby they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. The results suggest that this type of addictive surfing can have a serious impact on mental health.

Medical researchers were shocked to discover that virtually all human embryonic stem cell lines being used in 2005 were contaminated. Animal byproducts used to line Petri dishes had left traces on the human cells. If those cells had been implanted in a human body they likely would have been rejected by the patient's immune system.