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Scientists are now developing clearer insights into the mechanisms of major cellular processes such as cell signaling and growth. This valuable knowledge could be used in the future to better understand and cure diseases such as depression and Alzheimer's, explains Associate Professor Dimitrios Stamou, Nano-Science Center and Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, who led the work.

The human brain consists of about 100 billion (1011) neurons, which altogether form about 100 trillion (1014) synaptic connections with each other. A crucial mechanism for the generation of this complex wiring pattern is the formation of neuronal branches. The neurobiologists Dr. Hannes Schmidt and Professor Fritz G. Rathjen at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have now discovered a molecule that regulates this vital process.

University of Central Florida Microbiology Professor Keith Ireton has uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that plays an important role in the spread of a deadly food-borne bacterium.

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that can cause pregnant women to lose their fetuses and trigger fatal cases of meningitis in the elderly or people with compromised immune systems. The bacterium has been linked to outbreaks traced to food processing plants in the U.S. and Canada.

Middle-aged women with large abdominal fat cells have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life compared to women with smaller fat cells. Waist circumference divided by body height can also be used to determine which women are at risk. This is shown in a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

The study, which will be published in the next issue of the scientific journal FASEB Journal, is based on the extensive population study of women in Gothenburg Kvinnoundersökningen i Göteborg.

Pericardial effusion, the collection of fluid around the heart, typically occurs in patients following heart surgery and is usually treated using an invasive surgical drainage technique. However researchers have discovered that a minimally invasive procedure called CT-guided tube pericardiostomy is just as effective — requiring no recovery time, fewer resources, and provides an 89 percent cost savings over the surgical drainage technique, according to a study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR).

Radiologists have discovered that prospective electrocardiogram (ECG) gating allows them to significantly reduce the patient radiation dose delivered during computed tomography (CT) angiography, a common noninvasive technique used to evaluate vascular disease, according to a study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR).

As the health care reform debate turns to cutting costs and improving treatment outcomes, two professors at Southern Methodist University in Dallas are expanding a study that shows promise for reducing both the expense and suffering associated with chronic asthma.

Thomas Ritz and Alicia Meuret, both in SMU's Psychology Department, have developed a four-week program to teach asthmatics how to better control their condition by changing the way they breathe.