Culture
Old molecules and new complexes: researchers at Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) have discovered cell membrane complexes called ceramidosomes that may be a new target for drugs to kill cancer cells. This discovery began while figuring out the unexpected cancer cell-killing activity of an FDA-approved multiple sclerosis drug called FTY720 (Gilenya, Novartis). Their findings are reported in the January 2019 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
A wave energy technology is being developed that could help generate low-cost electricity for thousands of houses.
The device costs less than conventional designs, has fewer moving parts, and is made of durable materials. It is designed to be incorporated into existing ocean energy systems and can convert wave power into electricity.
A study provides new insight into how the stiffening of breast tissue plays a role in breast cancer development. By examining how mammary cells respond in a stiffness-changing hydrogel, bioengineers at the University of California San Diego discovered that several pathways work together to promote the transformation of breast cells into cancer cells. The work could inspire new approaches to treating patients and inhibiting tumor growth.
The team reported their findings in a paper published online on Feb. 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
MANHASSET, NY - A group of more than 60 leading international neuroscientists, including Mark Herceg, PhD, a neuropsychologist at Northwell Health's Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, NY, and a member of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, published a correspondence today in The Lancet Neurology, asking for balance when reporting on sports-related injury chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
New research from King's College London, published today in The BMJ, shows that electronically-delivered prescribing feedback and online decision support for GPs reduces unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory illness.
Empty homes tax has the potential to generate income for local governments, reduce demand from foreign investors and increase housing affordability, a study suggests.
Housing affordability has decreased substantially in the UK between 1997 and 2016, due to a rapid increase in prices relative to earnings. This may be due in part to ownership of properties by foreign investors in cities such as London, or second home ownership by British citizens in rural areas, reducing the availability of affordable housing for local residents.
The detection of physical forces is one of the most complex challenges facing science. Although Newton's apple has long solved the problem of gravity, imaging the physical forces that act in living cells remains one of the main mysteries of current biology. Considered to play a decisive role in many biological processes, the chemical tools to visualize the physical forces in action do not exist.
Identity formation is a major developmental task in adolescence but continues throughout adulthood. Significant individual differences, however, emerge. The long-term role of personal styles for predicting identity stability and change during midlife at ages 36, 42 and 50 was assessed in a longitudinal study of Finnish women and men.
A new virtual tool could help planners choose the best places to install bikes lanes in cities.
The data-based tool builds on previous research at the University of Waterloo that validated the safety benefits of bike lanes for cyclists and motorists.
Collected using sensors and a handlebar camera as researchers cycled hundreds of kilometres in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, the data showed bike lanes virtually eliminate vehicles getting too close to cyclists when they pass them.
Although moderately mobile, marine cone snails have perfected several strategies to capture prey. Some fish-hunting species release venom into the surrounding water. Within the plume of toxic venom, the fish succumbs to fast-acting insulin that renders it immobile. As the fish flounders, the snail emerges from its shell to swallow the pacified victim whole.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gestational diabetes affects an estimated 2 - 10% of pregnancies in the United States. If left untreated, gestational diabetes (GDM) can lead to pregnancy complications, including preterm birth, caesarean delivery and more.
Love can make us do crazy things. It often prompts us to behave in counterintuitive ways, like, for example, placing the wellbeing of our loved ones above our own.
But why?
BOSTON - (February 11, 2019) - It's well-known that exercise improves health, but understanding how it makes you healthier on a molecular level is the question researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center are answering.
After performing experiments in both humans and mice, the researchers found that exercise training causes dramatic changes to fat. Additionally, they discovered that this "trained" fat releases factors into the bloodstream that can have positive effects on health. The study was published online February 11, 2019, in Nature Metabolism.
Many men with low-risk prostate cancer who most likely previously would have undergone immediate surgery or radiation are now adopting a more conservative "active surveillance" strategy, according to an analysis of a new federal database by scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Every county in the United States tracks HIV cases, sequencing the virus' genome to see if it is resistant to current medications and looking for trends. More recently, local health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have begun using those HIV genetic sequences to trace the virus' transmission history.