Body

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT researchers have developed low-cost chemical sensors, made from chemically altered carbon nanotubes, that enable smartphones or other wireless devices to detect trace amounts of toxic gases.

Researchers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Technische Universität Dortmund have examined how the interactions between solvents and biomolecules change at high pressure. With infrared spectroscopy and computer simulations, they analysed the behaviour of the small molecule TMAO -- short for trimethylamine oxide -- in a pressure range from one bar to ten kilobars. These results could help us understand how organisms have adapted to life in the deep sea on the molecular level.

Researchers at Cardiff University have found that online information about ovarian cancer can cause as much worry as comfort for women at high risk of developing the disease, in a new study published in ecancer.

For women at an increased risk of ovarian cancer but who haven't yet developed the disease, the most effective way to manage their risk is to surgically remove their fallopian tubes and ovaries.

Biofilms are communities of bacteria that adhere to a surface and are nearly impossible to eradicate when they are pathogenic, or disease-causing. Fortunately, a discovery from the laboratories of Lauren Bakaletz, PhD, and Steven Goodman, PhD, in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, provides strong evidence that an innovative therapeutic approach may be effective in the resolution of bacterial biofilm diseases.

An emerging field, known as implementation science, may help reduce the nearly 150,000 instances of mother-to-child HIV transmissions that occur annually around the world, mostly in developing countries. A team of scientists and program managers, led by the National Institutes of Health, has been studying a variety of implementation science approaches to prevent mother-to-child transmission and has published the results in a 16-article open-access supplement to the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

A quiet transformation has been brewing in medicine, as large-scale DNA results become increasingly available to patients and healthcare providers. Amid a cascade of data, physicians, counselors and families are sorting out how to better understand and use this information in making health care decisions.

National experts who have gathered in Clinical Genetics Think Tank meetings at two large pediatric hospitals recently issued their first recommendations for integrating genomics into clinical practice.

• New insight into the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia
• Novel function uncovered for the C9orf72 protein that is linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD)
• Groundbreaking research could pave the way to for potential future drug development

In the late 1980s, researchers across the United States began reporting a link between discrimination against African Americans and poor cardiovascular health within the African American population. Eventually, the scope of these studies broadened, uncovering a connection between discrimination and other health disparities among minority groups.

Now, researchers at the University of Iowa have found another negative health outcome linked to discrimination: alcohol abuse.

DURHAM, N.C. - Women who carry the BRCA1 gene mutation that dramatically increases their risk of breast and ovarian cancers are also at higher risk for a lethal form of uterine cancer, according to a study led by a Duke Cancer Institute researcher.

This newly defined risk - the first to show a conclusive link between the BRCA1 gene mutation and a small but significant chance of developing an aggressive uterine cancer - could become a consideration in weighing treatment options.

Senior citizens with undiagnosed or untreated hearing problems are more likely to suffer from social isolation and cognitive impairment, a UBC study has found.

UBC Okanagan researchers examined the impact of undiagnosed or untreated hearing issues in seniors aged 60 to 69. The study found that for every 10 decibel (roughly the sound of calm breathing) drop in hearing sensitivity, the odds of social isolation increased by 52 per cent.

Researchers have described a new genus and species of cavefish from Mexico - the Oaxaca Cave Sleeper. It has not been collected or seen in more than 20 years and lives in a cave system threatened by damming. Less than 0.5 percent of all fish species are cave-adapted and most of them are endangered because their cave habitats are limited and vulnerable to environmental threats.

DALLAS - June 30, 2016 - Proteins that play key roles in the timing of cell division also moonlight in regulating blood sugar levels, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

HOUSTON - (June 30, 2016) - The chemotherapy treatments necessary to treat Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in children can be grueling on the body, and can cause health-related complications during therapy, as well as long down the road after remission. Children receiving chemotherapy for AML receive 4 to 5 intensive chemotherapy courses, and while some children recover quickly from each course, others may take several months or more, which increases their risk for life-threatening infections.

An international group of scientists from US, Canada, Germany and Russia has revealed a substance produced in humans that can suppress the pro-inflammatory activity of macrophages - specific cells of immune system. The substance known as itaconate is released in large quantities by macrophages themselves, but until now its role remained poorly studied. Now scientists have found evidence that itaconate acts as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. These properties make itaconate promising for the treatment of pathologies caused by excessive inflammation or oxidative stress.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- When a woman is diagnosed with the earliest stage of breast cancer, how aggressive should her treatment be? Will the non-invasive cancer become invasive? Or is it a slow-growing variety that will likely never be harmful?

Researchers at the University of Michigan developed a new technology that can identify aggressive forms of ductal carcinoma in situ, or stage 0 breast cancer, from non-aggressive varieties.

The technique combines imaging and mathematics. It's called biomarker ratio imaging microscopy, or BRIM.