Body

Philadelphia, PA, June 8, 2016 - A new technology suitable for practical clinical testing can detect KRAS gene mutations in lung and colorectal cancers and could thereby facilitate targeted therapies, according to a new report in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

TORONTO, June 8, 2016 - Eating barley or foods containing barley significantly reduced levels of two types of "bad cholesterol" associated with cardiovascular risk, a St. Michael's Hospital research paper has found.

Barley reduced both low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, and non-high-density lipoprotein, or non-HDL, by seven per cent.

The review also indicated that barley had similar cholesterol-lowering effects as oats, which is often the go-to grain for health benefits.

When it comes to cystic fibrosis (CF), more than 2,000 different genetic mutations have been reported. However, only 200 of them have been categorized - leaving a genetic soup of 1,800 others for scientists and genetic counselors to figure out.

Jena (Germany) It is only about one millimetre long and therefore barely visible with the naked eye. Its brief existence of only two to three weeks is spent hidden in the soil. At first glance, the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans and humans have very little in common.

Furthermore, it will also be used in physiotherapy in hospitals to prevent the secondary effects associated with the loss of mobility in this illness. The technology, which has been patented and licensed jointly by CSIC (the Spanish National Research Council) and its technology-based business unit, Marsi Bionics, is currently in the preclinical phase.

A new study shows that it is possible to reduce the level of sugar in muffins without affecting their textural properties by replacing half of the sugar content with stevianna or inulin, which are plant-based sweeteners. Also, after individuals consumed sugar-replaced muffins, their glycemic response--or the concentration of glucose in the blood--was lower than when they consumed regular muffins.

In recent years, over 3% of births per year in developed countries have corresponded to children conceived through assisted reproduction techniques, which poses a considerable economic burden apart from physical and psychological problems. According to the World Health Organisation, the cases of infertility have increased exponentially in developed countries during the last 10 years. Specifically, male infertility represents about half of the cases of infertility.

WAS 1600s Yorkshire a good place to be a witch? A history researcher at the University of Huddersfield has been finding out, and her investigations have resulted in a new online article.

In England as a whole there were 2,000 arraignments for witchcraft between 1560 and 1706. But many were acquitted and just 300 were executed, meaning that the country escaped the full frenzy of the witch hunts that took place in other parts of Europe.

A team of researchers belonging to the Prehistory Area of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has published the results of its recent investigations in the San Cristóbal Rock-shelter (Sierra de Cantabria. Laguardia. Álava, Basque Country). This is the first time that empirical data have been presented and which demonstrate the use of rock-shelters as enclosures (for sheep/goats) by agropastoral communities from the early Chacolithic onwards (about 5,000 years ago) in the area of the Basque Country and throughout the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

A new study from Rigshospitalet and EDMaRC finds a strong association between late onset of puberty and subsequent semen quality. This is the first study of its kind to investigate the influence of pubertal timing on male reproductive health. 1068 healthy young Danish men participated in the study and provided information on the timing of puberty. This suggests that timing of pubertal onset may be a fundamental marker of male reproductive health.

As part of the Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP), initiated by the Smithsonian Institution, a new goby fish species was discovered in the southern Caribbean. Living at depths greater than conventional SCUBA divers can access, yet too shallow to be of interest for deep-diving submersibles, the fish will now be known under the common name of the Godzilla goby.

Its discoverers Drs Luke Tornabene, Ross Robertson and Carole C. Baldwin, all affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, have described the species in the open access journal ZooKeys.

New research shows that bearded dragons are able to partition colour change to specific body parts, depending on whether they are responding to temperature or communicating with other lizards.

The study revealed that colour change in the neck area was only linked to social interactions with other bearded dragons, but by changing their backs to a darker colour in cool weather, the lizards were predicted to save approximately 85 hours of basking time during the energy-intensive breeding season.

Sperm with specific 'looks' are selected to fertilise bird eggs, say scientists from the University of Sheffield.

Fewer than one per cent of inseminated sperm reach the egg and a new study has discovered that successful sperm have certain characteristics which are preferred by the female bird.

In the research examining zebra finches, scientists found that these 'super swimmers' tend to have shorter heads with longer tails and are more similar to each other than other inseminated sperm.

Vaccines have saved countless lives since their first use more than 200 years ago. But treatments for infections once they take hold can be hard to come by. Now scientists could be onto a new approach to developing antiviral therapies. In ACS' The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, scientists report that DNA may "scrunch" like a worm to get inside viral shells. This deeper understanding could help lead to novel ways to fight pathogens.

In the annals of cancer research, a protein known as KRas has become notorious. Part of a family of proteins implicated in 30 percent of cancers, KRas is considered a highly desirable but defiant drug target. Scientists have resuscitated efforts to crack its structure and find drugs to disable it. The cover story of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, reports on the latest efforts to fight KRas.