Body

The sharing of genetic information from millions of cancer patients around the world could be key to revolutionising cancer prevention and care, according to a leading cancer expert from Queen's University Belfast.

Professor Mark Lawler, from Queen's University's Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology is corresponding author of a paper published today in the prestigious international journal Nature Medicine. The paper highlights the potential of 'big data' to unlock the secrets inside cancer cells and enable the development of more effective personalised treatments.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (May 16, 2016) -- Quadriceps tendon ruptures are disabling knee injuries that typically occur in adults ages 40 and older. Obesity, illness or traumatic injuries can cause these types of injuries. Most tendon ruptures require surgery, and the current gold-standard technique for repairing these ruptures is transosseous (literally, through-the-bone) tunnel repair, a lengthy, technically demanding procedure.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - New advances in packaging at Michigan State University can help produce stay fresh longer.

Eva Almenar, with MSU's School of Packaging, focused on onions, one of the highest-volume vegetables sold worldwide. Her team's results, featured in a recent issue of International Journal of Food Microbiology, show that improvements can enhance the safety and improve the quality of the ubiquitous vegetable.

Fish provide protein to billions of people and are an especially critical food source in the developing world. Today marine biologists confirmed a key factor that could help them thrive through the coming decades: biodiversity. Communities with more fish species are more productive and more resilient to rising temperatures and temperature swings, according to a new study from the Smithsonian's Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network and other international institutions.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - According to recent studies, the U.S. has a disadvantage in women's life expectancy compared to peer countries despite high rates of health screenings such as mammography and popular national awareness campaigns. Recently, researchers at the University of Missouri examined the perceptions of risk among females and found that minority and less educated women believe that breast cancer, rather than heart disease, is the more common killer.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Using a genetic mapping technique developed at Florida State University, FSU and Cornell University researchers have shown that a small percentage of the entire maize genome is responsible for almost half of a plant's trait diversity.

Injections of the soil bacterium Mycobacterium vaccae promote stress resilience and improve coping behaviors in mice, according to a new study led by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and University of Colorado Boulder. The researchers also found that M. vaccae prevented stress-induced colitis, a typical symptom of inflammatory bowel disease, suggesting that immunization with the bacteria may have wide-ranging health benefits.

The findings are published May 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Not every breast cancer tumor follows the same path to grow. Some tumors have the assistance of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), a diverse type of immune cell involved in the suppression of the body's response against tumors. How breast cancer cells recruit MDSCs is not completely understood, but in a paper released today in Nature Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine researchers report a new mechanism that helps cancer cells engage MDSCs.

Youths who use social media are more likely to develop a "pick-and-choose" approach to customize their faith -- regardless of what their religious tradition teaches -- than those who do not use social media, according to a Baylor University study.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Two factors--metabolism and gut microbes - have been credited by researchers as key players in the fight against obesity. However, there is an ongoing debate about whether exercise or diet better promotes metabolism and healthy shifts in gut microbes, the microscopic organisms in our intestines that break down food and can contribute to decreased obesity. New research from the University of Missouri confirms exercise plays a significant role in the fight against obesity.

ITHACA, N.Y. - For astronomers, "dark matter" is the largely hypothetical substance that accounts for approximately 85 percent of the matter in the universe. Now, plant scientists have discovered a different kind of "dark matter" in the maize genome: a tiny percentage of regulatory DNA that accounts for roughly half of the variation in observable traits found in corn.

A contagious form of cancer that can spread between dogs during mating has highlighted the extent to which dogs accompanied human travellers throughout our seafaring history. But the tumours also provide surprising insights into how cancers evolve by 'stealing' DNA from their host.

PISCATAWAY, NJ - Children as young as middle-schoolers are exposed to multiple alcohol advertisements every day--both indoors and out--a new study finds.

The study, published in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, found that kids ages 11 to 14 typically saw two to four alcohol ads per day.

And although television was often the source, outdoor ads--including billboards and signs outside stores and restaurants--were even more prominent in kids' lives.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (MAY 17, 2016). Researchers at The University of Alabama at Birmingham have determined specific risk factors associated with hospital readmission following pediatric neurosurgery. Some of these are related to the specific surgical procedure performed (for example, cerebral spinal fluid [CSF] shunt placement or CSF shunt revision), others to postoperative complications (such as surgical site infection), and still others to patient demographics (Native American race).

Adolescents in Southern California are exposed to an average of 3.1 alcohol advertisements every day, with African Americans and Hispanics regularly exposed to the highest amount of such advertising, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

African American and Hispanic youths are exposed to an average of 4.1 and 3.4 alcohol ads per day respectively, while white youths were exposed to an average of two ads per day.