Body

New research suggests that synthetic peptides called minihepcidins may potentially treat two serious genetic blood diseases in children and adults. Although those diseases, beta-thalassemia and polycythemia vera, have opposite effects on red blood cell production, treating animals with minihepcidin helps to restore normal levels of red blood cells and reduces spleen enlargement. It also controls the accumulation of excess levels of iron in beta-thalassemia that often causes severe toxic effects.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- A new paper-based test developed at MIT and other institutions can diagnose Zika virus infection within a few hours. The test, which distinguishes Zika from the very similar dengue virus, can be stored at room temperature and read with a simple electronic reader, making it potentially practical for widespread use.

TEMPE, Ariz. -- May 5, 2016 -- Any kid who pulls on a lizard tail knows it can drop off to avoid capture, but how they regrow a new tail remains a mystery. Now, researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Arizona State University (ASU) have identified tiny RNA switches, known as microRNAs, which may hold the keys to regenerating muscles, cartilage and spinal columns.

May 6, 2016 - For highly trained Paralympic athletes with cerebral palsy (CP), bone mineral density and other measures of body composition are similar to those of able-bodied adults of similar age, reports a study in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, the official journal of the Association of Academic Physiatrists. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

Misty mountains, glistening forests and blue-green lakes make Cameroon, the wettest part of Africa, a tropical wonderland for amphibians.

The country holds more than half the species living on the continent, including dozens of endemic frogs -- an animal that has been under attack across the world by the pervasive chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). Africa has been mostly spared from the deadly and rampant pathogen that wiped out entire species in Australia, Madagascar and Panama, until now.

More than 10 percent of pregnant women develop serious complications during pregnancy. The underlying cause is often a poorly functioning placenta, the organ that nourishes and maintains the fetus.

PHILADELPHIA -- Colorectal cancer is the second highest cause of cancer death in the United States, expected to claim the lives of an estimated 49,190 people in 2016. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to increase access to CRC screening by not holding patients responsible for all costs of the procedure, yet current Medicare insurance beneficiaries lacking supplemental insurance may not be able to afford colon cancer screening and treatment.

Nowhere today is the biodiversity of corals and reef-inhabiting fish higher than in the tropical waters around Indonesia and its neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia.

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (May 6, 2016) -- Half of the world's fruit and vegetable crops are lost during the food supply chain, due mostly to premature deterioration of these perishable foods, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Males who evolve in male-dominated populations become far better at securing females than those who grow up in monogamous populations, according to new research into the behaviour of fruit flies at the University of Sheffield.

May 5, 2016 -- Exchange of immunization data between a centralized city immunization registry and provider electronic health records led to significant improvements in pediatric immunization coverage, a reduction in over-immunization for adolescents, and increased completeness of immunization records, according to a study conducted at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian, and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Citywide Immunization Registry.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- An international team led by Indiana University researchers has uncovered the regulation of a system that allows a globally abundant bacterium to efficiently capture sunlight and perform photosynthesis.

The study -- led by IU biologist David M. Kehoe and conducted by Joseph E. Sanfilippo, IU Ph.D. student, and Animesh Shukla, former IU Ph.D. student, in collaboration with researchers in the United States and France -- is the first to show how a process that improves light capture in marine cyanobacteria is regulated.

BOSTON - The Internet has become a powerful and important resource for daily life. When patients receive a medical diagnosis, particularly a difficult one like pancreatic cancer, the web can be an essential information tool, helping to enable patients to have meaningful discussions with health care providers. However, new research from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) published today in JAMA Surgery suggests that online information about pancreatic cancer is often written at a prohibitively high reading level and lacks accuracy concerning alternative therapies.

Through the use of powerful genomic techniques, researchers at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) have found that the development of immune cells, called innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), gradually prepares these cells for rapid response to infection. This work, which appeared online today in Cell, sheds light on the development and function of a cell type that is increasingly recognized as having an important role in the body's immune defense. NIAMS is part of the National Institutes of Health.

DARIEN, IL - A new study reports that short sleep duration combined with frequent snoring reported prior to cancer diagnosis may influence subsequent breast cancer survival.