Body

A new study using 5,000 stored blood samples found no increase in the presence of food-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) -- a blood marker associated with food allergy -- in children's blood between the 1980s and the 2000s.

Researchers have long-known that visceral fat - the kind that wraps around the internal organs - is more dangerous than subcutaneous fat that lies just under the skin around the belly, thighs and rear. But how visceral fat contributes to insulin resistance and inflammation has remained unknown.

A study led by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago points blame at a regulatory molecule in cells called TRIP-Br2 that is produced in response to overeating's stress on the machinery cells use to produce proteins.

AMHERST, Mass. - Mycobacteria cause a number of dangerous, difficult-to-treat diseases including leprosy and tuberculosis, and progress has been slow in eradicating them. But new strategies for combating these bacteria may eventually emerge from better understanding their basic structure and mechanisms, say molecular microbiologist Yasu Morita and his doctoral student Jennifer Hayashi at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

PITTSBURGH, April 25, 2016 - A 24-hour exposure to bright blue light before surgery reduces inflammation and organ damage at the cellular level in a mouse model, according to new research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT researchers have devised a new set of proteins that can be customized to bind arbitrary RNA sequences, making it possible to image RNA inside living cells, monitor what a particular RNA strand is doing, and even control RNA activity.

The new strategy is based on human RNA-binding proteins that normally help guide embryonic development. The research team adapted the proteins so that they can be easily targeted to desired RNA sequences.

Women have wider hips than men because their pelves must allow for the birth of large-brained babies. Nevertheless, many female pelves are still not wide enough, which can result in difficult births. Traditionally, the human pelvis has been considered an evolutionary compromise between birthing and walking upright; a wider pelvis would compromise efficient bipedal locomotion. But this hypothesis has now been called into question: According to new studies, wide hips do not reduce locomotor efficiency.

(BOSTON) - A new strategy for engineering protein fusions -- to make specific cell-targeted drugs without side effects -- could enable a safer, more potent class of protein drugs. A team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering designed a better variant of the widely-used drug erythropoietin (EPO), showing how rational design can improve in vivo efficacy and safety of protein therapeutics, reduce potential side effects, and also accelerate new drug development.

"Black Monday" has become as much a part of the National Football League season as Draft Day. The Monday after the last game of the season is marked by the firing of a number of head coaches and the start of a frenetic search for new ones. Many NFL teams searching for a coach rely on "coaching trees" and turn to assistants of highly successful head coaches.

Gaithersburg, Md., April 25, 2016 - MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, today announced that it has achieved a significant scientific milestone by publishing three manuscripts in Nature Immunology that advance the understanding of the immune system and highlight underlying mechanisms in two little-understood disease areas -- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). These include:

April 25, 2016 - Children with vision problems not correctable with glasses or contact lenses may be twice as likely to have a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), suggests a study in the May issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

As the planet warms, one way for plants and animals to find their way to cooler territory is to move up higher into the mountains. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on April 25 have found that cherry trees are indeed making their way to the mountaintops with help from an unexpected source: mountain-climbing bears.

Expanding human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programs to include males in Canada will help protect them against HPV-related cancers, according to an analysis published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/site/press/cmaj.150451.pdf.

Canada's program that aims to prevent pregnancy in women who use the powerful acne drug isotretinoin (Accutane) is not effective, found a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Of the women taking the drug, 30% to 50% do not comply with the program's requirements, which, given the severe harm the drug can cause to a fetus, represents poor performance of the pregnancy prevention program.

Washington -A workshop organized last year by the PETA International Science Consortium Ltd has resulted in an article published today in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology. It describes aerosol generation and exposure tools that can be used to predict toxicity in human lungs following inhalation of nanomaterials.

Soy isoflavones and peptides may inhibit the growth of microbial pathogens that cause food-borne illnesses, according to a new study from University of Guelph researchers.

Soybean derivatives are already a mainstay in food products, such as cooking oils, cheeses, ice cream, margarine, food spreads, canned foods and baked goods.

The use of soy isoflavones and peptides to reduce microbial contamination could benefit the food industry, which currently uses synthetic additives to protect foods, says engineering professor Suresh Neethirajan, director of the BioNano Laboratory.