Body

Attention to other people is a fundamental role for social cognitive development in the early stages of life. However, infants born prematurely show a different attentional pattern.

In a new study, a Kyoto University team found evidence that such babies are less interested in other people compared to infants born full-term, when tested at 6 and 12 months of age. This new study brings light to the links between premature birth, development of social communication skills, and ultimately autism.

BOSTON - (March 31, 2016) - In obesity, the body's immune system can treat tissues as if they are suffering from a low-grade chronic infection. This obesity-induced inflammation is an important contributor to insulin resistance, a condition that can progress into type 2 diabetes. Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center now have pinpointed a major inflammatory role for "natural killer" (NK) immune cells in abdominal fat--a type of tissue strongly implicated in insulin resistance.

TORONTO, March 31, 2016 -- NFL players had a two-fold greater risk of concussions and 1.5 times higher risk for ankle injuries when games were played at colder temperatures, a new St. Michael's study has found.

The higher rates occurred during games played in 10 degrees Celsius or colder when compared with games played in temperatures of 21 degrees Celsius or warmer.

Researchers also found an increased rate of shoulder injuries when games were played on natural grass compared to synthetic turf - about 1.36 times higher.

TAMPA, Fla. (March 31, 2016) - Several new immunotherapeutic antibodies that inhibit checkpoint receptors on T cells to restimulate the immune system to target tumors have been approved to treat advanced stage lung cancer and melanoma; however, only 20 percent of lung cancer patients show a response to these agents. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have identified a class of drugs that improve the activity of immunotherapeutic antibodies by stimulating the movement of T cells into a tumor and enhancing their activity.

Washington, DC - March 31, 2016 - Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections began rising in Beijing last spring, and by December, this pathogen was found in more than half of hospitalized children suffering from pneumonia in that city, according to investigators from the Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, China. Now these investigators predict that this epidemic will likely continue well into 2016, and possibly longer. Their data may help clinicians slow the epidemic.

PHILADELPHIA--(March 31, 2016)--The Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is transmitted through mosquitoes and causes fever and joint pain that can sometimes become severe and disabling. Outbreaks of the virus have already occurred in Africa, Asia, and Europe, and in late 2013, the virus was first seen in the Americas with the number of cases dramatically increased. No vaccine to prevent or treat this virus currently exists.

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NEW YORK, NY (April 1, 2016) -- Researchers have identified a common variant in a non-coding RNA that may contribute to the intestinal inflammation that occurs in people with celiac disease. The findings point to a possible new risk factor for developing celiac disease in people with celiac disease risk genes.

The study was reported today in Science.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A team led by Purdue University researchers is the first to determine the structure of the Zika virus, which reveals insights critical to the development of effective antiviral treatments and vaccines.

The team also identified regions within the Zika virus structure where it differs from other flaviviruses, the family of viruses to which Zika belongs that includes dengue, West Nile, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and tick-borne encephalitic viruses.

Technical advances in reading long DNA sequences have ramifications in understanding primate evolution and human disease.

The genome of the Western lowland gorilla has now been sequenced and assembled at a high level of quality beginning to approach that of the mouse and human genome.

Using recent advances in genetic sequencing technology, researchers have significantly improved upon previous assemblies of the gorilla genome. In order to better understand human biology and genetic variation, it's important to have complete, high-quality data of the genomes of our closest relatives, non-human primates. The first full gorilla genome was sequenced in 2012. However, the old genome contains more than 400,000 sequence gaps, and previous genome assembly methods resulted in some inaccurate genetic structuring. Here, David Gordon et al.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT biological engineers have created a programming language that allows them to rapidly design complex, DNA-encoded circuits that give new functions to living cells.

Using this language, anyone can write a program for the function they want, such as detecting and responding to certain environmental conditions. They can then generate a DNA sequence that will achieve it.

Scientists have shown for the first time that common bird populations are responding to climate change in a similar pronounced way in both Europe and the USA.

An international team of researchers led by Durham University, UK, found that populations of bird species expected to do well due to climate change had substantially outperformed those expected to do badly over a 30 year period from 1980 to 2010.

The research, conducted in collaboration with the RSPB and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), is published in the journal Science.

A near-atomic level map of Zika virus shows its structure to be largely similar to that of dengue virus and other flaviviruses, but with a notable difference in one key surface protein, report scientists funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

MENLO PARK, Calif., March 31, 2016 -- Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc., (Nasdaq:PACB) the pioneer and leader in long-read sequencing using its Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT®) technology, today announced that scientists from the University of Washington, the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, and other institutions have published the best genome assembly of the gorilla to date -- more than 150-fold improvement over previous assemblies -- using long-read SMRT Sequencing from Pacific Biosciences.