Body

PITTSBURGH, March 30, 2016 - Middle-aged black women have higher levels of a protein in their blood associated with a predictor of heart disease than their white counterparts, even after other factors, such as obesity, are taken into consideration, according to a study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and School of Medicine.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 29, 2016--A new 3-D modeling and data-extraction technique is about to transform the field of X-ray crystallography, with potential benefits for both the pharmaceutical industry and structural biology. A paper this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes the improved blending of experimentation and computer modeling, extracting valuable information from diffuse, previously discarded data.

An international team working at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has captured the first high-resolution 3-D images from individual double-helix DNA segments attached at either end to gold nanoparticles. The images detail the flexible structure of the DNA segments, which appear as nanoscale jump ropes.

Imagine losing an eye, an arm or even your spinal cord. When we are wounded, our bodies, and those of other mammals, generally respond by sealing the wound with scar tissue. The newt, however, has evolved unique strategies that allow it to repeatedly regenerate lost tissues, even as an adult.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Wednesday, March 30, 2016)--A Swedish population study is helping answer lingering questions about hormone therapy safety. Published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society, the study shows that estrogen-only therapy carries a lower risk of blood clots than combined estrogen-progestogen therapy, but there is no significantly increased risk of clots with combination therapy when the estrogen is transdermal, and vaginal estrogen doesn't raise the risk at all.

In a new evolutionary proof of the old adage, 'we are what we eat', Cornell University scientists have found tantalizing evidence that a vegetarian diet has led to a mutation that -- if they stray from a balanced omega-6 to omega-3 diet -- may make people more susceptible to inflammation, and by association, increased risk of heart disease and colon cancer.

HANOVER, N.H. - March 29, 2016 - For many immigrants in this country, anti-immigration rhetoric is not just something that you hear on the campaign trail but a reality. In fact, about a third of U.S. states, have had restrictive laws directed at undocumented immigrants in place since the late 2000s.

Sexual health research focused on men who have sex with men is lacking, according to health researchers, even in the midst of rising rates of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, in this population.

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of syphilis cases, 22 percent of gonorrhea cases and two-thirds of HIV diagnoses in the U.S. occur in men who have sex with men.

A recent study identifies multiple sexual behaviors significantly associated with prevalent sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

Men currently have few options for reproductive control, including condoms and vasectomy. While condoms are widely available and useful in preventing disease when used correctly, they have an 18% yearly pregnancy rate in typical use. Vasectomy is effective, but must generally be considered permanent. There are no long-acting, reversible contraceptives currently available for men.

DALLAS, March 29, 2016 - Women with endometriosis -- especially those 40 or younger -- may have a higher risk of heart disease, according to new research published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.

Boston, MA - Many people in U.S. households where someone is pregnant or considering getting pregnant in the next 12 months are not aware of key facts about Zika virus, according to a new poll by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers.

Fairfax, Va., March 29, 2016 - A prospective study examining a trimodality treatment approach in localized bladder cancer cases using adaptive image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IG-IMRT) found that the bladder preservation rate at three years was 83 percent.

A University of Colorado Cancer study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) describes a new tool that interprets the raw data of whole exome tumor sequencing and then matches the cancer's unique genetics to FDA-approved targeted treatments.

Scientists have devised a triple-stage "cluster bomb" system for delivering the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, via tiny nanoparticles designed to break up when they reach a tumor.

Details of the particles' design and their potency against cancer in mice were published March 28 in PNAS. They have not been tested in humans, although similar ways of packaging cisplatin have been in clinical trials.

Bacteria are the most abundant form of life on Earth, and they are capable of living in diverse habitats ranging from the surface of rocks to the insides of our intestines. Over millennia, these adaptable little organisms have evolved a variety of specialized mechanisms to move themselves through their particular environments. In two recent Caltech studies, researchers used a state-of-the-art imaging technique to capture, for the first time, three-dimensional views of this tiny complicated machinery in bacteria.