Body

In a paper published in The Official Journal of the International Purine Club University of Liverpool researchers have successfully identified how certain genes can contribute towards a person's susceptibility to stress fracture injuries. This research provides a platform for further research into providing a personalised health approach to this common sports injury.

FRANKFURT. Since about 25 years, animal species in West and Central Africa are no longer being hunted solely for the purpose of local self-sufficiency, but increasingly also for sale in urban areas several hundred kilometres away. As a consequence, many populations have dramatically decreased or already disappeared altogether. A team of European researchers led by Goethe University Frankfurt has now predicted hunting pressure for the Congo Basin and produced a detailed map, which could help in regional planning.

Results from a Phase 1b/2 trial suggest that an investigational microbiome-based, oral therapeutic drug is effective for the treatment of recurrent C. difficile infection. In a paper published online in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, a multi-institutional research team reports that treatment with the preparation, containing the spores of approximately 50 species of beneficial bacteria, successfully prevented recurrence of C. difficile infection (CDI) in patients with a history of multiple recurrent disease.

The results of Dr. Fürst's research, carried out in collaboration with Antarctic experts from Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE) in Grenoble, France, have been published in the journal Nature Climate Change*.

With tenacity befitting their subject, an international team of nearly 100 researchers toiled for a decade and overcame tough technical challenges to decipher the genome of the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis).

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, contributed primary support to the research, which appears in the online, open-access journal Nature Communications.

La Jolla, Calif., Feb. 9, 2016 -- Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Research Institute (SBP) have conclusively identified the protein complex that controls the genes needed to repair skeletal muscle. The discovery clears up deep-rooted conflicting data and will now help streamline efforts towards boosting stem cell-mediated muscle regeneration. Such strategies could treat muscle degenerative diseases such as muscular dystrophies, and those associated with aging and cancer.

A future warming of the Southern Ocean caused by rising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere may severely disrupt the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The result would be a rise in the global sea level by several metres. A collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have occurred during the last interglacial period 125,000 years ago, a period when the polar surface temperature was around two degrees Celsius higher than today.

Researchers from Kumamoto University, Japan have identified a protein that limits the severity of Alport syndrome, a type of genetic kidney disease. The finding can provide clues that point toward new therapeutic approaches for Alport syndrome.

Genetic disease, a generic term covering many diseases, is caused by mutations in genes. Several forms of genetic diseases produce serious symptoms, and the development of new therapies is highly desired.

The Republic of Kosovo turns out to be a unique European biodiversity hotspot after a second new species of aquatic insect has been described from the Balkan country. The new caddisfly was discovered by Prof. Halil Ibrahimi from the University of Prishtina, Kosovo, and international research team. They have their finding published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Since the discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals just over 100 years ago, X-ray diffraction as a method of structure determination has dominated structural research in materials science and biology. However, many of the most important materials whose structures remain unknown do not readily crystallize as three-dimensional periodic structures.

Patients with complete unilateral and bilateral cleft lip and palate (U/BCLP) who were treated with nasoalveolar molding (NAM) required fewer surgeries and a reduction in overall healthcare costs compared to similar patients who did not have NAM treatment, according to a study in The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, authored by Parit A. Patel, MD.

Dr. Patel, an assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, is a plastic and reconstruction surgeon who specializes in craniofacial surgery and cleft conditions at Loyola University Health System.

The Journal of Pain Research has published the commentary "Terminology of chronic pain: the need to "level the playing field".

PULLMAN, Wash.--Washington State University researchers have determined how a protein that helps cells fight viruses can also cause genetic mutations that lead to cancer.

The research, published in the journal Cell Reports, shows how the expression of a protein causes mutations to accumulate in actively replicating DNA. The work is complemented by studies from other researchers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Cell, which indicate that similar phenomena occur in E. coli cells and sequenced human tumors.

Folsom, Calif., (February 9, 2016) - A new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that a diet containing unsaturated fats, such as those found in walnuts and olive oil, has similar weight loss effects as a lower fat, higher-carbohydrate diet.1 The research, led by Dr. Cheryl Rock of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, also showed that a diet containing walnuts, which are primarily comprised of polyunsaturated fats, positively impacts heart health markers, such as cholesterol.

Rather than the treeless, limestone expanse we know today, the Plain was flush with gum and eucalyptus trees, banksias and other flowering plants now confined to Australia's east coast.

Scientists at the University of Melbourne used new techniques to date fossilised pollen and reveal the Plain's 'big wet' - a dramatic transformation in climate that occurred around five million years ago.

The finding sheds new light on the environmental history of the Nullarbor, a former seabed that was lifted above the sea 14 million years ago.