Body

Our skin is covered in millions of bacteria and most of them help keep us healthy. However, for patients with lymphoma, it may be a rather different story, as new research from the University of Copenhagen shows that toxins in the staphylococcus bacteria help cancer cells gain control over healthy cells. The Danish Cancer Society's Break Cancer Collection contributed DKK 3 million (US$0.5 million) to the research project.

Red squirrels living in a low-stress environment harbour healthier communities of micro-organisms, a result that might hold implications for human health, according to a new University of Guelph-led study.

Researchers tested squirrel microbiomes and analyzed the animals' stress hormones. Their study appears in the journal Biology Letters.

Philadelphia, PA, January 6, 2016 - Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) is used clinically to promote bone repair. However, the high BMP2 concentrations required to stimulate bone growth in humans may produce life-threatening adverse effects such as cervical swelling in spinal fusion procedures, a problem that prompted an FDA warning in 2008. Now, a team of clinicians and engineers has shown that adding the protein kinase C-binding protein NELL-1 (Nel-like molecule-1) to BMP2 therapy may allow clinicians to achieve better results at lower - and safer - BMP2 doses.

KNOXVILLE--While tremendous progress has been made to eliminate malaria worldwide, about 3.2 billion people--nearly half the world's population--are at risk of the disease, according to the World Health Organization. New tools to help advance infectious disease forecasting are needed.

A study from the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis develops new methods to detect the onset of critical transitions in infectious disease epidemics, such as malaria.

TORONTO, January 5, 2016 - Researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have identified 428 distinct disease conditions that co-occur in people with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), in the most comprehensive review of its kind.

The results were published today in The Lancet.

WASHINGTON, DC (January 5, 2016)-- A new study, published in the January 2016 issue of Health Affairs, by researchers at Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) at the George Washington University, provides new data on how often state Medicaid programs provide help with smoking cessation. Based on data about the level of medications purchased by Medicaid, the researchers estimate that only 10 percent of smokers on Medicaid received medication to help them stop smoking every year.

Boston, MA - Two different approaches used by states to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income adults -- traditional expansion and the 'private option' -- appear to be similarly successful in reducing numbers of the uninsured and in expanding access to and affordability of health care, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study will be published in the January 2016 issue of Health Affairs.

PHILADELPHIA - Employers around the nation are increasingly searching for ways to help their employees make healthy lifestyle choices including encouraging obese employees to lose weight, often by offering financial incentives in the form of reduced health insurance premiums to help encourage success. But these programs are likely to fail, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania published today in the January issue of Health Affairs.

Microbiota--the trillions of bacteria that co-exist in the body--regulate the ability of lung dendritic cells to generate immune responses, according to a study led by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, published online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Researchers have created a computer program that will open a challenging field in synthetic biology to the entire world.

In the past decade, billions of dollars have been spent on technology that can quickly and inexpensively read and write DNA to synthesize and manipulate polypeptides and proteins.

Local health departments could play a significant role in tackling mental health issues in the United States, according to a recent study conducted by faculty in Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health.

Local health departments are government entities responsible for addressing the public health needs and concerns of a specified geographic population. Nearly 3,000 serve cities and counties nationwide.

Randomized trial in Kenya demonstrates importance of cotrimoxazole prophylaxis for HIV/AIDS management in malaria-endemic regions

The health professional community should urge the United States Secretary of Defense to adopt and implement the recent recommendations of the Defense Health Board, and in addition rescind directives authorizing participation of health professionals in interrogation and force-feeding because they are inconsistent with professional ethics according to Leonard Rubenstein, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Berman Institute of Bioethics, Baltimore, and colleagues in a new Essay published this week in PLOS Medicine.

Opting in to data sharing should be the default practice during public health emergencies, such as the recent Ebola epidemic, and barriers to sharing data and findings should be removed to ensure those responding to the emergency have the best available evidence at hand according to Vasee Moorthy and colleagues from the World Health Organization (WHO) in a Policy Forum article published in PLOS Medicine.

Deakin University and UNSW Australia researchers have made a rare observation of rapid evolution in action in the wild, documenting the spread of a newly arisen genetic mutation in invasive starlings, which could shed light on mitochondrial disease in humans.

The scientists found West Australian starlings carrying a particular mutation in their mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of cells, almost tripled their population within five years, suggesting the mutation was beneficial to the birds on the invasion front.