Body

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a gene that, when working properly, appears to reduce the risk of heart failure and improve treatment outcomes, highlighting a possible target for the development of new drugs.

The gene codes for a protein that was first identified when a mutated form was shown to cause narcolepsy.

BOSTON - A large multi-center clinical trial has found that a combination of antiviral medications can eradicate hepatitis C infection in more than 90 percent of patients with advanced liver disease. Known as the ASTRAL-4 trial, the study was co-led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Intermountain Medical Center and published online Nov. 17 in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

New Haven, Conn. -- It is well documented that black, Hispanic, and Asian women typically develop advanced-stage breast cancer more often than white women. As a result, black women are more likely to receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy, or chemotherapy prior to surgery, in hopes of improving outcomes. However, a Yale Cancer Center study published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that among minority women treated with early chemotherapy, black women fare worse than the other groups.

Scientists recently discovered that tiny, multilayer nanostructures inside a tarantula's hair are responsible for its vibrant color. The science behind how these hair-raising spiders developed their blue hue may lead to new ways to improve computer or TV screens using biomimicry.

DURHAM, N.C. -- When Wake County Public Schools switched from a school assignment policy based on race to one based on socioeconomic status, schools became slightly more segregated, according to new research from Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.

However, segregation increased much more rapidly in four other large North Carolina school districts that simply dropped race-based strategies and did not attempt to pursue diversity in other ways.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Researchers at the University of Louisville have discovered a mechanism involved in skeletal muscle repair that may enable clinicians to boost the effectiveness of adult stem cell therapies for diseases such as muscular dystrophy. The research, published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, describes the role of TNF receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6), an adaptor protein and E3 ubiquitin ligase, in ensuring the vitality of stem cells that regenerate muscle tissue.

An international team of scientists, headed by researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, report that decreases in a specific group of proteins trigger changes in the cancer microenvironment that accelerate growth and development of therapy-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs).

Freedom of navigation operational assertions (FONAs) are assertive operations carried out mainly by the U.S. Navy when other nations impose what the U.S. considers excessive restrictions on the freedom of navigation anywhere in the world. Sent by the Pentagon through naval ships or aircrafts, FONAs demonstrate that the U.S. will not accept such restrictions and it is only in special areas that they require higher approval.

A larger portion of Africa is currently at high risk for malaria transmission than previously predicted, according to a new University of Florida mapping study.

Under future climate regimes, the area where the disease can be transmitted most easily will shrink, but the total transmission zone will expand and move into new territory, according to the study, which appears in the current issue of the journal Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases.

Borrowing from several statistical science models, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed a novel computational approach for massively accelerating the search for a hepatitis C vaccine.

Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a method to efficiently turn human stem cells into retinal ganglion cells, the type of nerve cells located within the retina that transmit visual signals from the eye to the brain. Death and dysfunction of these cells cause vision loss in conditions like glaucoma and multiple sclerosis.

Cold Spring Harbor, NY - When preliminary tests show that a new drug has remarkable effectiveness against a lethal illness, everyone wants to know how it works. Often, a mechanism of action is hard to pin down, but when it can be, a candidate drug's chances increase. Knowing how it works sometimes means you can figure out ways to enhance its effectiveness or take another tack if patients develop resistance to it.

NASA-funded researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are tapping information found in the cells of all life on Earth, and using it to trace life's evolution. They have learned that life is a master stenographer - writing, rewriting and recording its history in elaborate biological structures.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Can any cancer cell form another tumor, or is it only select cancer stem cells that give rise to new cancer cells? The answer, a new study finds, is both.

A newly discovered biological mechanism channels a mother's available energy - in the form of fat - straight to the reproductive system during stressful times, protecting future offspring at the cost of the mother's health.

USC's Sean Curran observed the phenomenon in the worm species C. elegans, but the cellular mechanisms associated with it also exist in humans, raising the possibility that we may share this trait as well.