Body

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - In contrast to the general belief that the airways of an infant are sterile until after birth, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers and colleagues have found that the infant airway is already colonized with bacteria or bacterial DNA when a baby is born -- and this is true for infants born as early as 24 weeks gestation.

How microbes get into the airways and the purpose of this pre-birth colonization are still unclear, but the pattern of colonization appears to have an important link to later severe neonatal lung disease.

KNOXVILLE--For over 60 years, scientists have theorized that a person's body shape and size could be influenced by the climate of where they live. Now a new study from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, suggests there's more to the equation.

The paper, co-authored by Kristen Savell, a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology, is among the first to document how evolutionary selection has shaped variation in human limbs across the globe.

To address the recent drought in California, policymakers have created incentives for homeowners to replace existing lawns with drought tolerant vegetation. However, new research from George Ban-Weiss, an assistant professor in the Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, has found that these efforts might have some hidden consequences on local climate.

MADISON, Wis. -- A new virus has been identified in association with a die-off of largemouth bass in Pine Lake in Wisconsin's Forest County.

The previously unknown virus was isolated at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's La Crosse Fish Health Center from dead fish collected by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) during an investigation into a May 2015 fish kill in the northeastern Wisconsin lake.

Air pollution may shorten the survival of patients with lung cancer, suggests a population based study, published online in the journal Thorax.

The trends were most noticeable for early stage disease, particularly adenocarcinoma--the most common type of non-small cell lung cancer, which accounts for 80% of lung cancer cases--the findings show.

Air pollution has been linked to a higher incidence of lung cancer and death, but little is known about its potential impact on an individual's chances of survival after diagnosis.

Genetic testing of patients with a rare form of cancer that can affect children and young adults can pick out genetic errors hidden in their family tree which increase the risk of a wide variety of cancer types.

Inherited cancer-causing mutations can give rise to the phenomenon of 'cancer families' where multiple family members develop cancer -- sometimes one type, sometimes many different types of cancer, depending on the gene involved.

Cancer is a disease of our genes - yet our understanding of how our genetic makeup affects our risk of cancer is still rudimentary.

Now, that's set to change, following pioneering work by Australian researchers to understand the genetics of risk in sarcoma. In a landmark study of over 1000 sarcoma patients, the researchers uncovered numerous new genetic risk factors for the cancer - and, in a world first for any cancer type, they showed that carrying two or more of these rare mutations increases an individual's cancer risk.

Analysis of three types of Zika vaccines reveal that they are effective at protecting rhesus monkeys from the virus, a new study reports. Whereas some similar techniques and vaccines have been tested in mice, monkeys are a much better model to determine how vaccines will work in humans. Zika has been causally associated with fetal microcephaly, intrauterine growth retardation, and other birth malformations in humans. A preventative vaccine is poised as one of the best ways to minimize the spread of the virus and its detrimental effects.

SILVER SPRING, Md. - The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), in collaboration with the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, has completed a second round of preclinical studies on a promising Zika vaccine candidate and found it to completely protect rhesus monkeys from experimental infection with Zika virus.

Washington, DC--Women risk having their vitamin D levels fall when they stop using birth control pills or other contraceptives containing estrogen, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Vitamin D is a hormone involved in the immune system and managing calcium levels in the blood. Proper calcium levels are necessary for bone health.

Washington, DC--Women who have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)--a common cause of female infertility--may be able to improve their metabolic and cardiovascular health by consuming soy isoflavones, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Soy isoflavones are naturally occurring plant-based estrogens found in the soybean plant. They are found in foods such as soy milk, as well as supplements.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Researchers have uncovered previously hidden sources of ocean pollution along more than 20 percent of America's coastlines.

The study, published online Aug. 4 in the journal Science, offers the first-ever map of underground drainage systems that connect fresh groundwater and seawater, and also pinpoints sites where drinking water is most vulnerable to saltwater intrusion now and in the future.

Malignant cancer cells not only proliferate faster than most healthy cells in our bodies. They also generate more "junk", such as faulty and damaged proteins. This makes cancer cells inherently more dependent on the most important cellular garbage disposal unit, the proteasome, which degrades defective proteins and removes them from circulation. Treatments for some types of cancer, such as multiple myeloma -- a type of bone marrow cancer -- exploit this dependence. Patients are treated with inhibitors, which selectively block the proteasome.

BOSTON - A month after announcing that two promising vaccine candidates provided mice with complete protection against the Zika virus, a research team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), in collaboration with scientists at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and the University of São Paulo, now reports achieving complete protection against Zika virus in rhesus monkeys. The research team's findings were published online today in the journal Science.

Scientists working out of Trinity College Dublin, Maynooth University, and Queen Mary University of London have unearthed a potential new preventative option to combat Ascaris roundworm infection. Ascaris lumbricoides is an intestinal parasite that results in severe health consequences, including growth retardation and impaired cognitive development. The infection, which affects an estimated one billion people worldwide, is particularly common in Third World countries and is estimated to be responsible for 60,000 deaths per annum.