news 2009

It is a long, slow slog to treat major depression. Many antidepressant medications are available, but no single biomarker or diagnostic test exists to predict which one is right for an individual. As a result, for more than half of all patients, the first drug prescribed doesn't work, and it can take months to figure out what does.

Cambridge, Mass. September 10, 2009 - A team of archaeologists and paleobiologists has discovered flax fibers that are more than 34,000 years old, making them the oldest fibers known to have been used by humans. The fibers, discovered during systematic excavations in a cave in the Republic of Georgia, are described in this week’s issue of Science.

PA 230/09 The University of Nottingham has played a crucial role in the discovery of two new genes associated with Alzheimer's disease. The results from the largest ever Alzheimer's genome-wide association study (GWAS) have been described by the Alzheimer's Research Trust as a leap forward for dementia research and could provide valuable new leads in the race to find treatments and possible cures for the disease.

PA 226/09 New research at The University of Nottingham could help prevent the harmful blood clots associated with heart disease and stroke, the single greatest cause of disease-related death worldwide. Scientists have gained new insights into the coagulation of blood in a study which could pave the way for new treatments aimed at preventing thrombosis — clots in the blood that obstruct the flow of blood through the circulatory system — as well as treatment of the inherited bleeding disorder thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.

Fifty years ago, a microscopic network of tubules was found in neurons. Its function was unknown.

Cambridge, Mass. September 7, 2009 - Neurobiologist Florian Engert, a pioneer in the development of the larval zebrafish as a system for study of neural circuits and behavior, has been named professor of molecular and cellular biology in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2009.

Intracellular pathogens exhibit a wide variety of behaviors that the immune system has learned to recognize, such as lurking in the endosome (salmonella), the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi bodies (Legionella), the lysozyme (Q fever) and the cytosol (Listeria). Effective vaccines must mimic this behavior in order to stimulate a complete immune response.

Cambridge, Mass. September 3, 2009 - Rewards go further than punishment in building human cooperation and benefiting the common good, according to research published this week in the journal Science by researchers at Harvard University and the Stockholm School of Economics. While previous studies have focused almost exclusively on punishment for promoting public cooperation, here rewards are shown to be much more successful.

Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes, is increasing at an alarming state with more than 180 million people affected worldwide.

Genes that regulate the energy consumption of cells have a different structure and expression in type II diabetics than they do in healthy people, according to a new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet published in Cell Metabolism. The researchers believe that these epigenetic modifications might have a key part to play in the development of the disease.

While smoking cigarettes appears to significantly increase a person's risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), using Swedish snuff does not, according to a study published in the September print issue of the American journal Neurology. This could mean that that nicotine is not the substance responsible for the increased risk of MS among smokers.

A breast cancer diagnosis coinciding with pregnancy represents a clinical dilemma by posing extremely difficult questions to the caregiver, the patient and her family. A new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the latest issue of journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, now show that the incidence of pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC) has increased in Sweden in the last decades.

A new method for "recycling" hydrogen-containing fuel materials could open the door to economically viable hydrogen-based vehicles. Economical hydrogen-based vehicles could result from rechargeable 'chemical fuel tank' Ammonia borane (AB) is a potential hydrogen releasing fuel. In this Los Alamos National Laboratory graphic, the AB would be used on-board the vehicle to run a fuel cell.

Cambridge, Mass. August 27, 2009 - In a vivid illustration of natural selection at work, scientists at Harvard University have found that deer mice living in Nebraska's Sand Hills quickly evolved lighter coloration after glaciers deposited sand dunes atop what had been much darker soil. The work is described this week in the journal Science.

Published in PLoS One, the study was led by Fiery Cushman, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, along with Anna Dreber of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard and the Stockholm School of Economics. “Punishing those who’ve caused accidents seems to be something that people do routinely,” says Cushman.

The research findings, published in the Journal of Ecology, show that climate change during the winter months is having a significant impact on the plant life in parts of the Arctic. Research into this area has received little attention when compared with summer warming studies, despite the detrimental effects winter warming is having.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have discovered a previously unknown step in early inflammation which is controlled by omega -3 and omega -6 fatty acids, potentially leading to clarification around conflicting health and diet advice on these two essential nutrients. Ed Rainger, from the Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences at the University, has revealed how omega 3 fatty acids from dietary fish oil can block a previously unknown step in blood vessel inflammation.

Energy sciences flourish under DOE grant award Los Alamos, New Mexico, August 26, 2009—Lower-cost, higher-efficiency lighting and better superconducting materials could result from a pair of grants awarded to Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, recently announced its commitment to fund two Single Investigator and Small Group Research projects at Los Alamos.

People with kidney disease undergo balloon dilation treatment after myocardial infarction less frequently, and therefore have a poorer prognosis. This according to new clinical research published in the journal Circulation. One third of all patients treated for myocardial infarction have moderately impaired renal function.

PA 220/09 Exciting research into Brown adipose tissue (BAT) — brown fat, which is found in abundance in hibernating animals and newborn babies — could lead to new ways of preventing obesity. Studies have already shown that BAT activity in adults is reduced with obesity. Therefore, promoting BAT function could prevent or reduce obesity in some people.