news 2012

Much has been made about who or what is to blame for the "obesity epidemic" and what can or should be done to stem the tide of rising body mass among the U.S. population. A new book by a UCLA sociologist turns these concerns on their head by asking two questions. First, how and why has fatness been medicalized as "obesity" in the first place? Second, what are the social costs of this particular way of discussing body size? In " What's Wrong With Fat? ", to be published Jan.

The protein kinase Akt is a key regulator of cell growth, proliferation, metabolism, survival, and death. New work on Akt's role in cancer stem cell biology from the lab of senior author Honglin Zhou, MD, PhD and Weihua Li, co-first author, both from the Center for Resuscitation Sciences, Department of Emergency Medicine , Perelman School of Medicine , University of Pennsylvania, and Xiaowei Xu, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine , appears in Molecular Cell .

Scientists have shown how the common fruit fly Drosophila, which possess similar electrophysiological and pharmacological properties as humans, could now be used to screen and develop new therapies for alcohol-related behavioural disorders and some genetic diseases. Researchers from the University's School of Physiology and Pharmacology have been using the fruit fly to study the effects of alcohol on a particular gene found within potassium channels in the brain.

19 Dec 2012 Researchers funded by Cancer Research UK have been looking at why new drugs called "MEK inhibitors”, which are currently being tested in clinical trials, aren't as effective at killing cancer cells as they should be. They discovered that MITF - a protein that helps cells to produce pigment but also helps melanoma cells to grow and survive - is able to provide cancer cells with a resistance to MEK inhibitors.

Health Technology Assessment is not 'pure science'. The drug industry is a key actor in the process of issuing recommendations" —Professor Larry King King and colleagues Piotr Ozieranski (University of Leicester) and Martin McKee (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) found that multinational drug companies are deploying their massive financial resources to capture stakeholders at every stage of the process for the scientific recommendation of drugs in Poland.

By Eliot Barford Researchers at Imperial College London have identified a molecule that sounds the alarm when viruses invade our cells. Our immune system has evolved to recognise distinctive features of infectious agents like bacteria, fungi and viruses in order to fight infections, but some viruses are hard to detect.

Humans are adept at setting goals and updating them as new situations arise — for example, a person who is playing a video game may switch to a new goal when their phone rings. Now, Princeton University researchers have identified mechanisms that govern how the brain incorporates information about new situations into our existing goals, according to research recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet have presented a new principle for fighting bacterial infections, in other words, a new type of antibiotic, in the medical journal FASEB. The new antibiotic mechanism is based on selectively blocking the thioredoxin system in the cells, which is crucial to the growth of certain bacteria.

18 Dec 2012 Whilst conditions such as a severe stroke have been linked to the disease, for many sufferers the tremors and other symptoms of Parkinson's disease can appear to come out of the blue. Researchers at the university's Faculty of Life Sciences have now discovered that a small stroke, also known as a silent stroke, can cause Parkinson's disease.

New research from the University of Toronto answers one of the most common questions parents ask their doctors: How much milk should I be giving my children? The answer is two cups per day. And while too little milk is a problem, so is too much, the study found. "We started to research the question because professional recommendations around milk intake were unclear and doctors and parents were seeking answers," said Professor Jonathon Maguire of the Department of Paediatrics and Institute of Health of Policy, Management and Evaluation.

When the heart works too hard, the brain may be to blame, says new Cornell research that is changing how scientists look at high blood pressure (hypertension). The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in November, traces hypertension to a newfound cellular source in the brain and shows that treatments targeting this area can reverse the disease.

New research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reveals that sons of male rats exposed to cocaine are resistant to the rewarding effects of the drug, suggesting that cocaine-induced changes in physiology are passed down from father to son.

Make no mistake, Alex Clark and Lionel Messi were not separated at birth. Both might be stars in their own right, but Clark, associate dean of research in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta, realizes he's not about to woo stadiums of crazed soccer fans like FC Barcelona's all-time top scorer.

Nanoparticles amplify tumor signals, making them much easier to detect in the urine. Finding ways to diagnose cancer earlier could greatly improve the chances of survival for many patients. One way to do this is to look for specific proteins secreted by cancer cells, which circulate in the bloodstream.

Our data seems to suggest that both absolute and relative levels of deprivation predict the incidence of schizophrenia." —James Kirkbride Higher rates of schizophrenia in urban areas can be attributed to increased deprivation, increased population density and an increase in inequality within a neighbourhood, new research reveals.

New research from Lund University casts new light on the interaction between the immune system and streptococcus bacteria, which cause both mild tonsillitis and serious infections such as sepsis and necrotising fasciitis. The way in which antibodies attach to the bacteria is linked to how serious the disease is.

There's a reason emergency personnel train for the aftermath of a dirty bomb or an explosion at a nuclear power plant. They'll be faced with a deluge of urgent tasks, such as identifying who's been irradiated, who has an injury-induced infection, and who's suffering from both. Unfortunately, there isn't a quick way to screen for people exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.

Scientists at the University of Toronto have discovered that genetic mutations - regarded by many as the chief cause of cancer growth - are only one piece of the puzzle. Biological factors and cell behaviour also drive tumour growth, contributing to therapy failure and relapse, said Professor John Dick of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology.

More than two hundred gene locations have now been identified for the chronic bowel condition Crohn's Disease, in a study that analysed the entire human genome. Published today in The American Journal of Human Genetics , scientists at UCL have devised a new method for identifying and mapping gene locations for complex inherited diseases.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. Every time a human or bacterial cell divides it first must copy its DNA. Specialized proteins unzip the intertwined DNA strands while others follow and build new strands, using the originals as templates. Whenever these proteins encounter a break - and there are many - they stop and retreat, allowing a new cast of molecular players to enter the scene.