news

Health - Environment - 26.01.2010

Study links reduced fertility to flame retardant exposure
BERKELEY — Women with higher blood levels of PBDEs, a type of flame retardant commonly found in household consumer products, took longer to become pregnant compared with women who have lower levels of PBDEs, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. The study, to be published Jan.

Health - 26.01.2010

Blood pressure control abnormal in newborns of smoking mothers
Newborns of women who smoked during pregnancy show signs of circulatory dysfunction, according to a novel study from Karolinska Institutet. The findings, which are published in the scientific journal Hypertension, reveal that blood pressure and heart rate control is already abnormal in newborn babies of smoking mothers, and continues to worsen throughout the first year.

Life Sciences - Health - 25.01.2010

UCL study: Emotions are a universal language
A new study, led by UCL's Professor Sophie Scott, suggests that all humans share basic emotions such as amusement, anger, fear and sadness ' and vocalise them in similar ways. The results of the study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , provide further evidence that such emotions form a set of basic, evolved functions that are shared by all humans.

Life Sciences - Health - 24.01.2010

Genetic testing no real help in predicting type 2 diabetes
New UCL research shows that genetic testing provides no real help in predicting the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a major risk factor for heart disease. The findings question the benefit of genetic direct-to-public home screening tests currently available on the market, which claim to be able to predict the risk of diabetes.

Health - Life Sciences - 22.01.2010

Study predicts HIV drug resistance will surge
New research based on a novel mathematical model predicts that a wave of drug-resistant HIV strains will emerge in San Francisco within the next five years. These strains could prove disastrous by hindering control of the HIV pandemic. In a study published Jan. 14 on the website of the journal Science, researchers from the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and the University of California, San Francisco's HIV AIDS Program at San Francisco General Hospital, developed a complex network model that tracks the transmission of multiple strains of HIV.

Life Sciences - Health - 19.01.2010

Nano-motors facilitate communication between brain cells
MRC-funded scientists led by Dr Josef Kittler (UCL Neuroscience) have identified how nano-sized motors in nerve cells help to regulate the balance of communication in the brain. The findings may also help to explain why communication between nerve cells is disrupted in Huntington's disease, leading to altered electrical behaviour of nerve cells in this disease.

Physics - Health - 19.01.2010

Herschel readies itself for the Orion Nebula
Herschel readies itself for the Orion Nebula , showed that it was performing beyond its design specification. However, by 3 August 2009, something was clearly wrong and the instrument team and ESA had to decide what to do. Herschel is stationed 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, directly away from the Sun, and way out of the reach of astronauts.

Life Sciences - Health - 19.01.2010

Mice behavior studies can apply to human behavior
Studying animals in behavioral experiments has been a cornerstone of psychological research, but whether the observations are relevant for human behavior has been unclear. Now, Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) researchers have identified an alteration to the DNA of a gene that imparts similar anxiety-related behavior in both humans and mice, demonstrating that laboratory animals can be accurately used to study these human behaviors.

Health - Life Sciences - 14.01.2010

Potent Screening Tool Finds New Roles for Some Drugs in Rest, Waking
Cambridge, Mass. January 14, 2010 - A robust new technique for screening drugs' effects on zebrafish behavior is pointing Harvard University scientists toward unexpected compounds and pathways that may govern sleep and wakefulness in humans. Among their more intriguing findings, described this week in the journal Science: Various anti-inflammatory agents in the immune system, long known to induce sleep during infection, may also shape normal sleep/wake cycles.

Health - Life Sciences - 11.01.2010

New target discovered for treatment of cancer
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a new way of blocking the formation of blood vessels and halting the growth of tumours in mice. A substance that exploits this mechanism could be developed into a new treatment for cancer. For a cancer tumour to be able to grow larger than the size of a pea, the cancer cells need to stimulate the formation of new blood vessels that can supply the tumour with oxygen and nutrients, a process known as angiogenesis.

Health - Life Sciences - 10.01.2010

Ongoing Human Evolution Could Explain Recent Rise in Certain Disorders
Cambridge, Mass. January 10, 2010 - The subtle but ongoing pressures of human evolution could explain the seeming rise of disorders such as autism, autoimmune diseases, and reproductive cancers, researchers write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Certain adaptations that once benefited humans may now be helping such ailments persist in spite of – or perhaps because of – advancements in modern culture and medicine.

Health - Earth Sciences - 08.01.2010

Human Ancestor ‘Lucy’ Was a Tree Climber, New Evidence
AUSTIN, Texas - Evidence preserved in the internal skeletal structure of the world-famous fossil, Lucy, suggests the ancient human species frequently climbed trees, according to a new analysis by scientists from The Johns Hopkins University and The University of Texas at Austin.

Health - Psychology - 07.01.2010

Half of depressed Americans go untreated, study finds
A national survey of 15,762 households by researchers from UCLA and Wayne State University found that only 21 percent of Americans suffering from clinical depression receive medical care consistent with American Psychiatric Association guidelines. Half receive no treatment at all. The majority of treated patients, nearly 45 percent, received psychotherapy with no medication.

Life Sciences - Health - 07.01.2010

Attune acoustic focusing cytometer brings technology developed at LANL to the marketplace
Life Technologies Corporation recently announced the release of the AttuneTM Acoustic Focusing Cytometer. Applications of first-of-its-kind cytometer system in basic cell biology research and drug discovery Los Alamos, New Mexico, January 7, 2010—Life Technologies Corporation recently announced the release of the AttuneTM Acoustic Focusing Cytometer, a first-of-its-kind cytometer system that uses acoustic waves to precisely control the movement of cells during analysis.

Health - Mathematics - 06.01.2010

Study finds H1N1 virus spreads easily by plane
Viruses love plane travel. They get to fly around the world inside a closed container while their infected carrier breathes and coughs, spreading pathogens to other passengers, either by direct contact or through the air. And once people deplane, the virus can spread to other geographical areas. Scientists already know that smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, seasonal influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) can be transmitted during commercial flights.

Health - Life Sciences - 06.01.2010

Natural compound blocks hepatitis C infection, UCLA study finds
UCLA researchers have identified two cellular proteins that are important factors in hepatitis C virus infection, a finding that may result in the approval of new and less toxic treatments for the disease, which can lead to liver cancer and cirrhosis. An estimated 270 to 300 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C, and the conventional treatments — interferon and ribavirin — can have significant side effects.

Health - Life Sciences - 06.01.2010

UCLA researchers uncover key role played by enzyme in regulating immune response
Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that mice lacking an enzyme known as deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) have defects in their adaptive immune system, producing very low levels of both T and B lymphocytes, the major players involved in immune response. The study finding, published in the current edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could have ramifications for treating autoimmune disorders, in which the body attacks itself, and possibly certain cancers of the immune system.

Health - Life Sciences - 06.01.2010

Researchers uncover key role played by enzyme in regulating immune response
Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that mice lacking an enzyme known as deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) have defects in their adaptive immune system, producing very low levels of both T and B lymphocytes, the major players involved in immune response. The study finding, published in the current edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could have ramifications for treating autoimmune disorders, in which the body attacks itself, and possibly certain cancers of the immune system.

Life Sciences - Health - 05.01.2010

Team links stomach-cancer bug and cancer-promoting factor
Microbiology professor Steven Blanke (center), graduate student Prashant Jain (left) and postdoctoral researcher Tamilselvam Batcha found that a factor produced by the bacterium H. pylori directly activates an enzyme in host cells that has been associated with several types of cancer, including gastric cancer.

Health - Life Sciences - 05.01.2010

’Junk DNA’ could spotlight breast and bowel cancer
PA 03/10 Scientists at The University of Nottingham have found that a group of genetic rogue elements, produced by DNA sequences commonly known as 'junk DNA', could help diagnose breast and bowel cancer. Their research, funded by Cancer Research UK, is published in this month's Genomics journal. The researchers, led by Dr Cristina Tufarelli, in the School of Graduate Entry Medicine and Health Sciences, discovered that seven of these faulty genetic elements — known as chimeric transcripts — are more common in breast cancer cells.