Differences in gene expression levels between people of European versus African ancestry can affect how each group responds to certain drugs or fights off specific infections. An unbiased whole-genome approach found significant differences in several processes.
Many of the genetic variations that have enabled human populations to tolerate colder climates may also affect their susceptibility to metabolic syndrome, a cluster of related abnormalities such as obesity, elevated cholesterol levels, heart disease, and diabetes.
Moving an active gene from the interior of the nucleus to its periphery can inactivate that gene report scientists from the University of Chicago Medical Center in Nature. Attachment to the inner nuclear membrane, they show, can silence genes, preventing their transcription--a novel form of gene regulation.
New research published in the February 13 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience indicates that the effects of nicotine and opiates on the brain's reward system are equally strong in a key pleasure-sensing areas of the brain "“ the nucleus accumbens.
Researchers analyzed properties of the genes and proteins that serve as targets for nearly a thousand FDA-approved drugs. They identified characteristics of successful drug targets, especially those of high-revenue drugs. This data could speed the process and reduce the cost of new drug development.
The first large-scale, high-resolution study of human genetic recombination has found remarkably high levels of individual variation in genetic exchange, the process by which parents pass on a mosaic-like mixture of their genes.
A study of sex education in Illinois public schools found that one out of three teachers did not meet a very forgiving definition of comprehensive instruction. Only 65 percent of teachers who responded to the survey covered the four basic topics required to be rated "comprehensive."
The most thorough study to date of the impact of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D) found a "modest but significant effect." The benefit led to a 13.1 percent decrease in out-of-pocket expenses for patients and a 5.9 percent increase in prescription use.
Paleontologist Neil Shubin unites the discoveries of fossils and the sciences of paleontology and genetics with his experience of teaching human anatomy into a written voyage of evolution, titled Your Inner Fish: A Journey Through the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body.
Loss of a small portion of chromosome 16, known as 16p11.2, is significantly associated with autism researchers. Although this microdeletion occurred in only 4 out of 712 subjects with autism (0.6%), it is the second most common recurrent genomic disorder associated with autism.
Forty-five percent of Chicago internists surveyed report they have prescribed a placebo at some time during their clinical practice.
Suppression of slow-wave sleep in healthy young adults significantly decreases their ability to regulate blood-sugar levels and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Mutations in a protein called dynein, required for the proper functioning of sensory nerve cells, can cause defects in mice that may provide crucial clues leading to better treatments for a human nerve disorder known as peripheral neuropathy, which affects about three percent of all those over age 60.
In conversation, humans recognize words primarily from the sounds they hear. However, scientists have long known that what humans perceive goes beyond the sounds and even the sights of speech. The brain actually constructs its own unique interpretation, factoring in both the sights and sounds of speech. In a study published in Neuron, researchers at the University of Chicago identify brain areas responsible for this perception.
Although psychiatrists are among the least religious physicians, they seem to be the most interested in the religious and spiritual dimensions of their patients, according to survey data.
A randomized, controlled, multi-center trial has found that cardiac resynchronization therapy produced no improvement in peak oxygen uptake during exercise testing, the trial's primary endpoint, in patients with Class III heart failure, including mechanical problems that disrupt the heart's normal rhythm and a moderately prolonged QRS complex.
A new method of constructing artificial plant chromosomes from small rings of naturally occurring plant DNA can be used to transport multiple genes at once into embryonic plants where they are expressed, duplicated as plant cells divide, and passed on to the next generation -- a long-term goal for those interested in improving agricultural productivity.
Although defects in the "breast cancer gene," BRCA1, have long been known to increase the risk for breast cancer, exactly how the defects lead to tumor growth has remained a mystery. Now scientists provide insight into how the normal BRCA1 gene suppresses the growth of tumors as well as the nature of the genetic instability that leads to cancer when BRCA1 is defective.
Many patients with diabetes say that the inconvenience and discomfort of constant therapeutic vigilance, particularly multiple daily insulin injections, has as much impact on the quality of their lives as an intermediate complication. On average, patients considered the burden of comprehensive diabetes care comparable to that of angina, nerve or kidney damage.
With a $1 million award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a new curriculum and the initial class of students lined up for fall quarter, the University of Chicago Ph.D. program in biophysics and synthetic biology is ready to start its first year.
Insulin gene mutations can cause permanent neonatal diabetes. This is the first time that an insulin mutation has been connected to severe early onset diabetes. These mutations alter the way insulin folds. Misfolded insulin may interfere with cellular processes in ways that kill cells that produce insulin. The finding suggests new approaches to treatment.
In the first randomized controlled trial for adolescent bulimia nervosa to be completed in the US, researchers show that mobilizing parents to help an adolescent overcome the disorder can double the percentage of teens who were able to abstain from binge eating and purging after six months.
A survey of the religious beliefs and practices of American physicians has found that the least religious of all medical specialties is psychiatry. The study also found that religious physicians, especially Protestants, are less likely to refer patients to psychiatrists, and more likely to send them to members of the clergy or religious counselors.
The first comprehensive national survey of sexual attitudes, behaviors and problems among older adults in the United States has found that most people ages 57 to 85 think of sexuality as an important part of life, that many men and women remain sexually active well into their 70s and 80s, and that sexual activity was closely tied to overall health, which was even more important than age.
Researchers discovered that rats most likely to self-administer addictive drugs had a receptor in the brain that is more responsive than the same receptor in rats least likely to self-administer addictive drugs. Known as the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), it increases excitability within in the brain's reward centers.
A poorly understood and previously unsuspected mechanism may be the key to understanding how life-style associated forms of oxidative stress, such as exposure to cigarette smoke, damage cells in the lungs.
A 400 million-year-old fossil of a coelacanth fin, the first finding of its kind, fills a shrinking evolutionary gap between fins and limbs. University of Chicago scientists describe the finding in a paper highlighted on the cover of the July/August 2007 issue of Evolution & Development.
Although most religious traditions call on the faithful to serve the poor, a large cross-sectional survey of U.S. physicians found that physicians who are more religious are slightly less likely to practice medicine among the underserved than physicians with no religious affiliation.
Long-term female survivors of genital-tract cancer were pleased with their cancer care but not with the emotional support and information they received about the effects of the disease and treatment on their sexuality. Three out of 5 said their physicians never brought up the effects on sexuality. Women who did report such a conversation were much less likely to have "complex sexual problems" at the time of the survey.
Exploiting interactions between food and drugs could dramatically lower the costs of some anti-cancer drugs--and many other medications. Certain foods aid absorption or delay breakdown of these drugs. Two cancer-pharmacology specialists suggest the "Value Meal," a novel way to decrease costs and increase benefits from these effective but expensive drugs.
A genetically engineered herpes simplex virus, primarily known for causing cold sores, may help keep arteries "free-flowing" in the weeks following angioplasty or stent placement for patients, according to research published early in the online edition of PNAS.
Levels of a small non-coding RNA molecule appear to define different stages of cancer better than some of the "classical" markers for tumor progression. By suppressing genes that are active in the developing embryo, the let-7 family of microRNAs appears to prevent human cancer cells from reasserting their prenatal capacity to divide rapidly, travel and spread.
Standards to measure narrowing of the carotid artery using ultrasound may be too aggressive, resulting in some needless follow-up tests and procedures according to a University of Chicago Medical Center study.
Many African-American men radically underestimate the likelihood that having a needle biopsy for suspected prostate cancer will result in a cancer diagnosis, according to a study from the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Long before animals with limbs came onto the scene about 365 million years ago, fish already possessed the genes associated with helping to grow hands and feet report University of Chicago researchers in the May 24, 2007 issue of Nature.
According to one of the first studies to examine the clinical and economic impact of quality improvement on diabetes care, a small investment in upgrading the delivery of such care for patients at federally qualified community health centers brought about a substantial improvement in health that justified the costs of the program.
The largest study to date of genetic variation among chimpanzees has found that the traditional, geography-based sorting of chimps into three populations"”western, central and eastern"”is underpinned by significant genetic differences, two to three times greater than the variation between the most different human populations. This has important implications for conservation.
Researchers at the University of Chicago have found an unsuspected link between the immune system and high plasma lipid levels (cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood) in mice. The finding could lead to new ways to reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering elevated lipid levels.
Common practice in the treatment of adolescent eating disorder patients has been to exclude the parents. Many experts consider parents part of the problem and thus keep them away during therapy. Two U.S."“based clinicians disagree and have written a "how to" book published in February that includes family in the treatment of these patients. They say parents are well poised to help their children overcome bulimia.
A Chicago-area study of 50 individuals with a misaligned Atlas vertebra (located high in the neck) and high blood pressure showed that after a one-time specialized chiropractic adjustment, blood pressure decreased significantly.
Although three out of four primary care doctors support the use of financial rewards as an incentive for better medical care, most of them oppose public reporting of such quality assessments. Physicians surveyed for this study worry that current quality measures are not sufficiently accurate and that pay-for-performance and public-reporting programs could cause doctors to shun sick, poor or non-compliant patients.
About 5,000 tiny differences play a key role in the evolutionary divergence between the human and chimpanzee genomes. Before a new mutation can take its place in the human genome it has to pass through a rigorous two-step screening process. In step one, more radical changes are often removed. In step two, the radical mutations spread.
Many physicians feel no obligation to tell patients about legal but morally controversial medical treatments or to refer patients to doctors who do not object to those treatments. While 86% felt obliged to present all options, only 71% said they felt obligated to refer the patient to a doctor who did not object to the requested procedure, and 63% believed it is permissible for doctors to describe their objections to the patient.
By starting treatment for high blood pressure earlier and being more aggressive, physicians in the U.S. control hypertension significantly better than their counterparts in western Europe. Sixty-three percent of U.S. patients had their blood pressure under control "“ compared to 31 percent to 46 percent in Italy, the UK, Germany, Spain or France.
Despite the explosive growth in size and complexity of the human brain, the pace of evolutionary change among the thousands of genes expressed in brain tissue has actually slowed since the split, millions of years ago, between human and chimpanzee.
In this week's issue of Science, researchers suggest an early human-Neanderthal split. The two species have a common ancestry, say the authors, but do not share much else after evolving their separate ways. The study also finds no evidence of genetic admixture between Neanderthals and humans.
Even after successful treatment for colon cancer, the very obese are about one-third more likely to have their cancer recur and to die prematurely from cancer than those of normal weight. The very thin were also at increased risk of death.
A drug used to treat kidney cancer can prevent the development of pulmonary hypertension in rodents. There is no curative therapy for this condition.
By combining the four bacterial surface proteins that generate the strongest immune response in mice, researchers at the University of Chicago have created a vaccine that significantly protects immunized animals from multiple disease-causing, drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, the most common cause of hospital-acquired infections and a rapidly spreading source of community-associated illness.
Scientists from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the University of Chicago have uncovered a remarkably well-preserved fossil lamprey from the Devonian period that reveals today's lampreys as "living fossils" since they have remained largely unaltered for 360 million years.
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