Curated News: Grant Funded News

• share
• favorite_border

Blue-footed boobies are on the decline in the Galápagos because of a low sardine diet.

• share
• favorite_border

Wayne State University, in partnership with the University of Michigan and Drexel University, has launched a two-and-a-half-year study of the imagination — or l'imaginaire — of high-speed rail (HSR) in America. The study is part of a larger comparative international study piloted by Dr. Max Bergman at the University of Basel and led by French, American, South African, Indian and Chinese research teams that is exploring the role of the “imaginaries” in choices relative to train and rail infrastructures. In other words, the study will examine what motivates decision makers (both leaders and users) in regard to championing or using trains both in and of themselves and within the context of the future of transportation as a whole.

• share
• favorite_border

When we get sick it feels natural to try to hasten our recovery by getting some extra shuteye. Researchers found that this response has a definite purpose, in fruitflies: enhancing immune system response and recovery to infection.

• share
• favorite_border

Building on previous work that showed that deleting an enzyme in the COX-2 pathway in a mouse model of heart disease slowed the development of atherosclerosis, researchers have now extended this observation by clarifying that the consequence of deleting the enzyme mPEGS-1 differs, depending on the cell type in which it is taken away. They are now working on ways to deliver inhibitors of mPGES-1 selectively to the macrophages.

• share
• favorite_border

Mothers give a newborn baby a gift of germs—germs that help to kick-start the infant’s immune system. But antibiotics, used to fight bacterial infection, may paradoxically interrupt a newborn’s own immune responses.

• share
• favorite_border

Smoking prevalence varies by socioeconomic status – particularly in terms of educational attainment – making smoking during pregnancy more common among economically-disadvantaged women, who face an increased risk of poor pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage, preterm birth, SIDS, and later adverse effects. Recent findings from the University of Vermont demonstrate that providing incentives more than doubled smoking abstinence rates during pregnancy and increased fetal growth.

• share
• favorite_border

A survey of emergency contraceptive pills in Peru found that 28 percent of the batches studied were either of substandard quality or falsified. Many pills released the active ingredient too slowly. Others had the wrong active ingredient. One batch had no active ingredient at all.

• share
• favorite_border

Sanford-Burnham researchers discover that the interaction between two proteins called BCAR1 and BCAR3 is responsible for resistance to antiestrogen drugs, paving the way for improved diagnostic and treatment strategies.

• share
• favorite_border

Men who show signs of chronic inflammation in non-cancerous prostate tissue may have nearly twice the risk of actually having prostate cancer than those with no inflammation, according to results of a new study led by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

• share
• favorite_border

Wildfires across the western United States have been getting bigger and more frequent over the last 30 years – a trend that could continue as climate change causes temperatures to rise and drought to become more severe in the coming decades, according to new research.

• share
• favorite_border

New City of Hope study finds that a cancer-prone mutation of the gene RECQ4 causes its corresponding enzyme, RECQ4, to accumulate in the mitochondria. This can cause mitochondrial dysfunction, possibly explaining cancer's "Warburg effect" of preferring lactic acid fermentation over aerobic respiration to generate energy.

• share
• favorite_border

New research uncovers a conceptually novel approach to treating depression. Instead of dampening neuron firing found with stress-induced depression, researchers demonstrated for the first time that further activating these neurons opens a new avenue to mimic and promote natural resilience.

• share
• favorite_border

Mom always said you need your sleep, and it turns out, she was right. Lack of sleep in young fruit flies profoundly diminishes their ability to do one thing they do really, really well – make more flies.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered an unexpected phenomenon in the organs that produce sperm in fruit flies: When a certain kind of stem cell is killed off experimentally, another group of non-stem cells can come out of retirement to replace them.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team led by researchers at UC Davis has shown that the cyclin B1/Cdk1 protein complex, which plays a key role in cell division, also boosts the mitochondrial activity to power that process. This is the first time the complex has been shown to perform both jobs. This newfound ability could make cyclin B1/Cdk1 an excellent target to control cellular energy production, potentially advancing cancer care and regenerative medicine. The research was published online today in the journal Developmental Cell.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from Mount Sinai Demonstrate Proof of Concept for New, Rapidly-Acting Pharmacotherapy for Treatment of PTSD

• share
• favorite_border

A team of scientists led by Johns Hopkins and Stanford University researchers has laid the groundwork for understanding how variations in immune responses to Lyme disease can contribute to the many different outcomes of this bacterial infection seen in individual patients. A report on the work appears online April 16 in PLOS One.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have been awarded $2.1 million from the National Institutes of Health to study the therapeutic potential of safer and more effective alternatives to the current crop of anti-diabetic drugs.

• share
• favorite_border

Most autoimmune diseases disproportionately affect women, but scientists do not know why. Researchers say they’ve discovered a group of immune-regulating genes that increase activity in the presence of estrogen, which could help explain why women are better able to fight off infectious disease – and why they are more at risk for developing autoimmune diseases like lupus. The discovery also opens the door for new therapies that could help regulate estrogen’s impact on these hormone-sensitive genes.

• share
• favorite_border

Last winter’s curvy jet stream pattern brought mild temperatures to western North America and harsh cold to the East. A University of Utah-led study shows that pattern became more pronounced 4,000 years ago, and suggests it may worsen as Earth’s climate warms.

• share
• favorite_border

Boston, MA—The most “feminine” girls and “masculine” boys are more likely than their peers to engage in behaviors that pose cancer risks, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

PCNA is a protein essential to DNA repair and replication, and City of Hope researchers are targeting it in neuroblastoma cells in order to halt tumor growth and induce cell death.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Tufts University have uncovered a mechanism that may help explain the severe forms of schistosomiasis, or snail fever, which is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in the world. The study in mice, published online this week in The Journal of Immunology, may also offer targets for intervention and amelioration of the disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Fossil dinosaurs, animals and plants being found in southern Utah that are distinct from those found farther north in rocks of the same age are telling a new story about the end of the age of dinosaurs in Utah. That is the topic for “Dino Hunters” – a feature article in the current issue of National Geographic Magazine.

• share
• favorite_border

Study that looks at Vitamin D deficiency and cognition relationship in older adults adds to the existing literature on the subject.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have identified two unlikely partners, in a type of immune cell called a macrophage, that work together, in response to cancer drugs, to increase inflammation in a way that may alter tumor growth. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health published the study in the journal Cancer Research.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigators report they have designed a blood test that accurately detects the presence of advanced breast cancer and also holds promise for precisely monitoring response to cancer treatment.

• share
• favorite_border

City of Hope researchers found that a microRNA called miR-105 helps cancer metastasize by breaking down the building blocks of blood vessels' barriers, allowing the cancer cells to enter the bloodstream.

• share
• favorite_border

By tracking brain activity when an animal stops to look around its environment, neuroscientists can mark the birth of a memory.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers reveal novel cellular and molecular elements of muscle repair. The study explains how drugs can induce regeneration, while preventing fibrosis and fat deposition, in dystrophic muscle at early stages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

• share
• favorite_border

Fish living on coral reefs where carbon dioxide seeps from the ocean floor were less able to detect predator odor than fish from normal coral reefs, according to a new study.

• share
• favorite_border

In an effort to reduce cancer health disparities among Asian-Americans, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center now offers individual, in-language education and culturally sensitive materials for every Asian-American cancer patient.

• share
• favorite_border

Dr. Matthew Bush combines his Appalachian background and clinical expertise to understand and address delayed access to hearing health care for rural children.

• share
• favorite_border

In experiments with mice, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have identified an enzyme involved in the regulation of immune system T cells that could be a useful target in treating asthma and boosting the effects of certain cancer therapies.

• share
• favorite_border

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has identified a long-sought protein that facilitates one of the most basic functions of cells: regulating their volume to keep from swelling excessively.

• share
• favorite_border

Working with human neurons and fruit flies, researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified and then shut down a biological process that appears to trigger a particular form of Parkinson’s disease present in a large number of patients.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have developed a new understanding of the T-cell recognition process by describing how T-cell receptors use mechanical contact – the forces involved in their binding to antigens – to make decisions about whether or not the cells they encounter are threats.

• share
• favorite_border

In the April 15, 2014 issue of the online journal eLife, Stowers Institute for Medical Research Investigator Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado and colleagues report the identification of genes that worms use to rebuild an amputated pharynx.

• share
• favorite_border

ASU undergraduates have the opportunity to enroll in a challenging course this fall, designed to re-introduce the act of play as a problem-solving technique. The course is offered as part of the larger project, Cross-disciplinary Education in Social and Ethical Aspects of Nanotechnology funded by NSF.

• share
• favorite_border

Drugs used to block copper absorption for a rare genetic condition may find an additional use as a treatment for certain types of cancer, researchers at Duke Medicine report.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute Florida campus have been awarded a $472,500 Cutting Edge Basic Research Award by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study models of the brain development of newborns who have been exposed to prescription pain medication while still in the womb.

• share
• favorite_border

Research in mice and human cell lines has identified an experimental compound dubbed TTT-3002 as potentially one of the most potent drugs available to block genetic mutations in cancer cells blamed for some forms of treatment-resistant leukemia.

• share
• favorite_border

A novel compound, COH-SR4, synthesized at City of Hope can target and treat drug-resistant lung cancers.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins researchers say they have confirmed suspicions that DNA modifications found in the blood of mice exposed to high levels of stress hormone — and showing signs of anxiety — are directly related to changes found in their brain tissues.

• share
• favorite_border

Four young men who have been paralyzed for years achieved groundbreaking progress – moving their legs – as a result of epidural electrical stimulation of the spinal cord, life scientists at the University of Louisville, UCLA and the Pavlov Institute of Physiology reported today in the journal 'Brain.'

• share
• favorite_border

Four people with paraplegia are able to voluntarily move previously paralyzed muscles as a result of a novel therapy involving electrical stimulation of the spinal cord, according to a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center reviews research that suggests that the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease among older African Americans may be two to three times greater than in the non-Hispanic white population and that they differ from the non-Hispanic white population in risk factors and disease manifestation. The study results will be published in the April 7 issue of Health Affairs.

• share
• favorite_border

City of Hope researchers found that menopausal hormone therapy use is linked to a lower risk of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

• share
• favorite_border

From time to time, living cells will accidentally make an extra copy of a gene during the normal replication process. Throughout the history of life, evolution has molded some of these seemingly superfluous genes into a source of genetic novelty, adaptation and diversity. A new study shows one way that some duplicate genes could have long-ago escaped elimination from the genome, leading to the genetic innovation seen in modern life.

• share
• favorite_border

A Wayne State University professor recently received a nearly $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health to explore whether proteasome and parkin — two components of the ubiquitin-proteasome system — are potential pharmaceutical drug targets that can be manipulated to promote survival and recovery of dopaminergic terminals after binge and chronic administration of toxic doses of methamphetamine.