Health News

Crop Models To Help Us Feed 9 Billion People

Date: Jun-11-2013
An international team of scientists has developed crop models to better forecast food production to feed a growing population - projected to reach 9 billion by mid-century - in the face of climate change. In a paper appearing in Nature Climate Change, members of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project unveiled an all-encompassing modeling system that integrates multiple crop simulations with improved climate change models...

Potential Drug Target Identified For Treatment-Resistant Anemias

Date: Jun-11-2013
Researchers at Whitehead Institute have identified a protein that is the target of glucocorticoids, the drugs that are used to increase red blood cell production in patients with certain types of anemia, including those resulting from trauma, sepsis, malaria, kidney dialysis, and chemotherapy. The discovery could spur development of drugs capable of increasing this protein's production without causing the severe side effects associated with glucocorticoids...

Lisdexamfetamine Dimesylate Demonstrates Significantly Faster Response, Greater Reductions Of Core ADHD Symptoms Than Atomoxetine In Study

Date: Jun-11-2013
Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPG) presents scientific data comparing the efficacy and safety of the Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) treatments lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) and atomoxetine (ATX) at the 4th World Congress on ADHD, Milan, Italy. The study (SPD489-317) is the first head-to-head trial in children and adolescents with at least moderately symptomatic ADHD and an inadequate response to previous methylphenidate therapy...

FDA Approves Scalp-Cooling For Chemo Hair Loss Final Trial

Date: Jun-11-2013
Dignitana, a world leader in medical scalp-cooling technology, has announced that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) application and is now free to initiate a highly anticipated multi-center, pivotal trial of the patented DigniCap® System. The trial is the second and final phase of study in the United States and paves the way for FDA market approval of the scalp-cooling device, which is already widely used overseas...

VU Study Identifies New Mechanism For Cancer Development

Date: Jun-11-2013
Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center led by a 32-year-old postdoctoral fellow have discovered a new mechanism for the development of cancer that is challenging conventional scientific wisdom. Bhuminder Singh, Ph.D., is first author of a paper describing how "mistrafficking" of a ligand, a protein that binds to the EGF receptor, can "transform" epithelial cells into a particularly vicious tumor in mice...

Student Graduation Rates Positively Impacted By Transcendental Meditation

Date: Jun-11-2013
A new study published in the June 2013 issue of the journal Education (Vol. 133, No. 4)* shows practice of the Transcendental Meditation® technique was associated with higher graduation rates, compared to controls. Higher graduation rates affect not only the academic and personal life of the individual students, but also society as a whole. Graduation (versus dropping out) from high school translates into higher earning potential, less crime and incarceration, and less dependence on government assistance programs...

Discovery Reveals How An Important Protein Helps Translate Learning Into Memory

Date: Jun-11-2013
Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have deciphered how a protein called Arc regulates the activity of neurons - providing much-needed clues into the brain's ability to form long-lasting memories. These findings, reported in Nature Neuroscience, also offer newfound understanding as to what goes on at the molecular level when this process becomes disrupted. Led by Gladstone Senior Investigator Steve Finkbeiner, MD, PhD, this research delved deep into the inner workings of synapses. Synapses are the highly specialized junctions that process and transmit information between neurons...

Blood Vessels Within A Sensory Area Of The Mammalian Brain Loop Connect In Unexpected Ways

Date: Jun-11-2013
The study, published in the early online edition of Nature Neuroscience, describes vascular architecture within a well-known region of the cerebral cortex and explores what that structure means for functional imaging of the brain and the onset of a kind of dementia. David Kleinfeld, professor of physics and neurobiology at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues mapped blood vessels in an area of the mouse brain that receives sensory signals from the whiskers...

Blood Pressure At Night Is Higher Than Previously Thought

Date: Jun-11-2013
Scientists at UCL have developed new technology which reveals that blood pressure measured close to the heart is much higher during sleep than previously thought. Night time blood pressure is a strong predictor of both heart disease and stroke, with previous studies establishing that blood pressure measured over the arm falls at night during sleep. However these new data indicate that the night-time decline in blood pressure may be less extensive than previously thought...

New Insight Into Fighting Bird Flu Offered By The Duck Genome

Date: Jun-11-2013
The duck genome consortium, consisting of scientists from China Agricultural University, BGI, University of Edinburgh and other institutes has completed the genome sequencing and analysis of the duck (Anas platyrhynchos), one principal natural host of influenza A viruses, which caused a new epidemic in China in February. This work reveals some noteworthy conclusions and provides an invaluable resource for unraveling the interactive mechanisms between the host and influenza viruses. The new H7N9 bird flu strain killed 36 people and caused $6.5 billion loss to China's economy...