Health News

Mismatch Between Sun Exposure In Modern Life And Skin Pigmentation

Date: Feb-19-2013
As people move more often and become more urbanized, skin color -- an adaptation that took hundreds of thousands of years to develop in humans -- may lose some of its evolutionary advantage, according to a Penn State anthropologist. About 2 million years ago, permanent dark skin color imparted by the pigment -- melanin -- began to evolve in humans to regulate the body's reaction to ultraviolet rays from the sun, said Nina Jablonski, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology. Melanin helped humans maintain the delicate balance between too much sunlight and not enough sunlight...

A New Way Of Looking At Drug Discovery

Date: Feb-19-2013
Garret FitzGerald, MD, FRS, chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has long said the current drug-development system in the United States is in need of change, "representing an unsustainable model...

Adhesive Protein Inspired By Mussels Harnessed For Biomedical Applications

Date: Feb-19-2013
When it comes to sticking power under wet conditions, marine mussels are hard to beat. They can adhere to virtually all inorganic and organic surfaces, sustaining their tenacious bonds in saltwater, including turbulent tidal environments. Northwestern University's Phillip B. Messersmith discussed his research in a talk titled "Mussel-Inspired Materials for Surgical Repair and Drug Delivery" at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Boston...

Associations Explored Between Air Pollution And Health Outcomes

Date: Feb-19-2013
Lance Waller, PhD, chair of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health, presented preliminary work that explores relationships between high-levels of air pollution exposure and health effects at a press briefing hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. During the briefing, Waller summarized his joint work with the Southeastern Center for Air Pollution Epidemiology (SCAPE), funded by the Environmental Protection Agency...

Caffeine During Pregnancy Associated With Low Birth Weight Babies

Date: Feb-19-2013
Caffeine consumption during pregnancy is linked to low birth weight babies as well as an overall increase in the length of gestation, reveals new research published in the journal BMC Medicine.  While an embryo/fetus is still developing, maternal nutrition is very important, especially considering that some of the products that adults consume can be very detrimental to their health while in the womb and later on in life. Caffeine is able to freely pass the placental barrier in the same way that nutrients or oxygen can...

Long-Term Follow-Up Essential For Players Who Have Suffered Concussions

Date: Feb-19-2013
As the National Football League braces for lawsuits by 4000 former players alleging the league failed to protect them from the long-term consequences of concussions, game-changing research by a leading Canadian researcher shows damage to the brain can persist for decades after the original head trauma. "Even when you are symptom-free, your brain may still not be back to normal," says Dr. Maryse Lassonde, a neuropsychologist and the scientific director of the Quebec Nature and Technologies Granting Agency...

Single Molecule Sieves Developed To Separate Complex Molecular Mixtures

Date: Feb-19-2013
Chemists at the University of Liverpool have created a new technique that could be used in industry to separate complex organic chemical mixtures. Chemical feedstocks containing benzene are used extensively in industry to create modern materials and polymers. Their use relies heavily on distillation techniques which separate complex mixtures into more simple molecules used as building blocks to develop drugs, plastics and new materials. These distillation techniques can be expensive and involve large amounts of energy for hard-to-separate mixtures...

Nano-Machines For 'Bionic Proteins'

Date: Feb-19-2013
Physicists of the University of Vienna together with researchers from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna developed nano-machines which recreate principal activities of proteins. They present the first versatile and modular example of a fully artificial protein-mimetic model system, thanks to the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC), a high performance computing infrastructure. These "bionic proteins" could play an important role in innovating pharmaceutical research. The results have now been published in the renowned journal Physical Review Letters...

Taking A New Look At An Urban Area's Access To Healthier Foods

Date: Feb-19-2013
University of Cincinnati-led research takes a new direction in examining the availability of healthy foods for urban populations by examining the commuting patterns of its residents. This new approach to identifying so-called food deserts, now published online, will appear in the May journal of Health and Place. Neighborhoods without access to stores that provide healthy food options - such as fresh fruits and vegetables - are often labeled as food deserts...

Current Model For Breast Cancer Risk Prediction In African American Women Underestimates Risk

Date: Feb-19-2013
A breast cancer risk prediction model developed for African Americans tends to underestimate risk in certain subgroups, according to a new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University. The model predicted estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer, which is a more aggressive form of breast cancer that disproportionately affects African American women, more poorly than ER-positive breast cancer...