Health News

CMS Delayed Final Rule On Payments To Physicians Released

Date: Feb-04-2013
The CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) announced a long-awaited rule which will raise public awareness of the financial relationships between medical device and pharmaceutical companies and doctors and teaching hospitals. Peter Budetti, MD, CMS deputy administrator for program integrity said that patients have the right to know whether their doctor has a financial relationship with the makers of medical devices or medications they may need. "Disclosure of these relationships allows patients to have more informed discussions with their doctors...

Joslin Scientists Find First Human IPSC From Patients With Maturity Onset Diabetes Of The Young

Date: Feb-04-2013
Joslin scientists report the first generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with an uncommon form of diabetes, maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY). These cells offer a powerful resource for studying the role of genetic factors in the development of MODY and testing potential treatments. The findings appear in the Journal of Biological Chemistry...

Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeons Show Age-Related Patterns Of Spine Injury In ATV Injuries

Date: Feb-04-2013
Children continue to account for a disproportionate percentage of morbidity and mortality from ATV-related accidents - up 240 percent since 1997, according to a Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics report published by pediatric orthopaedic surgeons at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. The surgeons - who studied data from the Kids' Inpatient Database - found spine-related injuries from all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in the United States are more common in older children and in females, unlike males in most trauma studies...

Working Alone Won't Get You Good Grades

Date: Feb-04-2013
Students who work together and interact online are more likely to be successful in their college classes, according to a study published Jan. 30 in the journal Nature Scientific Reports and co-authored by Manuel Cebrian, a computer scientist at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego. Cebrian and colleagues analyzed 80,000 interactions between 290 students in a collaborative learning environment for college courses. The major finding was that a higher number of online interactions was usually an indicator of a higher score in the class...

Sequencing Hundreds Of Chloroplast Genomes Now Possible

Date: Feb-04-2013
Researchers at the University of Florida and Oberlin College have developed a sequencing method that will allow potentially hundreds of plant chloroplast genomes to be sequenced at once, facilitating studies of molecular biology and evolution in plants. The chloroplast is the compartment within the plant cell that is responsible for photosynthesis and hence provides all of the sugar that a plant needs to grow and survive. The chloroplast is unusual in containing its own DNA genome, separate from the larger and dominant genome that is located in every cell's nucleus...

Examining The So-Called Basque Mutation Of Parkinson's

Date: Feb-04-2013
The relationship between genetics and Parkinson's has been investigated for more than a decade, but it is only over the last few years that significant results have begun to be obtained. The first mutations related to the development of this disease were found in 2004. A team from the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country came across a mutation of the LRRK2 gene, which is particularly prevalent among the population of Gipuzkoa. It is the R1441G mutation and is known as the Basque mutation...

Genome-Wide Atlas Of Gene Enhancers In The Brain On-Line

Date: Feb-04-2013
Future research into the underlying causes of neurological disorders such as autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia, should greatly benefit from a first-of-its-kind atlas of gene-enhancers in the cerebrum (telencephalon). This new atlas, developed by a team led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is a publicly accessible Web-based collection of data that identifies and locates thousands of gene-regulating elements in a region of the brain that is of critical importance for cognition, motor functions and emotion...

Safe Sex Practices Among African American Women

Date: Feb-04-2013
Researchers have found that African American women exhibit a higher risk for sexually transmitted infections including HIV/Aids. But what motivates this group of women to have sex? And when are they more likely to use protection? A new study published today in Health Education & Behavior (a SAGE journal) found that regardless of motivations for having sex, condom use expectations were less than 50% for all types of sexual encounters, including the riskiest types of sex. Researchers Julianna Deardorff et. al used a combination of interviews and focus groups to conduct the study...

There Is No Refuge From Rogues That Prey On The Elderly, Even In Our DNA

Date: Feb-04-2013
Transposable elements are mobile strands of DNA that insert themselves into chromosomes with mostly harmful consequences. Cells try to keep them locked down, but in a new study, Brown University researchers report that aging cells lose their ability to maintain this control. The result may be a further decline in the health of senescent cells and of the aging bodies they compose. Even in our DNA there is no refuge from rogues that prey on the elderly. Parasitic strands of genetic material called transposable elements - transposons - lurk in our chromosomes, poised to wreak genomic havoc...

Nanomaterials Key To Developing Stronger Artificial Hearts

Date: Feb-04-2013
On January 30, 2013 ACS Nano published a study by Ali Khademhosseini, PhD, MASc, a researcher in the division of biomedical engineering at Brigham and Women's Hospital, detailing the creation of innovative cardiac patches that utilize nanotechnology to enhance the conductivity of materials to induce cardiac tissue formation. Creation of these ultra-thin cardiac patches put medicine a step closer to durable, high-functioning artificial tissues that could be used to repair damaged hearts and other organs...