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• Higher risk of autism among certain immigrant groups
• Parkinson’s Disease patients can become more creative when they take dopamine
• Spectacularly bright object in Andromeda caused by 'normal' black hole
• Cancer Research Shows Promise of New Drugs
• Phobia's effect on perception of feared object allows fear to persist
• Celiac disease is linked to osteoporosis
• New Melanoma Drug Nearly Doubles Survival in Majority of Patients
• Girls’ Verbal Skills Make Them Better At Arithmetic
• Scripps Research Scientists Create Potent Molecules Aimed at Treating Muscular Dystrophy
• Penn Researchers Build First Physical “Metatronic” Circuit
• Calcium score can signal heart disease
• UCLA engineers create cell phone-based sensor for detection of E. coli
• Mothers who are treated for malaria may pass on lower levels of natural immunity to their young, animal studies show
• Surprising diversity at a synapse hints at complex diversity of neural circuitry
• Big, bad Neisseria bacterium is an "iron pirate"
• Yosemite’s alpine chipmunks take genetic hit from climate change
• Researchers Find Brain Structure and Presurgical Cognitive Ability in Elderly May Help Identify Potential Surgical Risks and Treatments
• Anticipation of Stressful Situations Accelerates Cellular Aging
• Researchers Reveal How Cancer Cells Change Once They Spread to Distant Organs
• A New Link between Traumatic Brain Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Higher risk of autism among certain immigrant groups Posted: 23 Feb 2012 07:02 AM PST A major register study from Karolinska Institutet shows that children born to certain groups of immigrants had an increased risk of developing autism with intellectual disability. The study includes all children in Stockholm County from 2001 to 2007, and brings the question of the heredity of autism to the fore. read more

Parkinson’s Disease patients can become more creative when they take dopamine Posted: 23 Feb 2012 06:56 AM PST Some Parkinson’s Disease patients can suddenly become creative when they take dopamine therapy, producing pictures, sculptures, novels and poetry. But their new-found interests can become so overwhelming that they ignore other aspects of their everyday life, such as daily chores and social activities, according to research published in the March issue of the European Journal of Neurology.  read more

Spectacularly bright object in Andromeda caused by 'normal' black hole Posted: 23 Feb 2012 06:44 AM PST A spectacularly bright object recently spotted in one of the Milky Way's neighbouring galaxies is the result of a "normal" stellar black hole, astronomers have found. An international team of scientists, led by Dr Matt Middleton, of Durham University, analysed the Ultraluminous X-ray Source (ULX), which was originally discovered in the Andromeda galaxy by NASA's Chandra x-ray observatory. They publish their results in the journals Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and Astronomy and Astrophysics. read more

Cancer Research Shows Promise of New Drugs Posted: 23 Feb 2012 05:29 AM PST Uncovering the network of genes regulated by a crucial molecule involved in cancer called mTOR, which controls protein production inside cells, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered how a protein “master regulator” goes awry, leading to metastasis, the fatal step of cancer. Their work also pinpoints why past drugs that target mTOR have failed in clinical trials, and suggests that a new class of drugs now in trials may be more effective for the lethal form of prostate cancer for which presently there is no cure. read more

Phobia's effect on perception of feared object allows fear to persist Posted: 22 Feb 2012 07:17 PM PST The more afraid a person is of a spider, the bigger that individual perceives the spider to be, new research suggests. In the context of a fear of spiders, this warped perception doesn’t necessarily interfere with daily living. But for individuals who are afraid of needles, for example, the conviction that needles are larger than they really are could lead people who fear injections to avoid getting the health care they need. read more

Celiac disease is linked to osteoporosis Posted: 22 Feb 2012 07:07 PM PST People with celiac disease are at risk for osteoporosis, according to physicians at Loyola University Health System (LUHS). A 2009 New England Journal of Medicine study supports this correlation. Researchers believe that people with celiac disease may develop osteoporosis because their body poorly absorbs calcium and vitamin D, which are necessary for bone health. read more

New Melanoma Drug Nearly Doubles Survival in Majority of Patients Posted: 22 Feb 2012 07:00 PM PST Investigators from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) and 12 other centers in the United States and Australia have found that a new drug for patients with metastatic melanoma nearly doubled median overall survival. More than half of patients who were treated with the novel drug vemurafenib, known commercially as Zelboraf, responded to treatment and experienced an impressive median overall survival of nearly 16 months – far longer than the typical survival of just six to 10 months for most patients whose melanoma has spread beyond the initial tumor site. read more

Girls’ Verbal Skills Make Them Better At Arithmetic Posted: 22 Feb 2012 02:04 PM PST While boys generally do better than girls in science and math, some studies have found that girls do better in arithmetic. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that the advantage comes from girls’ superior verbal skills. read more

Scripps Research Scientists Create Potent Molecules Aimed at Treating Muscular Dystrophy Posted: 22 Feb 2012 01:57 PM PST While RNA is an appealing drug target, small molecules that can actually affect its function have rarely been found. But now scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have for the first time designed a series of small molecules that act against an RNA defect directly responsible for the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy. read more

Penn Researchers Build First Physical “Metatronic” Circuit Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:32 AM PST The technological world of the 21st century owes a tremendous amount to advances in electrical engineering, specifically, the ability to finely control the flow of electrical charges using increasingly small and complicated circuits. And while those electrical advances continue to race ahead, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are pushing circuitry forward in a different way, by replacing electricity with light. read more

Calcium score can signal heart disease Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:24 AM PST Do you know your calcium score? If not, you should, according to Dr. Sheldon Litwin, a cardiologist at Georgia Health Sciences University, because your score is a powerful heart disease indicator. read more

UCLA engineers create cell phone-based sensor for detection of E. coli Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:20 AM PST Researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a new cell phone–based fluorescent imaging and sensing platform that can detect the presence of the bacterium Escherichia coli in food and water. The engineers combined antibody functionalized glass capillaries with quantum dots (semiconductors often used for medical imaging) as signal reporters to specifically detect E. coli particles in liquid samples using a lightweight, compact attachment to an existing cell-phone camera. read more

Mothers who are treated for malaria may pass on lower levels of natural immunity to their young, animal studies show Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:14 AM PST Scientists investigated the impact of anti-malarial drugs on the levels of antibodies passed from female mice to their offspring. This helps protect the young from disease in the first months of life. Female mice which had been treated with drugs for a malaria infection before becoming pregnant passed on fewer anti-malarial antibodies to their young. These are transferred in the womb and via the mother’s milk. read more

Surprising diversity at a synapse hints at complex diversity of neural circuitry Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:08 AM PST A new study reveals a dazzling degree of biological diversity in an unexpected place — a single neural connection in the body wall of flies. The finding, reported in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, raises several interesting questions about the importance of structure in the nervous system and the evolution of neural wiring. read more

Big, bad Neisseria bacterium is an "iron pirate" Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:47 AM PST Life inside the human body sometimes looks like life on the high seas in the 1600s, when pirates hijacked foreign vessels in search of precious metals. For Neisseria bacteria, which can cause gonorrhea and meningitis, the booty is not gold or silver but plain old iron. read more

Yosemite’s alpine chipmunks take genetic hit from climate change Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:43 AM PST Global warming has forced alpine chipmunks in Yosemite to higher ground, prompting a startling decline in the species’ genetic diversity, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.   read more

Researchers Find Brain Structure and Presurgical Cognitive Ability in Elderly May Help Identify Potential Surgical Risks and Treatments Posted: 22 Feb 2012 09:38 AM PST Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center found that normal elderly patients as well as those identified with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) prior to non-cardiac surgery experienced greater amounts of brain atrophy than expected from normal aging in the three-month period following their surgery. The study appears in the March issue Anesthesiology and offers an objective measure for developing new treatments and identifying patients susceptible to post operative cognitive decline (POCD). read more

Anticipation of Stressful Situations Accelerates Cellular Aging Posted: 22 Feb 2012 09:31 AM PST The ability to anticipate future events allows us to plan and exert control over our lives, but it may also contribute to stress-related increased risk for the diseases of aging, according to a study by UCSF researchers. read more

Researchers Reveal How Cancer Cells Change Once They Spread to Distant Organs Posted: 22 Feb 2012 09:22 AM PST Oncologists have known that in order for cancer cells to spread, they must transform themselves so they can detach from a tumor and spread to a distant organ. Now, scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College have revealed critical steps in what happens next — how these cells reverse the process, morphing back into classical cancer that can now grow into a new tumor. read more

A New Link between Traumatic Brain Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Posted: 22 Feb 2012 09:16 AM PST Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are cardinal injuries associated with combat stress, and TBI increases the risk of PTSD development. The reasons for this correlation have been unknown, in part because physical traumas often occur in highly emotional situations. However, scientists at University of California at Los Angeles provide new evidence from an animal model of a mechanistic link underlying the association between TBI and PTSD-like conditions. read more

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