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New genetic links for inflammatory bowel disease uncovered
Meth Vaccine Shows Promising Results in Early Tests
Mining physicians’ notes for medical insights
Predicting what topics will trend on Twitter
Global genome effort seeks genetic roots of disease
New Method Measures Movements of Tiny Devices-At Every Step
Testosterone regulates solo song of tropical birds
Goals are essential
New hope for survivors of stroke and traumatic brain injury
Discovery could lead to better treatment of skin cancers
Biofuel breakthrough: Quick cook method turns algae into oil
Barrier to hospice increases hospitalization

New genetic links for inflammatory bowel disease uncovered

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 07:02 AM PDT

Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) – inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract – have puzzled the scientific community for decades. Ten years ago, researchers recognized that both genes and the environment contributed to these diseases but knew little about precisely how and why illness occurred. To begin to narrow in on the key pathways involved, they would need thousands of patients’ samples, millions of data points, and the commitment of physicians and scientists at dozens of institutions.

Meth Vaccine Shows Promising Results in Early Tests

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 06:58 AM PDT

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have performed successful tests of an experimental methamphetamine vaccine on rats. Vaccinated animals that received the drug were largely protected from typical signs of meth intoxication. If the vaccine proves effective in humans too, it could become the first specific treatment for meth addiction, which is estimated to affect 25 million people worldwide.

Mining physicians’ notes for medical insights

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 06:53 AM PDT

In the last 10 years, it’s become far more common for physicians to keep records electronically. Those records could contain a wealth of medically useful data: hidden correlations between symptoms, treatments and outcomes, for instance, or indications that patients are promising candidates for trials of new drugs.

Predicting what topics will trend on Twitter

Posted: 01 Nov 2012 06:50 AM PDT

Twitter’s home page features a regularly updated list of topics that are “trending,” meaning that tweets about them have suddenly exploded in volume. A position on the list is highly coveted as a source of free publicity, but the selection of topics is automatic, based on a proprietary algorithm that factors in both the number of tweets and recent increases in that number.

Global genome effort seeks genetic roots of disease

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 01:27 PM PDT

By decoding the genomes of more than 1,000 people whose homelands stretch from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Americas, scientists have compiled the largest and most detailed catalog yet of human genetic variation. The massive resource will help medical researchers find the genetic roots of rare and common diseases in populations worldwide.

New Method Measures Movements of Tiny Devices-At Every Step

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 12:34 PM PDT

Makers of minuscule moving machines—the kind being eyed for nanomanufacturing and assembly as well as other uses—do you know where your micro- and nanorobots really are?

Testosterone regulates solo song of tropical birds

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 10:29 AM PDT

In male songbirds of the temperate zone, the concentration of sex hormones is rising in spring, which leads to an increase in song activity during the breeding season. In the tropics, there has been little evidence so far about such a clear relationship between hormonal action and behaviour, which is partly due to a lower degree of seasonal changes of the environment. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen have now discovered that in duetting African white-browed sparrow weavers, the solo song of dominant males is linked to elevated levels of testosterone.

Goals are essential

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 10:13 AM PDT

In many areas of our everyday lives, goals are the norm. That not all of them are effective, however, is something which anyone who has seen their New Year resolutions crumbling with each passing month can confirm. "From the literature on motivation and goals we know that goals should be specific, measurable, accepted, realistic and limited in terms of time," says economist Sebastian Goerg from the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn, commenting on the key to success.

New hope for survivors of stroke and traumatic brain injury

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 08:35 AM PDT

A new ground-breaking study about to be published in the Adis journal CNS Drugs provides clinical evidence that, for the first time, chronic neurological dysfunction from stroke or traumatic brain injury can rapidly improve following a single dose of a drug that targets brain inflammation, even years after the stroke or traumatic event.

Discovery could lead to better treatment of skin cancers

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 08:30 AM PDT

Blocking the action of a particular protein in our skin could improve the treatment of skin cancers, according to a study published in Oncogene yesterday by Philippe Roux, a researcher at the University of Montreal's Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC). “Our findings reveal part of the mechanisms responsible for the resistance of melanoma to anti-cancer treatments, and suggest that a particular protein in our bodies called RSK may be targeted in combination therapies to overcome drug resistance,” Roux explained.

Biofuel breakthrough: Quick cook method turns algae into oil

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 08:25 AM PDT

It looks like Mother Nature was wasting her time with a multimillion-year process to produce crude oil. Michigan Engineering researchers can "pressure-cook" algae for as little as a minute and transform an unprecedented 65 percent of the green slime into biocrude.

"We're trying to mimic the process in nature that forms crude oil with marine organisms," said Phil Savage, an Arthur F. Thurnau professor and a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan.

Barrier to hospice increases hospitalization

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 08:16 AM PDT

Because of a Medicare policy that prevents simultaneous reimbursement for skilled nursing and hospice care, many families cannot choose hospice for loved ones who reside in nursing homes. The result, new research shows, is that residents with advanced dementia who have Medicare skilled nursing home care without any hospice care have a far greater likelihood of dying in the hospital and receiving aggressive treatments such as feeding tubes or physical therapy within weeks of death.