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Study Finds Missing Piece of Pediatric Cancer Puzzle
Eczema may play key role in development of food allergy in infants
Measuring the speed of neuronal signal conduction along segments of single axons
It's not just the heat – it's the ozone: Study highlights hidden dangers
Protein bath helps stimulate old marrow to form bone, study finds
Recycling in the eye promotes good vision
Childhood abuse raises drug users’ suicide risk
Irish Potato Famine-Causing Pathogen Even More Virulent Now
Proteomics can improve breast cancer treatment

Study Finds Missing Piece of Pediatric Cancer Puzzle

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 12:08 PM PDT

Most of the time, it takes decades of accumulating genetic errors for a tumor to develop. While this explains the general occurrence of cancer in adults, it leaves a gap in understanding of the cause of pediatric tumors.

Eczema may play key role in development of food allergy in infants

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 09:54 AM PDT

A breakdown of the skin barrier and inflammation in the skin that occurs in eczema could play a key role in triggering food sensitivity in babies, a new study reveals. Scientists say this finding indicates that food allergies may develop via immune cells in the skin rather than the gut, highlighting eczema as a potential target for preventing food allergy in children.

Measuring the speed of neuronal signal conduction along segments of single axons

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 09:36 AM PDT

Researchers of the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering of ETH Zurich were able to measure the speed of neuronal signal conduction along segments of single axons in neuronal cultures by using a high-resolution electrical method. The bioengineers are now searching for plausible explanations for the large conduction speed variations.

It's not just the heat – it's the ozone: Study highlights hidden dangers

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 09:26 AM PDT

During heat waves – when ozone production rises – plants' ozone absorption is curtailed, leaving more pollution in the air, and costing an estimated 460 lives in the UK in the hot summer of 2006.

Vegetation plays a crucial role in reducing air pollution, but new research by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at the University of York shows that they may not protect us when we need it most: during extreme heat, when ozone formation from traffic fumes, industrial processes and other sources is at its worst.

Protein bath helps stimulate old marrow to form bone, study finds

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 09:20 AM PDT

Bone fractures in the elderly are notoriously slow and difficult to heal. Now, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a simple way to increase the effectiveness of a surgical process called bone grafting that may significantly speed the growth of new, healthy bone in response to trauma.

Recycling in the eye promotes good vision

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 09:13 AM PDT

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis have found that good vision depends, at least in part, on a recycling process in the eye that mops up cellular debris and reuses light-sensitive proteins.

Childhood abuse raises drug users’ suicide risk

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 08:58 AM PDT

A new five-year study that tracked more than 1,600 drug users found that severe abuse in their childhood – emotional, sexual, and to a lesser extent physical – significantly elevated their risk of attempting suicide. Screening for such abuse and offering treatment may help public officials and care providers reduce suicides.

Irish Potato Famine-Causing Pathogen Even More Virulent Now

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 08:48 AM PDT

The plant pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s lives on today with a different genetic blueprint and an even larger arsenal of weaponry to harm and kill plants.

Proteomics can improve breast cancer treatment

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 08:41 AM PDT

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified a protein that could help physicians decide what type of therapy patients with hormone driven breast cancer should go through. In a study, published in Nature Communications, they show that high levels of a protein called retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARA) in breast tumors can be linked to an insufficient response to the cancer drug tamoxifen. The findings are based on a novel proteomics technique, developed at the Science for Life Laboratory.