Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found the mechanism by which the B vitamin folate — a crucially important nutrient — is absorbed by the intestinal tract. Their findings solve a longstanding mystery as to how folates in the diet are absorbed and pave the way for a genetic test that can save the lives of infants who lack the ability to absorb folate.
The 2006 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting will feature hundreds of new studies on brain and behavior from the world’s leading scientists. Presentations include innovative research on potential new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, autism, nicotine addiction and treatment resistant depression.
A federal plan to vaccinate hospital healthcare workers against a threat of smallpox fell short on several levels, according to the first metric analysis of the prophylactic health program. Results of the Temple University study raise troubling questions about future preparedness against possible outbreaks of avian flu or SARS.
Many people don’t fully understand the seemingly simple label instructions on their prescription medication, according to a Northwestern University study of low-income patients. Nearly half of the patients in the study misinterpreted at least one or more out of the five prescription labels they were shown. Patients with low literacy made the most mistakes, but even people with a high-school education and higher had problems. The reason is awkward wording, according to the researcher.
Thanks to a University of Houston scientist and his team’s research, the chemical element germanium is enjoying a rebound in popularity. Led by Arnold Guloy, a UH chemistry professor, and a team of researchers from UH and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, Germany, the findings are described in a paper titled “A Guest-free Germanium Clathrate” published in Nature magazine.
Georgia Tech and Emory University researchers have developed an innovative new technology that will help pediatric cardiac surgeons design and test a customized surgical procedure before they ever pick up a scalpel.
A new ultrasound technique allows radiologists to accurately distinguish benign from malignant breast lesions. Using elasticity imaging, researchers correctly identified both cancerous and harmless lesions in nearly all of the cases studied. The findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Cancer researchers have found that a gene that is involved in regulating aging also blocks prostate cancer cell growth. They have shown that the enzyme SIRT1 can block the growth of treatment-resistant prostate cancer cells that overexpress a mutation for the androgen receptor. The scientists hope the newly found connection will aid in better understanding the development of prostate cancer and lead to new drugs against the disease.
People who experience their first-ever bout of depression after having a heart attack are at greater risk for future heart problems than are patients who either don?t become clinically depressed after the medical emergency or who were depressed even before the incident, new research shows.
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) announced the results of the recent competition for support of its three large-scale sequencing centers, strengthening efforts to use the power of DNA sequencing to unlock the genomic secrets of human diseases.