A set of guidelines have been developed that can help predict the risk of bacterial meningitis for children with cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis (presence of greater number of white blood cells than normal), reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and antibiotics, according to a study in the January 3 issue of JAMA.
In the January 1 issue of G&D, Dr. Gerardo Ferbeyre and colleagues at the University of Montreal report that the DNA damage response pathway is a necessary mediator of oncogene-induced senescence.
A new method of assisting couples to bear children known as “in vitro maturation” (IVM) has been introduced by Dr. S. Lindenberg, Fertility Unit, Herlev University, Copenhagen. An alternative to the standard approach is to collect immature oocytes from medium sized follicles during midcycle and to then mature the ova in the laboratory (IVM).
Two novel treatments — a basic compound found in every cell in the body and an extract of green tea — may prevent brain damage caused from stroke, according to two studies in rats led by a researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
Stem cells grew, multiplied and differentiated into brain cells on a new three-dimensional scaffold of tiny protein fragments designed to be more like a living body than any other cell culture system.
By incorporating the idea of a feedback resistor into the HIV Tat transcriptional circuit, and by using real-time imaging experiments, this study provides insight into how HIV enters periods of latency.
Massive quantities of data will soon begin flowing from the largest scientific instrument ever built into an international network of computer centers, including one operated jointly by the University of Chicago and Indiana University. The first phase of the Chicago-Indiana center, formally known as the MidWest Tier 2 Center, is now up and running, crunching test data in preparation for the real thing.
UC Berkeley scientists Jill Banfield and Brett Baker have found some of the smallest organisms known in a sample of slime from a California mine. Their discovery proves the value of a technique called “shotgun” sequencing to identify all organisms in a microbial community, particularly those too small to see in a microscope, those very low in abundance, or those too novel to be picked up by PCR.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have pinpointed a key regulatory protein that translates blood flow into gene expression. The investigators showed that in a model of mouse embryonic development a transcription factor called Klf2, which resides in cells that line blood vessels, is activated by rapid, pulsed blood flow. Understanding Klf2’s role in blood vessel and muscle biology could help with fighting atherosclerosis.
The population of breast cancer cells that gives rise to a tumor may be relatively resistant to radiotherapy and may even increase when given multiple treatments of radiation, a new study shows.