The ebb and flow of such autoimmune diseases as multiple sclerosis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis has long been a perplexing mystery to scientists. But new findings from the Stanford University School of Medicine bring scientists closer to solving the puzzle, identifying a molecule that appears to play a central role in these relapses.
One study, to be published in the December issue of Pediatrics, is the first to confirm that pro-eating disorder Web sites may promote dangerous behaviors in adolescents with eating disorders.
A team of Vanderbilt and University of Dundee scientists envisions a future when computer simulations will be used to predict a tumor’s clinical progression and formulate individualized treatment plans. The group has developed a mathematical model for cancer invasion powerful enough for this purpose. The result was published as an entirely theoretical paper in the journal Cell and represents a “sea change” in how biology is done.
Brain cells derived from human embryonic stem cells improved the condition of rats with Parkinson’s-like symptoms dramatically, but the treatment caused a significant problem — the appearance of brain tumors — that scientists are now working to solve. The study is featured on the cover of the November issue of Nature Medicine.
An international team of scientists is calling for a targeted global conservation effort to preserve seagrasses and their ecological services for the world’s coastal ecosystems, according to an article published in the December issue of Bioscience. The article “A Global Crisis for Seagrass Ecosystems” cites the critical role seagrasses play in coastal systems and how costal development, population growth and the resulting increase of nutrient and sediment pollution have contributed to large-scale losses worldwide.
Women who undertake a long-term weight training program produce more biologically active growth hormone, a finding that allows physiologists to understand why weight training improves muscle tone and optimizes metabolic function. The study found that growth hormone was responsive to moderate and heavy exercise regimens having 3-12 repetitions with varying weight loading, suggesting women need to have heavy loading cycle or workout in their resistance training routines, as it helps to build muscle and bone.
New research shows the rate of increase in carbon dioxide emissions more than doubled since the 1990s.
Running and jumping during childhood is more than child’s play, it provides lifelong benefits for future bone health and appears to reduce the risk of fractures later in life according to a Journal of Bone and Mineral Research study by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) researchers.
Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have visualized in a living animal how cells use a critical biological process to dice and splice genetic material to create unique and varied proteins.
Private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans were paid an average 12.4% more per enrollee in 2005 compared with what the same enrollees would have cost in the traditional Medicare fee-for-service program, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund.