Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Research News: Study: 15 minutes helps diabetics' health

The News:
Study: 15 minutes helps diabetics' health
By Katy Human The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 01/29/2008 12:29:10 AM MST
Fifteen minutes — that's all it took to get overweight adults with diabetes to exercise more and begin to lose weight, a new study reports.... Type II diabetes is on the rise because of increasing obesity in the United States, according to the American Diabetes Association, which estimated that spending on diabetes treatment last year reached $116 billion. Jim Christian, director of the Pueblo Community Health Center and colleagues at the University of Colorado at Denver School of Medicine and Denver Health enrolled about 300 overweight adults with diabetes in a test program funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Research News: Scientists put together a bacterium's gene blocks

The News:
Scientists put together a bacterium's gene blocks
By The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 01/25/2008 12:58:37 AM MST
WASHINGTON — It's another step in the quest to create artificial organisms: Scientists have synthesized the complete DNA of a type of bacterium. The experiment, published online Thursday by the journal Science, isn't a living germ, just a genetic structure. But scientists from Maryland's J. Craig Venter Institute called it the largest man-made stretch of DNA to date, and therefore a logical step in the fledgling field of "synthetic biology" that aims to build new organisms.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Research News: Transplant gain could end need for drugs

The News:
Transplant gain could end need for drugs
By Alicia ChangThe Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 01/24/2008 12:41:48 AM MST
LOS ANGELES — In what's being called a major advance in organ transplants, doctors say they have developed a technique that could free many patients from having to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives. The treatment involves weakening the patient's immune system, then giving the recipient bone marrow from the person who donated the organ. In one experiment, four of five kidney recipients were off immune-suppressing medicines up to five years later.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Research News: Stomach surgery delivers biggest blow to diabetes

The News:
Stomach surgery delivers biggest blow to diabetes
Patients who got gastric reductions were five times as likely to see the illness gone in two years.
By Carla K. Johnson The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 01/22/2008 11:21:06 PM MST
CHICAGO — A new study gives the strongest evidence yet that obesity surgery can cure type 2 diabetes. Patients who had surgery to reduce the size of their stomachs were five times as likely to see their diabetes disappear over the next two years as were patients who had standard diabetes care, according to Australian researchers.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Read an editorial about this story in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Research News: Some breast procedures boost infection risk

The News:
Some breast procedures boost infection risk
A new study finds that cancer patients who had reconstructive surgery using implants were more likely to get infections.
By Natasha Singer The New York Times
Article Last Updated: 01/22/2008 01:06:23 AM MST
Breast cancer patients who had reconstructive surgery using implants immediately after mastectomies were twice as likely to acquire infections as women who immediately had breast reconstruction using their own tissue, according to a study published Monday.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in Archives of Surgery.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Research news: Are River Restoration Efforts Misguided?

The News:
Study: Are River Restoration Efforts Misguided?
by John Nielsen
All Things Considered, January 19, 2008 · Billions of dollars have been spent in the United States on river restoration projects.
In many cases, the goal of these projects is a so-called "natural" river that curves broadly back and forth across a landscape.
But if a new paper in the journal Science is correct, there's not much that's natural about some of the curving rivers used as models for this restoration work. more...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Research news: Embryonic clones of humans

The News:
Embryonic clones of humans
Reported breakthrough could reignite debate over stem-cell research
By Rick Weiss The Washington Post
Article Last Updated: 01/18/2008 01:16:06 AM MST
WASHINGTON — Scientists at a California company reported Thursday that they had created the first mature cloned human embryos from single skin cells taken from adults, a significant advance toward growing personalized stem cells for patients suffering from disease.
The embryos — grown from cells taken from the company's chief executive and one of its investors — also offered evidence that few, if any, technical barriers might remain to the creation of cloned babies. That reality could prompt renewed controversy on Capitol Hill, where the debate over human cloning has died down of late.
Five of the embryos grew in laboratory dishes to the stage that fertility doctors consider ready for transfer to the womb — a degree of development that clones of adult humans have never achieved before.
No one knows whether those embryos were healthy enough to grow into babies. The study leader, who is also the medical director of a fertility clinic, said they looked robust. However, he emphasized that he has no interest in cloning people. more...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Stem Cells.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Research news: "Publication bias" seen in drug studies

The News:
"Publication bias" seen in drug studies
By Rob WatersBloomberg News
Article Last Updated: 01/16/2008 11:13:35 PM MST
Studies of antidepressants that concluded the medicines were effective were more likely to be published in medical journals than studies showing failed results, according to researchers.
The study compared published research on 12 medicines with reviews of the same drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The analysis found that 94 percent of published research showed positive results, while FDA reviewers found just half of studies, published and unpublished, were positive.
Many doctors rely on medical journals to keep abreast of research on the medications they prescribe. Researchers and drug-safety advocates contend that so-called publication bias — the tendency for articles that get published to reflect chiefly positive findings about drugs and medical devices — gives doctors and patients a distorted view of their value.
"We know publication bias exists," said Jeffrey Drazen, editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, which published the study. The article "shows that what's reported is really a much more rosy situation than actually exists."

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Research: Formula on new stamp takes a licking

The News:
Formula on new stamp takes a licking
By The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 01/16/2008 01:53:28 AM MST
WASHINGTON — Use it as a postage stamp, not a chemistry text.
In spite of a small error in a chemical formula, the Postal Service is going ahead with a commemorative stamp honoring biochemist Gerty Cori.
She discovered cori ester, a derivative of glucose.
The formula is on the stamp. The error is in the placement of a line in the formula and does not create a new chemical, Postal Service spokesman Roy Betts said Tuesday.
The Cori stamp is among a set of four stamps honoring American scientists and is scheduled to be issued March 6.
The error was discovered by Chemical & Engineering News.

The Research:
Read an overview of "chemophilately" and view photos of stamps with a chemistry theme in Chemical & Engineering News.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Research news: New Staph Strain Circulating in Gay, Bisexual Men

The News:
New Staph Strain Circulating in Gay, Bisexual Men
by Richard Knox
All Things Considered, January 14, 2008 · Health officials are tracking a new type of infection with Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to even more antibiotics than MRSA, the drug-resistant staph that has spread from coast to coast over the past seven years. (MRSA stands for "methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus".)
So far, nearly all recognized cases of the multiply drug resistant staph have been among gay and bisexual men. The cases are showing up most often in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. more...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Research news: Rat heart grown in jar holds hope for humans

The News:
Rat heart grown in jar holds hope for humans
Researchers envision the possibility of engineering tissue to repair ailing body parts.
By Josephine Marcotty Minneapolis Star Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/14/2008 12:39:24 AM MST
MINNEAPOLIS — Researchers at the University of Minnesota have grown a beating heart in a jar.
They used detergents to strip a rat heart of its own cells, leaving behind a white, three- dimensional scaffolding of connective tissue.
They then infused it with living cardiac cells from newborn rats, which multiplied and grew into a fully functional heart — a first in the field of tissue engineering.
"We've figured out how to use nature's own matrix — chambers, valves, blood vessels," said Dr. Doris Taylor, the lead researcher and director of the university's Center for Cardiovascular Repair.
She said the technique holds promise for growing human tissue to repair not only hearts but many other parts of the body. It might be possible, she said, to grow whole organs for patients who need transplants. more...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Nature Medicine.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Research news: Studies Reveal Mechanisms of Monarch Migration

The News:
Studies Reveal Mechanisms of Monarch Migration
Talk of the Nation, January 11, 2008 · What drives monarch butterflies to travel en masse thousands of miles to pine groves in Mexico? New research published in the journal PLOS Biology sheds light on the complex circadian clock mechanism in the butterfly brain, and how monarchs can use the position of the sun for navigation, even as it moves across the sky

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in PLoS Biology and PLoS One.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Research news: In battle of elephants and ants, trees win big

The News:
In Battle of Elephants and Ants, Trees Win Big
by John Nielsen
All Things Considered, January 10, 2008 · In the savannahs of Africa, a long-running conflict pits elephants against enormous swarms of angry ants that live in trees the elephants would like to eat.
According to a new study, a peace accord between the warring species would be one of the worst ways this war could end. more...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Research news: Study Adds to Debate over Heart Tests for Athletes

The News:
Study Adds to Debate over Heart Tests for Athletes
by Richard Knox
All Things Considered, January 9, 2008 · Every week or two, there's a new story about a young ball player or runner who drops dead without warning.
Sixteen-year-old John Babbitt of Chatham, N.J., was one of them — a strapping, three-season athlete.
One evening, he went down to play basketball in an intramural league that was part of his church youth group. "He was running down the court and he just collapsed and died instantaneously," says Joanne Babbitt, his mother. more...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal New England Journal of Medicine.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Research news: Four health behaviors can add 14 extra years of life

The News:
Four Health Behaviors Can Add 14 Extra Years Of Life
ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2008) — People who adopt four healthy behaviours -- not smoking; taking exercise; moderate alcohol intake; and eating five servings of fruit and vegetables a day -- live on average an additional fourteen years of life compared with people who adopt none of these behaviours, according to a new study. more...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Research news: Vaccine-autism link challenged

The News:
Vaccine-autism link challenged
Cases of the neurological disorder continued to rise even after California removed much-maligned thimerosal from children's shots, a study found.
By Alicia Chang The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Autism cases in California continued to climb even after a mercury-based vaccine preservative that some people blame for the neurological disorder was removed from routine childhood shots, a new study has found.
Researchers from the state Department of Public Health found the autism rate in children rose continuously during the 12-year study period from 1995 to 2007. The preservative thimerosal hasn't been used in childhood vaccines since 2001 but is used in some flu shots.
Doctors say the latest study adds to existing evidence refuting a link between thimerosal exposure and autism risk and should reassure parents that the disorder is not caused by vaccinations.
If there were a risk, they said, autism rates should have dropped between 2004 and 2007.
The findings show "no evidence of mercury poisoning in autism" since there was no decline in autism rates even after the elimination of thimerosal, said Dr. Eric Fombonne, an autism researcher at Montreal Children's Hospital who had no role in the research. more...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Research news: Some Biofuels Are Worse Environmentally Than Fossil Fuels, Analysis Shows

The News:
Some Biofuels Are Worse Environmentally Than Fossil Fuels, Analysis Shows
ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2008) — Biofuels reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in comparison to fossil fuels. Smithsonian researchers highlight a new study that factors in environmental costs of biofuel production. Corn, soy and sugarcane come up short. The authors urge governments to be far more selective about which biofuels they support, as not all are more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels. more....

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Research News: Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007

Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007
Welcome to the first annual Wired News rundown of the year's 10 most important scientific breakthroughs. 2007 was an amazing year for science.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Research News: Researchers pop health myths

The News:
Researchers pop health myths
By Susan BrinkLos Angeles Times
Article Last Updated: 12/31/2007 03:09:28 PM MST
Eating turkey makes you sleepy. It's the bird's tryptophan, an amino acid, that makes you want to take a nap. Right? Wrong, say Dr. Rachel Vreeman, research fellow, and Dr. Aaron Carroll, director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism, both at Indiana University School of Medicine. They examined that and six other commonly held beliefs. They found that turkey, chicken and ground beef each contain about the same amount of tryptophan per ounce, and pork and Swiss cheese actually contain higher levels. Any large meal slows blood flow and oxygenation to the brain, inducing sleepiness, they found. They gathered a list of medical beliefs held by their fellow physicians, then subjected seven of them to scientific review.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the British Medical Journal.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Research News: Nature & Man Eating Up Arctic

The News:
Nature & Man Eating Up Arctic
Scientists say a cyclical jump in energy transfer joins global warming in thawing the polar area.
By Seth Borenstein The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 01/03/2008 12:10:01 AM MST
WASHINGTON — There's more to the recent dramatic and alarming thawing of the Arctic region than can be explained by man-made global warming alone, a new study found. Nature is pushing the Arctic to the edge, too.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Nature.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Research News: Whites Get More Pain Meds Than Minorities

The News:
Whites Get More Pain Meds Than Minorities
ABC News
New research suggests whites are more likely than their non-white counterparts to receive opioid pain drugs not only in the family physician's office, but also in the emergency department.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).