Medical News and Science News-

Medical News Huntington’s Disease Affects Muscle as Well as Neurons, Study Reveals Researchers have discovered that mice with Huntington’s disease (HD) suffer defects in muscle maturation that may explain some symptoms of the disorder. The study, “Progressive Cl− channel defects reveal disrupted skeletal muscle maturation in ... – The Rockefeller University Press Journal of General Physiology, January 2017; 1SC3GM096945 Embargo expired on 29-Nov-2016 at 09:00 ET Acetaminophen, Supplements and Other Medications May Trigger Drug-Induced Liver Injury More than 1,000 medications, with acetaminophen being the most common, have been associated with drug-induced liver injury (DILI). An article in AACN Advanced Critical Care discusses the clinical impact of DILI and reviews the medications that most f... – American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) AACN Advanced Critical Care, Oct-Dec 2016 Embargo expired on 29-Nov-2016 at 06:00 ET Jim Harbaugh Foundation Helps Bring Big House Experience to Sick Kids at Mott Sick kids will get to visit the Big House without leaving their rooms at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, thanks to the foundation named after University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh. – University of Michigan Health System Embargo expired on 29-Nov-2016 at 00:00 ET Nation’s Leading Oncoplastic Surgery Program Schedules January Training The School of Oncoplastic Surgery (SOS), which zeroes in on the growing trend toward oncoplastic breast-conserving surgery, will hold its next training program Jan. 27-29, 2017. – Dowling & Dennis Public Relations Imprecise Diagnoses Genetic testing has greatly improved physicians’ ability to detect potentially lethal heart anomalies among asymptomatic family members of people who suffer cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death. But a study from Harvard Medical School published i... – Harvard Medical School UF Receives Mosquito Traps for Graduate and Family Housing While there are no cases of locally transmitted zika virus on the UF campus, Gainesville or Alachua County, Sharon Blansett, assistant to the associate vice president for UF student affairs, welcomes the mosquito traps as a virus-prevention measure f... – University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Preventative Antibiotics Could Prevent C. Diff Among Stem Cell Transplant Patients, Penn Study Finds It may be possible to safely prevent one of the most common – and costly to treat – infections contracted by hospitalized patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation for the treatment of blood cancers, according to a study from the Abramson C... – Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania New Ovarian Cancer Immunotherapy Study Poses Question: Can Microbiome Influence Treatment Response? A new clinical study underway at Roswell Park Cancer Institute is the first to test the combination of the immunotherapy pembrolizumab with two other drugs as treatment for recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer, and is also the first ovarian cancer cli... – Roswell Park Cancer Institute Many Primary Care Doctors Are Reluctant to Talk About Medical Errors, Study Finds While most primary care physicians would provide some information about a medical error, only a minority would fully disclose important information about potentially harmful medical errors to patients, a new survey shows. – Georgia State University BMJ Quality and Safety Nonprofessionals Successfully Interpret Medical Images of the Eye Online Scientists have found that with minimal training, members of the general public may be able to match the accuracy of experts in interpreting medical images of the eye. The work, published in Translational Vision Science & Technology (TVST), introduce... – Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Journal of Vision; Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science; Translational Vision Science & Technology (TVST) Modern Hunter-Gatherers Show Value of Exercise In a remote area of north-central Tanzania, men leave their huts on foot, armed with bows and poison-tipped arrows, to hunt for their next meal. Dinner could come in the form of a small bird, a towering giraffe or something in between. Meanwhile, wom... – University of Arizona American Journal of Human Biology How Kids' Brains Respond to a Late Night Up Sleep deprivation affects children's brains differently than adults', according to a new study – Frontiers Frontiers in Human Neuroscience UT Southwestern Researchers’ International Study Zeros in on Gene That Limits Desire to Drink Alcohol In the largest study of its kind, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers and colleagues in Europe identified a gene variant that suppresses the desire to drink alcohol. – UT Southwestern Medical Center National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Nov-2016 Prevention Program Safeguards Children’s Brains From Effects of Poverty, Says UGA Study A University of Georgia research team has shown for the first time that participation in a prevention program known as the Strong African American Families Program, which enhances supportive parenting and strengthens family relationships, removes the... – University of Georgia P30DA027827 Program Helps Teens 'Get the Message' About Distracted Driving A program to educate teens about distracted driving—including a tour of a hospital trauma center and testimony from a trauma survivor—can increase awareness of the dangers of texting, cell phone use, and other distractions while driving, reports ... – Wolters Kluwer Health: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins Journal of Trauma Nursing Most People at Risk for Osteoporisis Fractures Are Not Evaluated and Treated Osteoporosis is preventable and treatable, but only a small proportion of people at risk for fractures are evaluated and treated, according to new osteoporosis guidelines written by an expert panel headed by Loyola Medicine endocrinologist Pauline M.... – Loyola University Health System Endocrine Practice Photography-Based Therapy Offers New Approach to Healing for Sexual Assault Survivors One out of every six American women has experienced a sexual assault or an attempted sexual assault or rape in her lifetime, according to the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While more than half of fe... – University of Missouri Health Cancer Risks in Blacks: 'A Complex, Entangled Web' Breakthrough UNLV study shows major differences between the types of cancer and mortality rates of U.S.-born blacks versus those who emigrate from the Caribbean. – University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center jCyte Completes Enrollment for Phase I/IIa Safety Trial Regenerative medicine company jCyte has completed enrollment in a phase I/IIa trial studying the safety of its stem cell therapy for retinitis pigmentosa. Early results are promising. – jCyte Comparing Gait Parameters Can Predict Decline in Memory and Thinking Walking is a milestone in development for toddlers, but it’s actually only one part of the complex cognitive task known as gait that includes everything from a person’s stride length to the accompanying swing of each arm. A Mayo Clinic study rece... – Mayo Clinic Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Doctors with Sole This Wednesday, Nov. 30, Drs. Simon Lee, Johnny Lin and Kamran Hamid, foot and ankle surgeons at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, and a group of residents, physician assistants and medical students from Rush University Medical Center, will give shoes, s... – PS Medical Marketing Our Complicated Relationship with Viruses Nearly 10 percent of the human genome is made of bits of virus DNA. For the most part, this viral DNA is not harmful. In some cases, NIH-funded scientists are finding, it actually has a beneficial impact. – NIH, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Protecting Your Vision: An Overview of Diabetes and Eye Health Loss of vision is one of the many dreaded complications of diabetes. Over 5.3 million Americans suffer from diabetes-related retinal disease or diabetic retinopathy. After 20 years of living with diabetes, nearly all type 1 diabetics will have some ... – Valley Health System Memorial Sloan Kettering Debuts in Monmouth County Nearly 20 years have passed since Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) first opened its doors in the Garden State. Since then, an explosion of knowledge and data has resulted in far better outcomes for thousands of people with cancer, includi... – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center OnLume Receives SBIR Support for Image-Guided Surgery Innovation OnLume Inc., a medical device company developing novel surgical lighting technology in collaboration with researchers led by Kevin Eliceiri at the Morgridge Institute for Research and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, today announced support from ... – University of Wisconsin-Madison Rockefeller University’s Elaine Fuchs, Ph.D., Named 2016 Recipient of the Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science Elaine Fuchs, Ph.D., whose innovative use of reverse genetics has helped redefine the study of skin diseases and cancer stem cells, is the recipient of the 2016 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, officials at Vanderbilt University Medical Center... – Vanderbilt University Medical Center Professor Diane Spatz Receives Lifetime Achievement Award From the National Association of Neonatal Nurses Diane L. Spatz, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN, Professor of Perinatal Nursing and the Helen M. Shearer Term Professor of Nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Nationa... – University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Elewski Chosen to Lead UAB’s Department of Dermatology UAB taps Boni E. Elewski, M.D., to lead the Department of Dermatology. – University of Alabama at Birmingham Patrick Stiff, MD, Awarded Loyola's Stritch Medal Patrick J. Stiff, MD, a world renowned cancer physician, researcher and teacher, has received the Stritch Medal, the highest honor given by Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. – Loyola University Health System William Small, Jr., MD, Named Loyola Senior Scientist of the Year William Small, Jr., MD, FACRO, FACR, FASTRO, chair of the department of radiation oncology, has been named Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine’s Senior Scientist of the Year. – Loyola University Health System NIH Awards Nocturnal Product Development and GW a $2.27M Phase II STTR Grant for Preclinical Development of Cardiac Imaging System The NIH awarded a $2.27 million Phase II STTR grant to Nocturnal Product Development, LLC, and George Washington University researcher Narine Sarvazyan, Ph.D. – George Washington University Science News Genes, Early Environment Sculpt the Gut Microbiome A new study finds that environment and genetics determine relative abundance of specific microbes in the gut. The findings represent an attempt to untangle the forces that shape the gut microbiome, which plays an important role in keeping us healthy.... – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Nature Microbiology, Nov. 28, 2016 Embargo expired on 28-Nov-2016 at 11:00 ET Voice Appeal - New Research Suggests That Men and Women Perceive Consonants Differently. In a study to be presented during the 172nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the 5th Joint Meeting with Acoustical Society of Japan, a Canadian researcher has new data about the vocal attractiveness of consonants. Vowels are already w... – Acoustical Society of America (ASA) The 172nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America Embargo expired on 28-Nov-2016 at 21:45 ET A Molecular Switch Between Life, Sex and Death "Till death do us part" – for marine bristle worms, these words are invariably true: Shortly after mating, the parent worms die, leaving thousands of newly fertilized eggs to develop in the water. This extreme all-or-nothing mode of reproduction de... – University of Vienna eLife Platypus Venom Could Hold Key to Diabetes Treatment Australian researchers have discovered remarkable evolutionary changes to insulin regulation in two of the nation's most iconic native animal species – the platypus and the echidna – which could pave the way for new treatments for type 2 diabetes... – University of Adelaide Scientific Reports Researchers Propose Low-Mass Supernova Triggered Formation of Our Solar System A research team led by the University of Minnesota uses new models and evidence from meteorites to show that a low-mass supernova triggered the formation of our solar system. – University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering Nature Communications Toxic ‘Marine Snow’ Can Sink Quickly, Persist at Ocean Depths A specific neurotoxin can persist and accumulate in “marine snow” formed by the algae Pseudo-nitzschia, and this marine snow can reach significant depths quickly. – North Carolina State University Harmful Algae Secret Phenotypes: Disease Devils in Invisible Details The human eye often falls short in the hunt for faint genetic drivers that raise the risk of devastating neurological diseases such as autism and schizophrenia. But little eludes a microscope optic attached to a computer, and algorythms that can rela... – Georgia Institute of Technology Nature Communications; National Institutes of Health R01GM088333; National Institutes of Health K99AG046911 What's Up with Madagascar? The island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa was largely unexplored seismically until recently. The first broadband seismic images of the island help solve a longstanding mystery: why are there volcanoes far from any tectonic boundary? – Washington University in St. Louis Earth and Planetary Science Letters Researchers Explore New 2D Materials That Could Make Devices Faster, Smaller, and Efficient A new study by an international team of researchers led by the University of Minnesota highlights how manipulation of 2D materials could make our modern day devices faster, smaller, and better. – University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering Nature Materials UT Professor Develops Algorithm to Improve Online Mapping of Disaster Areas Yingjie Hu, UT assistant professor of geography, has developed an algorithm to improve online mapping of disaster areas. – University of Tennessee Geographical Analysis Hurricane Risk to Northeast U.S. Coast Increasing, Research Warns New research published in the journal Scientific Reports and co-authored by an Associate Professor at Skidmore College suggests the Northeastern coast of the U.S. could be struck by more frequent and more powerful hurricanes in the future due to shif... – Skidmore College Scientific Reports Our Closest Worm Kin Regrow Body Parts, Raising Hopes of Regeneration in Humans A new University of Washington study of one of our closest invertebrate relatives, the acorn worm, reveals that regenerating body parts might one day be possible. – University of Washington Developmental Dynamics, Dec-2016 How to Monitor Global Ocean Warming – Without Harming Whales Tracking the speed of internal tides offers a cheap, simple way to monitor temperature changes throughout the world’s oceans. – University of Washington Geophysical Research Letters Researchers Find Biggest Exposed Fault on Earth Geologists have for the first time seen and documented the Banda Detachment fault in eastern Indonesia and worked out how it formed. – Australian National University Geology Timing the shadow of a potentially habitable extrasolar planet A group of researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the University of Tokyo, and the Astrobiology Center among others has observed the transit of a potentially Earth-like extrasolar planet known as K2-3d using the MuSCA... – National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) Astronomical Journal Komodo Dragons Help Researchers Understand Microbial Health in Captive Animals Researchers at the University of California San Diego, the University of Colorado-Boulder, the University of Chicago and Argonne are the first to identify similarities in the way in which Komodo dragons and humans and their pets share microbes within... – Argonne National Laboratory mSystems NAU Ecologist Shares Permafrost Prediction An article by NAU researcher Ted Schuur discusses how the release of carbon stored in the soil of the thawing Arctic tundra has the potential for speeding up climate change. – Northern Arizona University Food Scientist Aiding Fuel Ethanol with New Engineered Bacteria UW-Madison Professor James Steele’s new company, Lactic Solutions, is using genetic engineering to, instead of killing lactic acid bacteria with antibiotics, splicing in genes for ethanol production so these organisms produce ethanol, not lactic ac... – University of Wisconsin-Madison The Ancient Atmosphere and Carbon and Nitrogen in the Earth’s Crust Carbon and nitrogen are central to life on Earth – life cannot exist without them, but an overabundance in the atmosphere imperils the life we have. So how much carbon and nitrogen is there on planet Earth? And how much was in the ancient atmospher... – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Rowan University Engineering Team Helps Protect Jersey Shoreline, More Research out of Rowan University in New Jersey will help towns, others better prepare for the worst of weather, mitigating damages. – Rowan University Aircraft Inspectors Have New Sandia Course to Help Detect Composite Material Damage With the holiday travel season under way, airline travelers want to feel safe. Sandia National Laboratories has developed a new course now being offered to the aircraft manufacturing and airline industries to help them better inspect the new solid-la... – Sandia National Laboratories ‘Brighter Than A Billion Suns’: SLAC Studies Featured in TEDx Talk Phil Manning and his colleagues have used synchrotron light for nearly a decade to help interpret the chemical signatures locked within fossilized life. Bright X-rays have allowed them to study fossilized worm burrows, recreate pigment patterns in an... – SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory National Cancer Institute Awards Major Contract to Southern Research /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Southern Research has been awarded a new, five-year Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to investigate the pharmacokinetic properties of antitumor and other thera... – Southern Research Institute of Food Technologists and Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology to Offer Joint Membership With our planet’s population estimated to reach more than 9 billion by 2050, the world faces many pressing food demands. In order to help food scientists and technologists meet these challenges, the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and the Can... – Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Lifestyle & Social Sciences This Is Your Brain on God: Spiritual Experiences Activate Brain Reward Circuits Religious and spiritual experiences activate the brain reward circuits in much the same way as love, sex, gambling, drugs and music, report researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine. The findings will be published Nov. 29 in the journa... – University of Utah Health Sciences Embargo expired on 29-Nov-2016 at 05:00 ET Study Offers Coastal Communities Better Way to Prepare for Devastating Storms With massive coastal storms on the rise, a new study describes a method for stakeholders in vulnerable communities to be involved in preparing for, absorbing, recovering and adapting from devastation. – Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Wives with a 'Soul Mate' View of Marriage Are Less Likely to Volunteer and May Deter Husbands From Doing So, Too Wives who have a romantic view of marriage are less likely to do volunteer work, leading their husbands to volunteer less as well. – Baylor University Sociological Perspectives When Judging Other People, First Impressions Last A well-known saying urges people to “not judge a book by its cover.” But people tend to do just that – even after they’ve skimmed a chapter or two, according to Cornell University research. – Cornell University IU Study Finds Activity Trackers Can Work When Paired with Wellness Coaching While critics have debated the effectiveness of activity trackers, a recent study by faculty in the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington found activity trackers can work, if paired with wellness coaching. The study was published in the American Col... Expert Available – Indiana University American College of Sports Medicine Health and Fitness Journal, Nov/Dec 2016 Why 'Arrival' Is Wrong About the Possibility of Talking with Space Aliens Even if aliens had human-like eyes or ears, they wouldn’t interpret images and sounds the same way we do. Expert Available – University of California, Irvine CSU Channel Islands Launches Nationwide Search for Provost CSU Channel Islands (CI) is searching for a new Provost. CI has secured the Washington D.C.-based executive search firm Academic Search, Inc. to field candidates for the appointed position, which will begin in summer of 2017. The search is nationwide... – California State University, Channel Islands Business News NATO Adapts NICS for First Responders DHS S&T announced an information sharing tool for first responders, will now be implemented in some NATO member and partner countries as part of a pilot. – Homeland Security's Science & Technology Directorate Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine Dean Named to Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert A. McDonald has appointed Thomas A. Cavalieri, DO, Dean and Professor of Medicine at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, to serve on the VA National Academic Affiliations Council. – Rowan University