Remarkably, scientists are still debating just how to reliably determine whether someone is conscious. This question is of great practical importance when making medical decisions about anesthesia or treating patients in vegetative state or coma. Currently, researchers rely on various measurements from an electroencephalogram, or EEG, to assess level of consciousness in the brain. A…
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Biomolecules — carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids — form the foundation of life and are responsible for carrying out every process that occurs in our bodies. Miniscule changes in how these biomolecules fold and interact can lead to severe consequences, such as the development of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. But, how and why…
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Osteogensis imperfecta (OI) is a group of genetic disorders that mainly affect the bone. Patients with OI have bones that break easily, sometimes with no apparent cause. The disorder is commonly caused by mutations associated with type 1 collagen or molecules that participate in collagen processing, which results in a defective collagen bone matrix. Current…
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ROCKVILLE, MD – A translational research project supported by the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) has been awarded $700,000 from Virginia Catalyst to advance its lead cancer drug candidate. The funding will be used for collaboration among the laboratory of Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Paul Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., an NFCR fellow, a team at…
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MINNEAPOLIS -For boxers and mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters, is there a safe level of exposure to head trauma? A new study shows different effects in the brain for younger, current fighters compared to older, retired fighters. The study is published in the December 23, 2019, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the…
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The series is essential reading for general readers, healthcare professionals, researchers and academicians actively involved in research on infectious diseases and anti-infective therapeutic drugs. The first volume is a comprehensive documentation on major infectious diseases from tropical countries which pose a serious threat to global healthcare programs. These include diseases such as tuberculosis, AIDS, leishmaniasis…
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December 23, 2019 — A mother’s obesity in pregnancy can affect her child’s development years down the road, according to researchers who found lagging motor skills in preschoolers and lower IQ in middle childhood for boys whose mothers were severely overweight while pregnant. A team of epidemiologists, nutritionists and environmental health researchers at Columbia University…
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A collaboration led by scientists at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), Japan, has discovered that daily energy balance of Asian black bears (Ursus thibetanus) exhibited seasonal change with a twin-peak pattern: up in spring, down to the lowest point in summer, and up again in autumn. From spring to summer, the energy balance…
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois researchers achieved the highest reported rates of inserting genes into human cells with the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system, a necessary step for harnessing CRISPR for clinical gene-therapy applications. By chemically tweaking the ends of the DNA to be inserted, the new technique is up to five times more efficient than…
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LEBANON, NH – Breast density is an important risk factor for breast cancer but no study had asked women what they know or think about breast density in relation to screening they have had. A number of states do have notification laws about breast density, but these laws vary. In a new qualitative study, a…
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