Curing Death by Curing Disease, Cancer & Aging

Novel epigenetic markers of melanoma may herald new treatments for patients (7/2/2009)

Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer, diagnosed in more than 50,000 new patients in the United States annually. As incidences continue to rise, the race is on to find the genetic and cellular changes driving melanoma, and to devise new means of detection and treatment. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have found new epigenetic markers that will help develop more effective treatment strategies to fight this disease. ...> Full Article

Researchers describe the 90-year evolution of swine flu (7/2/2009)

The current H1N1 swine flu strain has genetic roots in an illness that sickened pigs at the 1918 Cedar Rapids Swine Show in Iowa, report experts at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health in the New England Journal of Medicine. Their paper, published online today and slated for the July 16 print issue, describes H1N1's nearly century-long and often convoluted journey, which may include the accidental resurrection of an extinct strain. ...> Full Article

Researchers pinpoint a new enemy for tumor-suppressor p53 (7/1/2009)

Researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have identified a protein that marks the tumor suppressor p53 for destruction, providing a potential new avenue for restoring p53 in cancer cells. ...> Full Article

Selenium intake may worsen prostate cancer in some, study reports (7/1/2009)

Higher selenium levels in the blood may worsen prostate cancer in some men who already have the disease. A higher risk of more-aggressive prostate cancer was seen in men with a certain genetic variant. In those subjects, having a high level of selenium in the blood was associated with a two-fold greater risk of poorer outcomes than men with the lowest amounts of selenium. ...> Full Article

New tool finds best heart disease and stroke treatments for patients with diabetes (7/1/2009)

Researchers from North Carolina State University and Mayo Clinic have developed a computer model that medical doctors can use to determine the best time to begin using statin therapy in diabetes patients to help prevent heart disease and stroke. ...> Full Article

ICSI or IVF: Babies born from frozen embryos do just as well (7/1/2009)

Analysis of the longest running ICSI program in the United States has found reassuring evidence that babies born from frozen embryos fertilized via ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) do just as well as those born from frozen embryos fertilized via standard IVF treatment. ...> Full Article

Second gene linked to familial testicular cancer (6/30/2009)

Specific variations or mutations in a particular can gene raise a man's risk of familial, or inherited, testicular germ-cell cancer, the most common form of this disease, according to new research by scientists at the National Institutes of Health. This is only the second gene to be identified that affects the risk of familial testicular cancer, and the first gene in a key biochemical pathway. The study appears in the July 2009 Cancer Research. ...> Full Article

Risk of cancer (6/30/2009)

Scientists discover novel mechanism that increases the risk of common colorectal cancer ...> Full Article

Environmental cues control reproductive timing and longevity, University of Minnesota study shows (6/30/2009)

When humans and animals delay reproduction because food or other resources are scarce, they may live longer to increase the impact of reproduction, according to a new study by University of Minnesota researchers. ...> Full Article

New piece found in colorectal cancer puzzle (6/29/2009)

Prostasin, a relatively unknown protease enzyme expressed in most epithelial cells, may play a role in the genesis of colorectal cancer. Researchers writing in the open-access journal BMC Cancer have associated a reduction in the expression of inhibitors of the enzyme with malignant cellular behavior. ...> Full Article

Study pinpoints novel cancer gene and biomarker (6/28/2009)

Research underscores need to combine genomics and basic biology in cancer gene hunt ...> Full Article

New gene discovery links obesity to the brain (6/28/2009)

A variation in a gene that is active in the central nervous system is associated with increased risk for obesity, according to an international study in which Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University played a major role. The research adds to evidence that genes influence appetite and that the brain plays a key role in obesity. ...> Full Article

On malaria struggle, baboons and humans have similar stories to tell (6/27/2009)

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MicroRNAs help control HIV life cycle (6/27/2009)

Cellular defense mechanism may play role in hiding virus from immune system ...> Full Article

Scientists block Ebola infection in cell-culture experiments (6/26/2009)

Accomplishment could lead to first therapy for deadly disease ...> Full Article