Press monitoring
Beware of germs lurking on your desk
10.1.2012 | Press monitoring
A study by the University of Arizona found the typical worker's desk has hundreds of times more bacteria per square inch than an office toilet seat. In addition, desks, phones and other private surfaces are also prime habitats for the viruses that cause colds and flu. "These findings are disturbing, but by practicing simple office hygiene—like...
Diet supplemented with specific probiotic bacterial strain increases mice lifespan
9.1.2012 | Press monitoring
The mammalian gut is home to hundreds of bacterial species that contribute to food digestion and, in some cases, inflammatory gut diseases. Probiotics, beneficial bacterial species, can enhance gut health by keeping the resident bacteria in check. Now, a team of researchers at the RIKEN Innovation Center in Wako, including Mitsuharu Matsumoto,...
New Way to Assess Risk from Chemicals
6.1.2012 | Press monitoring
To assess human health risks from exposure to harmful substances, James Englehardt, professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Miami, is proposing a new technique that is more efficient than current methods. The new model reduces the data requirements 21-fold from previous models, and can predict the likelihood of illness not...
How Bacteria Build Homes Inside Healthy Cells
5.1.2012 | Press monitoring
Bacteria are able to build camouflaged homes for themselves inside healthy cells -- and cause disease -- by manipulating a natural cellular process. Purdue University biologists led a team that revealed how a pair of proteins from the bacteria Legionella pneumophila, which causes Legionnaires disease, alters a host protein in order to divert raw...
Simple blood test in the first trimester predicts fetal gender
4.1.2012 | Press monitoring
A new research study published in the January 2012 edition of The FASEB Journal describes findings that could lead to a non-invasive test that would let expecting mothers know the sex of their baby as early as the first trimester. Specifically, researchers from South Korea discovered that various ratios of two enzymes (DYS14/GAPDH), which can be...
Microbial communities on skin affect humans' attractiveness to mosquitoes
3.1.2012 | Press monitoring
The microbes on your skin determine how attractive you are to mosquitoes, which may have important implications for malaria transmission and prevention, according to a study published Dec. 28 in the online journal PLoS ONE. Without bacteria, human sweat is odorless to the human nose, so the microbial communities on the skin play a key role in...
High bodily levels of nickel and selenium may lower pancreatic cancer risk
2.1.2012 | Press monitoring
High bodily levels of the trace elements nickel and selenium may lower the risk of developing the most common type of pancreatic cancer, finds research published online in Gut. Similarly, high levels of lead, arsenic, and cadmium could boost the likelihood of developing the disease, the study shows. The researchers assessed 12 trace element...
Possible Cure for Leukemia Found in Fish Oil
29.12.2011 | Press monitoring
A compound produced from fish oil that appears to target leukemia stem cells could lead to a cure for the disease, according to Penn State researchers. The compound -- delta-12-protaglandin J3, or D12-PGJ3 -- targeted and killed the stem cells of chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, in mice, said Sandeep Prabhu, associate professor of immunology...
Researchers shorten time for manufacturing of personalized ovarian cancer vaccine
28.12.2011 | Press monitoring
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania are in the midst of testing a personalized, dendritic cell vaccine in patients with recurrent ovarian, primary peritoneal or fallopian tube cancer – a group of patients who typically have few treatment options. Now, they have shown they can shorten the time to...
New synthetic molecules treat autoimmune disease in mice
27.12.2011 | Press monitoring
A team of Weizmann Institute scientists has turned the tables on an autoimmune disease. In such diseases, including Crohn's and rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's tissues. But the scientists managed to trick the immune systems of mice into targeting one of the body's players in autoimmune processes, an enzyme...
