Research News Releases

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Purdue University entomologist Cliff Sadof says weaning your yard off chemicals starts with learning other, less toxic ways to reach the same end--a yard you can be proud of.

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Medical College of Wisconsin researchers have developed a new set of genetic tools that are a direct off shoot of the human genome project. The tools in the form of a "genetic map" will help scientists find just where on the genetic material a gene involved in a certain disease is located.

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People with Marfan syndrome should be carefully monitored for development of an aortic aneurysm -- a ballooning of the large blood vessel that leads away from the heart -- and should be treated early, according to a large, international study reported by Johns Hopkins physicians in the April 29 New England Journal of Medicine.

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East African paleo-anthropological sites have yielded 2.5-million-year-old fossils of a possible direct human ancestor, a University of California-Berkeley researcher reported in Science, April 23.

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For the first time in Southern California, a septal ablation was used last month to treat hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. The new procedure creates a "controlled" heart attack that destroys excess heart muscle and helps relieve the obstruction to flow of blood from the heart.

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Researchers at Penn Medical Center have discovered how proteins called chaperonins protect cells from harm by sequestering and unfolding misshapened proteins.

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Recent findings suggesting that a gene on chromosome 12 was a strong genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease cannot be replicated by a team of researchers from Boston University School of Medicine, Duke University, the University of Toronto, and Vanderbilt University the team reported in the May issue of Nature Genetics.

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A new study conducted by the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management revealed that stainless steel countertops are least likely to harbor dangerous bacteria, such as E. coli, when compared to other popular household countertop materials.

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While sun exposure has long been linked to skin cancer, new research appears to explain why a specific pattern of sun exposure leads to melanoma and suggests that a genetic response to ultraviolet (UV) radiation-induced DNA damage may permit development of a novel photoprotective agent to decrease cancer risk.

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There is much dispute as to whether vitamin D must be generated through sun exposure and if this process plays a role in warding off internal cancers as touted by recent epidemiological claims.

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The first images from Landsat 7 have twice as much detail as previous Landsat satellite images.

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The frenzy for Internet stocks has driven prices into the stratosphere. A recent Stanford Business School study describes how Internet stocks are valued and details how analysts, retail investors, and the Internet companies themselves influence prices.

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Casting light on earlier studies linking beta-carotene supplements to cancer in smokers and asbestos workers, a new report in Nature by University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers shows that such supplements boost the activity of specific proteins that can turn certain toxic compounds into carcinogens.

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Just as canaries signaled the presence of toxic gases to coal miners, pulmonary researchers at UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center say that the common house fly may prove to be an excellent model for signaling the effects of air pollution at the cellular and molecular level in animals and humans.

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A single gene can transform embryonic tissue destined to form a wing into a leg instead, Salk Institute investigators have found. Their studies were performed in chickens, and the gene, called Tbx4, appears also to be involved in limb formation in mammals, including humans.

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A milder Arctic climate more than 3,000 years ago may have aided humans to cross the Bering Sea from Alaska and migrate into the remote Aleutian Island chain.

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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory engineers have modified commercially available radio-frequency tags, which store information and can be used to track items such as clothing, to serve as high-tech "backpacks" for bees to see if they can be used to locate millions of landmines scattered worldwide.

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Researchers at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the North American Bluebird Society are asking bird-lovers to log on to http://birds.cornell.edu and put their birdhouses on the map for the first-ever Great North American Bluebird Count.

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Preliminary results of a study conducted by Texas Tech University, of how electrical power deregulation may affect the Texas High Plains economy, show there could be a negative impact on agriculture and related businesses.

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Agricultural economics researchers at Texas Tech University recently completed a study to evaluate the demand for cotton gin waste as a roughage ingredient to cattle feed at feedlots. The study shows that use of gin trash in cattle feed can reduce the cost of the feed as much as 5 percent.

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The world's first cloned transgenic goats have been born as part of a research program conducted by LSU Agricultural Center and Genzyme Transgenic Corp. While much of the research was done at LSU in Baton Rouge, the goats made their appearance last fall at the Genzyme farm in Massachusetts.

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The demand for the new sentinel lymph node biopsy has prompted a surge in requests from community-based surgeons for lessons in the technique.

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Last week's Lyrid meteor shower was a bit of a disappointment visually, but it put on quite a show for radio observers. In this story you can learn about the basics of radio meteors and listen to radar echoes from a bright shooting star.

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Bees dutifully going about their daily business -- gathering nectar and pollen and taking it back to the hive -- may one day help protect the lives and limbs of people, if a landmine-detection demonstration at Sandia National Laboratories is successful.

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Two recently published studies show that prolonged exposure to gratuitous violence in the media can escalate subsequent hostile behaviors and, among some viewers, foster greater acceptance of violence as a means of conflict resolution, according to Virginia Tech and University of Alabama researchers.

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An active volcano rising more than 4,300 meters from the ocean floor in the Samoa Islands has been discovered by a team of National Science Foundation-funded scientists, providing more evidence in the scientific debate over the formation of hot spot island chains.

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In 1995, researchers at Johns Hopkins discovered HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) evades anti-viral drugs by hiding in the immune system, infecting certain white blood cells, called T cells, and then going to sleep, or turning off.

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New results show that for patients who remain symptomatic despite treatment of low doses of inhaled corticosteroids, the addition of Accolate, a product of Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, may provide benefits versus increasing steroid therapy.

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A discovery linking the shape of a unit called the heme in a protein to protein function may prove useful in a range of scientific advances, including finding cures for diseases and cleaning up pollutants, says the discoverer, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories.

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Urbanization has altered weather patterns over Atlanta, Georgia, scientists report.

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Four pollutants found in house dust add to the ability of a common household insecticide to inhibit an enzyme important in neurologic function in humans, researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health reported in the April 1999 issue of Toxicology Letters.

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New data from a four-week, double blind trial and 52-week open-label extension show that treatment with the asthma therapy Accolate (zafirlukast) was generally well tolerated throughout the study in children ages 5 to 11 years with mild-to-moderate asthma.

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Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered three genes crucial to the survival of cells, they reported in the April 23 issue of the journal Molecular Cell. The genes select cellular proteins for the disposal and eventual recycling of their components.

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To better understand the mechanics of emerging market finance, a Stanford Business School economist has analyzed the effect of stock market liberalization on stock prices. He found that a country's first market reform caused an average 38 percent increase in stock market value.

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AIDS researchers at Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center have created a DNA vaccine that protects monkeys against a formidable challenge HIV virus.

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A new report in the April 27 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by evolutionary biologists at the University of California, San Diego shows that the history of humans is quite different from that of chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas and supports with genetics the controversial idea that humans have had at least one dramatic population reduction during the last million years.

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New research gives a clearer understanding of how so-called "good cholesterol" helps prevent heart disease and may one day lead to treatments, according to Canadian chemists. The scientists say they have determined that a particular enzyme bound to the "good" high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, acts as a powerful antioxidant within blood vessels.

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Children suffering nighttime asthma attacks, which can be as severe as daytime attacks, miss school and cause parents to miss work, and may also perform more poorly in school, says a study by Hopkins asthma researcher Gregory Diette, M.D., presented at the American Thoracic Society annual meeting today.

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Brain stem cells recovered from living adult human tissue have successfully reproduced in vitro, University of Tennessee-Memphis health science center researchers report in a special April issue of Experimental Neurology.

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Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have identified several genes that are more active in fast-spreading prostate cancer cells than they are in less aggressive, slower-growing tumors. Drs. Paul Lindholm and Andre Balla also found that some of these aggressive genes are "turned on" by environmental pollutants.

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A rapid new pen and paper screening test for color blindness has been proven accurate and effective in a field study of over 5,000 local elementary school children, thanks to follow-up genetic testing. The Neitz Test of Color Vision, which a teacher without special training can give to an entire classroom in ten minutes.

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In the first double-blind, placebo-controlled surgical trial testing the safety and effectiveness of fetal dopamine cell implantation for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, many patients who received the implants showed growth of the new brain cells and improvement in their symptoms.

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Many people embark on high-altitude backpacking or hiking trips without the knowledge and equipment they may need in the event of common wilderness-related illness or injury, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

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Despite the significant advances in the treatment of patients with HIV and AIDS, there remains a prevalence of sinusitis in at least 65% of this patient group. A new study by otolaryngologist provides strong evidence that endoscopic sinus surgery alleviates the sinus disorder symptoms for HIV patients.

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The following information represents background on the press briefings associated with the largest annual scientific meeting devoted to new research findings on respiratory disease and critical care medicine. Available by phone hookup to U.S. media only.

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It's not just trees being removed from the world's rainforests, but staggering numbers of wildlife, which are being killed and sold as "bushmeat," according to a report by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), published in the latest issue of Science.

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An agent that causes respiratory tract infections such as community-acquired pneumonia, called chlamydia pneumonia, may be a factor in the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) in some patients, according to a study released during the American Academy of Neurology 51st Annual Meeting April 17-24 in Toronto.

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A newly developed test can help physicians diagnose patients in the very early stages of Alzheimerís disease, according to a study presented during the American Academy of Neurology 51st Annual Meeting April 17 ñ 24, 1999, in Toronto.

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Insurance companies could save money and make the lives of doctors and their adult acne patients easier by reducing or eliminating the restrictions for dispensing the acne drug tretinoin, according to dermatologists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.