Biotech Week back issues from June 2009:
News briefs from the May issue of Chest.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "WEIGHT LOSS GENE" MAY KEEP SMOKERS THIN Research has shown that smokers weigh less and have less body fat than nonsmokers, and now scientists may know the reason why. A research team from Weill Medical College of Cornell University New York used several different assays to evaluate the ...
Study examines reliability of clinical and pathological diagnoses of Barrett's esophagus.
Jun 03, 2009 ... In a review of more than 2,000 patients coded for Barrett's esophagus, electronic diagnosis overestimated the prevalence of the disease according to researchers in California. They found that only 61.9 percent of patients assigned a billing diagnosis code for Barrett's esophagus actually ...
Patients reveal willingness to trade hands-on medical care for computer consultations.
Jun 03, 2009 ... As President Barack Obama calls for streamlining heath care by fully converting to electronic medical records and as Congress prepares to debate issues of patient privacy, one question has largely gone unasked: What do patients want? A qualitative study led by a research team at ...
Cohesin jigsaw begins to fit.(Report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... The essential chromosomal protein complex cohesin has crucial roles in sister chromatid cohesion, DNA repair and transcriptional regulation. Despite its conserved function, cohesin's disparate association patterns in different organisms did not quite add up. New research published in the ...
Plant Min protein sits tight and rescues E. coli.
Jun 03, 2009 ... A protein vital for correct chloroplast division in plants is able to take on a similar role in bacterial cells, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Microbiology. The Arabidopsis thaliana Min protein (AtMinD) localizes in E. coli cells' polar regions keeping cell ...
Online surveillance tools provide opportunity to support public health.
Jun 03, 2009 ... Tapping the Internet - including personal Web searches, news reports, blogs, chat rooms and social networking sites - is fast becoming a way to get a complete, up-to-the-minute view of public health threats, say researchers from the Informatics Program at Children's Hospital Boston (CHIP) ...
Monkeys found to wonder what might have been.
Jun 03, 2009 ... Monkeys playing a game similar to "Let's Make A Deal" have revealed that their brains register missed opportunities and learn from their mistakes (see also Duke University Medical Center). "This is the first evidence that monkeys, like people, have 'would-have, could-have, ...
Special petal cells help bees get a grip.
Jun 03, 2009 ... Researchers have discovered why most insect-pollinated flowers have special cone-shaped cells on the surfaces of their petals. They literally help bees get a grip, according to a report published online on May 14th in Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press (see also Research). ...
Cholesterol-busting bug with a taste for waste.
Jun 03, 2009 ... A novel species of bacteria with cholesterol-busting properties has been discovered by scientists at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. Dr Oliver Drzyzga and colleagues isolated the new bug, called Gordonia cholesterolivorans, from sewage sludge. Their findings are reported in ...
Center-based care and insensitive parenting may have lasting effects.(Clinical report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... A growing number of American children are enrolled in child care and questions remain about how these settings may affect them in both positive and negative ways. A new study published in the May/June 2009 issue of the journal Child Development finds that early interpersonal ...
Fathers respond to teens' risky sexual behavior with increased supervision.(Clinical report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... Two-thirds of American teenagers have sex by the time they're 18. A new longitudinal study finds that when adolescents engage in risky sexual activity, fathers respond by increasing their efforts to supervise and monitor their children (see also Society for Research in Child Development). ...
Herbal Supplement Sales Increase in US in 2008.
Jun 03, 2009 ... Herbal dietary supplement sales in the United States increased slightly in 2008, reaching a total estimated figure of $4,800,000,000. A recent report published in the nonprofit American Botanical Council's (ABC) quarterly journal HerbalGram, based on data from multiple market research ...
Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners Receives NASDAQ Deficiency Notice.(Report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRX) announced that on May 19, 2009 it was advised by The NASDAQ Stock Market(R) that, based on the Company's stockholders equity as reported in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, the Company is ...
Guardium 7 Awarded 5-Star Ratings by SC Magazine.
Jun 03, 2009 ... Guardium, the database security company, received 5 out of 5 stars on Features, Performance and Ease-of-Use in an extensive Guardium 7 lab review published in the April 2009 issue of SC Magazine UK (see also Guardium). The review states that Guardium 7 "provides essential tools ...
Hythiam Receives Notice from Nasdaq Regarding Noncompliance with Minimum Stockholders' Equity Requirement.
Jun 03, 2009 ... Hythiam, Inc. (NASDAQ:HYTM) announced that on May 14, 2009 the Company received a Staff Deficiency Letter from the Nasdaq Stock Market ("Nasdaq") for not maintaining a minimum of $10 million in stockholders' equity in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5450(b)(1)(A). For the period ended ...
NaVOBA Honors 10 Best Corporations for Veteran-Owned Businesses.
Jun 03, 2009 ... The National Veteran-Owned Business Association (NaVOBA) announced its 10 Best Corporations for Veteran-Owned Businesses for 2009 (see also National Veteran-Owned Business Association). The list of honorees was published in a story gracing the cover of the June issue of NaVOBA's ...
Sinobiopharma Applies for Two Chinese Patents for Cisatracurium Besylate.
Jun 03, 2009 ... Sinobiopharma Inc. ("Sinobiopharma ", or "the Company") (BULLETIN BOARD: SNBP) is pleased to announce that it has applied for two Chinese patents for its flagship product, Cisatracurim besylate, a pre-surgical skeletal muscle relaxant (see also Patents). The Company has applied ...
MHA Clinical Director Kimberly Binaso, Pharm.D. Awarded 2009 ASHP Fellow.
Jun 03, 2009 ... Managed Health Care Associates, Inc. (MHA), the largest Alternate Site GPO in the country is pleased to announce that Kimberly Binaso-Stwalley, Pharm.D. has been named a 2009 Fellow by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) in recognition of her leadership and excellence ...
Study Confirms Effectiveness of Innovative Prism Glasses for Hemianopia Patients.(Clinical report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... In a study of specially designed peripheral prism glasses for hemianopia patients (blinded in half the visual field in both eyes), scientists found that two-thirds of patients continued to wear the glasses at the end of the study period and beyond, indicating a high level of success. They ...
Getting More From Whole-Transcript Microarrays.
Jun 03, 2009 ... The widely-used Affymetrix Whole-Transcript Gene 1.0 ST (sense target) microarray platform, normally used to assay gene expression, can also be utilized to interrogate exon-specific splicing. Research published in the open access journal BMC Bioinformatics shows scientists how to monitor ...
New data from H. Yahya et al illuminate research in acne vulgaris.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research published in the International Journal of Dermatology, " Community-based studies of acne vulgaris conducted in many parts of the world show that it is very common in adolescents but little is known from Africa. In a cross-sectional study, 539 randomly selected ...
Researchers' work from University of Miami, Medical Department focuses on acne vulgaris.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Botanical extracts and preparations have been used in different pathological conditions with success. An important group of phytochemical phenolic compounds are the catechins found in green tea," scientists in the United States report (see also Acne Vulgaris). "Acne is a ...
New research on acromegaly from University of Birmingham summarized.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Acromegaly is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Treatment options include surgery, radiotherapy, and medical therapy," scientists writing in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism report (see also Acromegaly). "The objective of the study was to ...
Reports summarize acute appendicitis study results from A.A. Malik and co-researchers.(Clinical report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research published in the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, "The acute appendicitis is the most common abdominal emergency, and the primary treatment has been appendicectomy. Antibiotics are started preoperatively and continued postoperatively as needed." ...
Findings in acute pancreatitis reported from J. Gigout and co-researchers.(Report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... "- The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical progression of patients who had severe acute pancreatitis (AP) and a stay in hospital of more than a month. - A total of 24 patients (median age: 57 years) were included in this eight-year retrospective study," researchers in ...
Study findings on acute pancreatitis are outlined in reports from Harvard University.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Our aim was to prospectively evaluate the ability of the bedside index for severity in acute pancreatitis (BISAP) score to predict mortality as well as intermediate markers of severity in a tertiary center. The BISAP score was evaluated among 397 consecutive cases of acute pancreatitis ...
Findings from Texas State University in addiction medicine reported.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to a study from the United States, "Many people smoke to control weight and/or reduce stress. Previous studies have shown a link between body mass index (BMI) and reasons for smoking among addicted adults." "Our 2006-2007 data extended previous research to include a ...
New addiction medicine study findings have been reported by S.K. Dobscha and colleagues.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to a study from the United States, "This study sought to identify racial and ethnic differences in rates of alcohol-related advice given to veterans treated in Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities. This was a cross-sectional analysis of data from the VA Survey of the Healthcare ...
New addiction medicine study findings recently were published by researchers at University of Minnesota.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Whether people believe that they have control over their behaviors is an issue that is centrally involved in definitions of addiction. Our research demonstrates that believing in free will-that is, believing that one has control over one's actions-has societal implications," scientists in ...
New research on addiction medicine from University of Texas summarized.(Report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... "The rewarding effect of opioids, the driving force for compulsive behaviors of opioid abuse and addiction, is primarily mediated by the mu-opioid receptor. However, the role of the delta-opioid receptor (DOR) in opioid reward and addiction is still poorly understood," scientists in the ...
Reports outline addiction medicine study results from G. Gerra et al.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Many studies have documented the safety, efficacy, and effectiveness of long-acting opioids (L-AOs), such as methadone and buprenorphine, in the treatment of heroin addiction," investigators in Vienna, Austria report (see also Addiction Medicine). "This article reviews the ...
New adenoma research has been reported by scientists at Erasmus University.(Clinical report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Previous studies have demonstrated the expression of somatostatin receptor subtypes (mainly sst(5)) and dopamine (DA) receptor subtypes (mainly D-2) in smaller series of human corticotroph adenomas. In line with these findings, sst5 and D-2-targeting agents have already been used ...
Studies in the area of adolescence reported from University of Amsterdam.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Which moral principles should guide us in evaluating sexual contacts of adolescents? This paper tries to answer this question by taking two steps. First, the implications of a liberal sexual ethics for adolescence are spelled out, assessed and refuted," scientists writing in the Journal ...
Studies from K.J. Lepik et al add new findings in the area of adverse drug reactions.(Clinical report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... "We investigate adverse drug events associated with antidotes ethanol and fomepizole in methanol or ethylene glycol poisonings. An ''adverse drug event'' is harm associated with normal or incorrect drug use," scientists in Vancouver, Canada report (see also Adverse Drug Reactions). ...
Investigators at Griffith University zero in on aggression.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to a study from Brisbane, Australia, "Purpose of review To review current evidence linking amphetamine use with aggression and to consider possible factors that might underlie this association. Recent findings Although evidence that amphetamine use is related to increased levels ...
Research from Northeastern University yields new findings on aggression.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Atypical antipsychotics are commonly prescribed to clinically referred youngsters for treatment of heightened aggressive behavior associated with various psychiatric disorders. Previously, we demonstrated risperidone's anti-aggressive effects using a well-validated animal model of ...
New aging findings from K. Beer and co-authors described.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research from the United States, "A validated scale is presented to provide an objective measurement tool to evaluate dorsal hand aging. Representative cases are utilized to demonstrate the various stages of the rating scale." "Various modalities for hand ...
New aging research reported from V.A. Narurkar and co-authors.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "The aging hand poses a number of therapeutic challenges for rejuvenation and multiple factors are involved, including: dyschromia, lentigines, textural anomalies, volume loss, laxity and the visibility of superficial veins. As with facial aging, multimodal approaches using technologies ...
Report summarizes aging study findings from T.C. Flynn and co-researchers.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Lip fullness declines with aging. Injectable dermal fillers, most commonly hyaluronic acid and collagen-derived, are used to treat the border of the upper and lower lip to enhance lip contour and definition, although in the U.S. dermal filler use in the lips is off label," researchers in ...
Research from N. Solish and co-researchers in the area of aging described.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Facial aging is one of the most common problems patients present to dermatologic surgeons. Aging of the mid-face is typically a significant factor in the overall appearance of the face," scientists in the United States report (see also Aging). "Mid-facial descent and volume ...
Studies from L. Busque et al in the area of aging described.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research from Montreal, Canada, "Nonrandom X-chromosome inactivation (XCI), also known as skewing, has been documented in the blood cells of a significant proportion of normal aging women by the use of methylation-based assays at the polymorphic human androgen receptor ...
Studies from University of California provide new data on aging.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to a study from the United States, "The long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC PUFAs) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n3) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n3) are important for health and development of organisms, but the precise biological function of these molecules is ...
Study findings from C. Jaag et al broaden understanding of aging.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research from Switzerland, "This paper deals with two issues concerning the effects of population aging on education decisions in the presence of a PAYG pension system: We first analyze the effects of an aging population per se on individual skill choices and Continuous ...
Researchers at Cleveland Clinic target airway obstruction.(Report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research from the United States, "There are important gaps in our understanding of the epidemiology and diagnosis of upper-airway obstruction. We examined the diagnostic value of several criteria for predicting upper-airway obstruction, and we measured the frequency of ...
Study results from Army in the area of airway obstruction published.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "The 2005 American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society guidelines on spirometry emphasize examination of the inspiratory curve of the flow-volume loop for evidence of intrathoracic or extrathoracic upper airway obstruction. We sought to determine how frequently evaluations are ...
Study results from Zhejiang University broaden understanding of airway obstruction.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to a study from Hangzhou, People's Republic of China, "The conventional FEV1/FVC test is the ''gold standard'' to quantitate airway obstruction, but elderly subjects or patients with severe respiratory diseases quite frequently cannot make such an effort. Many studies have ...
New alcoholism study results reported from K.M. Keyes et al.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Recent research suggests that adding a quantity/frequency alcohol consumption measure to diagnoses of alcohol use disorders may improve construct validity of the diagnoses for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental and Behavior Disorders (DSM-V). This study explores the ...
Researchers from University of Maryland describe findings in alcoholism.(Report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Initial motivation and readiness to change (RTC) are complex constructs and have been important but inconsistent predictors of treatment attendance and drinking outcomes in studies of alcoholism treatment. Motivation can be described in multiple ways as simply the accumulation of ...
Scientists at National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism target alcoholism.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Our previous studies have used intravenous (IV) clamping methods to demonstrate that family history positive (FHP) subjects exhibit a greater initial response to alcohol than family history negative (FHN) subjects. These results differ from other studies of family history of alcoholism ...
Studies from University of Connecticut provide new data on alcoholism.(Report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Glutamate neurotransmission plays an important role in a variety of alcohol-related phenomena, including alcohol self-administration by both animals and humans. Because the risk for alcohol dependence (AD) is genetically influenced, genes encoding glutamate receptors are candidates to ...
Study results from Washington University, Medical Department broaden understanding of alcoholism.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research from the United States, "Alcohol dependence is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and has a strong familial component. Several linkage and association studies have identified chromosomal regions and/or genes that affect alcohol consumption, ...
Research from Columbus Children's Hospital yields new data on allergic contact dermatitis.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to a study from the United States, "Atopic dermatitis and allergic contact dermatitis are skin disorders triggered by epicutaneous sensitization with protein antigens and contact sensitization with haptens, respectively. Skin is colonized with bacteria, which are a source of ...
Data on allergies published by researchers at Kyoto University.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to a study from Kyoto, Japan, "Forkhead box protein 3-positive regulatory T (Treg) cells are indispensable for the maintenance of self-tolerance and immune homeostasis." "They can also be exploited for the treatment of immunologic diseases, including autoimmune ...
Findings from R. Wessbecher and co-researchers advance knowledge in allergies.
Jun 03, 2009 ... " In some diseases penicillin is the treatment of choice. Case studies have shown a good response for the treatment of circumscribed scleroderma or scleroderma adultorum of Buschke," scientists writing in the International Journal of Dermatology report (see also Allergies). "A ...
New data from Okayama Prefectural University illuminate research in allergies.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research published in the journal Bioscience Biotechnology and Biochemistry, "Tropomyosins have been identified as a common allergen in crustaceans, but their allergenicity is not well understood. In the present study, we isolated an allergen, Pen j 1, a tropomyosin ...
Recent findings from Marche Polytechnic University highlight research in allergies.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Berries contain powerful antioxidants, potential allergens, and other bioactive compounds," scientists in Ancona, Italy report (see also Allergies). "Genetic and environmental factors affect production and storage of such compounds. For this reason breeding and biotechnological ...
Research reports on allergies from Virginia Commonwealth University provide new insights.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to a study from the United States, "Pruritus ( itch) is a common cause of discomfort by dermatological disorders. Several peripherally and centrally mediated pathologies that induce pruritus do not generally respond to typical allergenic and anti-inflammatory treatments." ...
Study results from N. Goplen et al provide new insights into allergies.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research from the United States, "Existing asthma models develop tolerance when chronically exposed to the same allergen. We sought to establish a chronic model that sustains features of asthma long after discontinuation of allergen exposure." "We immunized ...
Studies from Columbia University have provided new data on alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency.
Jun 03, 2009 ... In this recent report, researchers in the United States conducted a study "To elucidate psychosocial and ethical issues faced by adults at risk for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) that have received little attention. Eleven individuals with AATD were interviewed in detail for 2 hours ...
New Alport syndrome findings from K. Hopker and co-authors described.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "Alport syndrome is a progressive hereditary renal disease. Mutations in the genes encoding for three members of the type IV collagen protein family have been found to be the cause of the disease," scientists in Cologne, Germany report (see also Alport Syndrome). "Alport ...
Reports outline alveolar bone loss study results from Cumhuriyet University.(Report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... "The purpose of this study was to analyze the morphometric and histopathologic changes associated with experimental periodontitis in rats in response to systemic administration of N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Forty-three Wistar rats were divided into five experimental groups: non-ligated (NL) ...
Research on Alzheimer disease reported by scientists at Lund University.
Jun 03, 2009 ... "The objective was to identify separate cognitive domains in the standard assessment tools (MMSE, ADAS-Cog) and analyze the process of decline within domains during three years in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with donepezil treatment. AD patients (n = 421) were recruited from a ...
Research reports on Alzheimer disease from Louisiana State University provide new insights.(Report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research from the United States, "Six older adults with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) were trained to recall a name-face association using the spaced retrieval technique. In this study, we retested these persons in a 6-month follow-up program." "For half ...
Researchers at University of California have published new data on Alzheimer disease.
Jun 03, 2009 ... According to recent research from the United States, "Selecting what is important to remember, attending to this information, and then later recalling it can be thought of in terms of the strategic control of attention and the efficient use of memory. To examine whether aging and ...
Study data from Shiga University provide new insights into Alzheimer disease.(Report)
Jun 03, 2009 ... "We and others have previously reported that lactotransferrin (LF), acting both as an iron-binding protein and inflammatory modulator, is greatly up-regulated in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, it remains unknown which type of cells express LF in the brain of ...