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- March 7, 2011
- 10:47 AM
- 873 views
The GABA Neuron’s Gas Station Attendant
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Cells are often described as factories, a metaphor that adequately describes the swarm of specialized tasks constantly underway in each of the human body’s 100 trillion cells. The factory floor of the cell is so busy and complex that scientists are still discovering new machinery responsible for important jobs, with no clear end in sight. [...]... Read more »
Riazanski, V., Deriy, L., Shevchenko, P., Le, B., Gomez, E., & Nelson, D. (2011) Presynaptic CLC-3 determines quantal size of inhibitory transmission in the hippocampus. Nature Neuroscience. DOI: 10.1038/nn.2775
- February 21, 2011
- 12:29 PM
- 867 views
Sweeping Out Selective Sweeps
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
The ultimate genetic detective story is solving the mystery of human evolution. Since it became possible to look at genetic sequences in humans and their primate relatives, geneticists have hunted for the footprints of how humans evolved. But finding the most significant places in the genome that changed since humans and chimpanzees split off from [...]... Read more »
Hernandez RD, Kelley JL, Elyashiv E, Melton SC, Auton A, McVean G, 1000 Genomes Project, Sella G, & Przeworski M. (2011) Classic Selective Sweeps Were Rare in Recent Human Evolution. Science (New York, N.Y.), 331(6019), 920-924. PMID: 21330547
- February 22, 2011
- 11:32 AM
- 846 views
Tricking Touch with Plaids
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Imagine yourself at a street corner, watching cars go by and waiting for your turn to cross. When the eye tracks a moving object like a car, it inspires fireworks of activity in the visual systems of the brain. Initially, the information is pixelated into independent scraps, as primary visual neurons respond to their preferred [...]... Read more »
Pei YC, Hsiao SS, Craig JC, & Bensmaia SJ. (2011) Neural mechanisms of tactile motion integration in somatosensory cortex. Neuron, 69(3), 536-47. PMID: 21315263
- February 1, 2010
- 04:11 PM
- 837 views
Addiction Behavior in One Protein
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Addiction is a hard disease to define. We all understand in a general sense what addiction to drugs or sex or food means or looks like, but when it comes to an explicit definition, even the experts struggle. In the DSM-IV, the manual for psychiatric disease, addiction is bifurcated into “substance abuse” and “substance dependence,” [...]... Read more »
Loweth, J., Singer, B., Baker, L., Wilke, G., Inamine, H., Bubula, N., Alexander, J., Carlezon, W., Neve, R., & Vezina, P. (2010) Transient Overexpression of -Ca2 /Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell Enhances Behavioral Responding to Amphetamine. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(3), 939-949. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4383-09.2010
- February 22, 2010
- 10:24 AM
- 819 views
A Fishfinder for the “Junk DNA” Seas
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
In a way, the Human Genome Project had it easy. Sure, mapping the roughly 23,000 genes active in humans was one of the most important scientific achievements of all time, but those genes are only part of the story. In fact, the protein-coding sequences only occupy about 1.5% of the roughly 3 billion base pairs [...]... Read more »
Narlikar, L., Sakabe, N., Blanski, A., Arimura, F., Westlund, J., Nobrega, M., & Ovcharenko, I. (2010) Genome-wide discovery of human heart enhancers. Genome Research. DOI: 10.1101/gr.098657.109
- August 30, 2010
- 03:25 PM
- 807 views
Love in the Time of Diabetes
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
A diagnosis of diabetes brings with it a plethora of lifestyle changes. Patients must switch up their diet and exercise habits, take on a new routine of daily medications and injections, and keep an eye on their blood sugar. But another potential change under the cloud of diabetes is even more personal: the diabetic’s sex [...]... Read more »
Lindau, S., Tang, H., Gomero, A., Vable, A., Huang, E., Drum, M., Qato, D., & Chin, M. (2010) Sexuality Among Middle Age and Older Adults with Diagnosed and Undiagnosed Diabetes: A National, Population-Based Study. Diabetes Care. DOI: 10.2337/dc10-0524
- February 15, 2011
- 12:34 PM
- 790 views
Ending the Immune War on Wheat
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
The immune system is designed to protect the body against foreign invaders, neutralizing disease and infection. But organisms are all too happy to invite invasions several times a day through a seemingly innocuous act: eating. When food enters the digestive system, it has to be dealt with by the immune system just like everything else [...]... Read more »
Depaolo RW, Abadie V, Tang F, Fehlner-Peach H, Hall JA, Wang W, Marietta EV, Kasarda DD, Waldmann TA, Murray JA.... (2011) Co-adjuvant effects of retinoic acid and IL-15 induce inflammatory immunity to dietary antigens. Nature. PMID: 21307853
- February 15, 2010
- 03:00 PM
- 779 views
Better Sleep, Better Learning?
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Imagine a child who gets good grades in school, listens well to his teacher, and is commended for his good behavior in the classroom. Then slowly, his grades start to decline, he grows moodier, and his teacher reports that his attention often drifts in class. The parents are stumped - they can’t think of anything [...]... Read more »
Kheirandish-Gozal, L., de Jong, M., Spruyt, K., Chamuleau, S., & Gozal, D. (2010) Obstructive sleep apnoea is associated with impaired pictorial memory task acquisition and retention in children. European Respiratory Journal. DOI: 10.1183/09031936.00114209
- March 17, 2010
- 10:36 AM
- 769 views
Nature Takes One Back from Nurture
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Ah, nature and nurture, those eternal enemies. What once used to be the domain of philosophy and English classes has migrated over the past century to the sphere of science, culminating in the completion of The Human Genome Project in 2003. But far from settling this age-old battle, the HGP may have reinvigorated it. Now [...]... Read more »
Zhang, D., Cheng, L., Badner, J., Chen, C., Chen, Q., Luo, W., Craig, D., Redman, M., Gershon, E., & Liu, C. (2010) Genetic Control of Individual Differences in Gene-Specific Methylation in Human Brain. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 86(3), 411-419. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.02.005
- April 4, 2011
- 01:04 PM
- 761 views
Treating Height as a Symptom
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
In taking care of sick patients, clinicians have two goals: treating the disease and treating the symptoms. In the case of an infection or a chronic illness, accomplishing this dual purpose is relatively straightforward. But what about when the symptom is something more complicated than pain or nausea? Some genetic disorders carry the consequence of [...]... Read more »
Cuttler L, & Rosenfield RL. (2011) Assessing the value of treatments to increase height. The New England journal of medicine, 364(13), 1274-6. PMID: 21449792
Ross JL, Quigley CA, Cao D, Feuillan P, Kowal K, Chipman JJ, & Cutler GB Jr. (2011) Growth hormone plus childhood low-dose estrogen in Turner's syndrome. The New England journal of medicine, 364(13), 1230-42. PMID: 21449786
- April 20, 2011
- 11:46 AM
- 754 views
The Influence of Healthy and Unhealthy Streets
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
It’s no big secret that one of the keys to good health is getting regular exercise. Yet good intentions are often thwarted by factors outside of one’s control. A person might decide to jog or bike several times a week, but if the neighborhood outside their door is not conducive to physical activity, it can [...]... Read more »
Hou, N., Popkin, B., Jacobs Jr., D., Song, Y., Guilkey, D., Lewis, C., & Gordon-Larsen, P. (2010) Longitudinal associations between neighborhood-level street network with walking, bicycling, and jogging: The CARDIA study. Health , 16(6), 1206-1215. DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.08.005
- August 23, 2010
- 10:29 AM
- 750 views
The Disparity of Pills
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
A great deal of attention has been paid in recent years to the issue of racial and ethnic health disparities. Statistic after statistic reveals that minorities in the United States, particularly African-American and Hispanic populations, are in poorer health on average compared to American whites. Infant mortality, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer and other maladies [...]... Read more »
Qato DM, Lindau ST, Conti RM, Schumm LP, & Alexander GC. (2010) Racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular medication use among older adults in the United States. Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 19(8), 834-42. PMID: 20681002
- March 28, 2011
- 10:58 AM
- 750 views
Crowdsourcing the War on Cancer
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Reading The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee’s “biography of cancer” from last year, one is struck by both the long and short history of cancer. Descriptions of breast cancer can be found as long ago as an Egyptian papyrus dated to 2500 BC and ancient Greek histories, and tumors have been found in thousand-year-old [...]... Read more »
Schilsky RL. (2011) Accrual to cancer clinical trials in the era of molecular medicine. Science translational medicine, 3(75). PMID: 21430267
- March 2, 2010
- 12:52 PM
- 749 views
The Dangerous Edge of Gene Doping
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Please welcome Laurel Mylonas-Orwig, author of today’s post and a new contributor to the blog!
Every two years, the best athletes in the world gather to compete in the modern Olympic Games. Against a backdrop of sand or snow, these seemingly superhuman competitors push their bodies to perform feats that would be impossible for the average [...]... Read more »
Svensson, E., Black, H., Dugger, D., Tripathy, S., Goldwasser, E., Hao, Z., Chu, L., & Leiden, J. (1997) Long-Term Erythropoietin Expression in Rodents and Non-Human Primates Following Intramuscular Injection of a Replication-Defective Adenoviral Vector. Human Gene Therapy, 8(15), 1797-1806. DOI: 10.1089/hum.1997.8.15-1797
- June 28, 2011
- 11:40 AM
- 735 views
Cultural Custom-Fitting to Combat Obesity
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Countless campaigns have been launched to steer schoolchildren toward healthy habits, and yet rates of childhood obesity and diabetes continue to soar. Celebrity endorsements, catchy catchphrases, and food pyramid redesigns have struggled to combat the allure of fast food and television in the battle for child health in the United States. But with childhood obesity [...]... Read more »
Burnet DL, Plaut AJ, Wolf SA, Huo D, Solomon MC, Dekayie G, Quinn MT, Lipton R, & Chin MH. (2011) Reach-out: a family-based diabetes prevention program for African American youth. Journal of the National Medical Association, 103(3), 269-77. PMID: 21671531
- April 7, 2010
- 12:23 PM
- 733 views
Digging Into the Disabled List
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
With baseball’s Opening Day celebrated across the country this week, fans will begin their daily rituals of checking the small type at the back of the sports section to see who on their hometown or fantasy team has picked up an injury. But while baseball fans have become comfortable with slinging around phrases such as [...]... Read more »
Leland, J., Ciccotti, M., Cohen, S., Zoga, A., & Frederick, R. (2009) Teres major injuries in two professional baseball pitchers. Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, 18(6). DOI: 10.1016/j.jse.2009.01.025
- April 5, 2011
- 11:25 AM
- 733 views
Foretelling Drinking Future From a Buzz
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Despite what beer commercials tell you, not everyone responds to alcohol in the same way. For some people, an alcoholic drink is a party-starter, increasing energy and sociability. For others, a drink can be a party-ender, producing feelings of fatigue and sluggishness. In pharmacological terms, alcohol is a mixed stimulant/depressant, able to produce a wide [...]... Read more »
King, A., de Wit, H., McNamara, P., & Cao, D. (2011) Rewarding, Stimulant, and Sedative Alcohol Responses and Relationship to Future Binge Drinking. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68(4), 389-399. DOI: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.26
- April 14, 2011
- 01:41 PM
- 728 views
One Foot in Front of the Other
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
There are few biological functions that we take for granted more than gait, the intricate symphony of motion that happens almost automatically when we walk or run. Gait is programmed deep into the nervous system of animals, an activity so robust that it is maintained even when large segments of brain are removed. Those crude, [...]... Read more »
Zhong, G., Sharma, K., & Harris-Warrick, R. (2011) Frequency-dependent recruitment of V2a interneurons during fictive locomotion in the mouse spinal cord. Nature Communications, 274. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1276
Crone SA, Zhong G, Harris-Warrick R, & Sharma K. (2009) In mice lacking V2a interneurons, gait depends on speed of locomotion. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 29(21), 7098-109. PMID: 19474336
McLean DL, Fan J, Higashijima S, Hale ME, & Fetcho JR. (2007) A topographic map of recruitment in spinal cord. Nature, 446(7131), 71-5. PMID: 17330042
- September 13, 2010
- 11:41 AM
- 717 views
Feeding Your Internal Ecosystem
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
The human body is not just an organism, it’s an ecosystem. To the billions of microscopic bacteria, viruses and fungi living in the various nooks and crannies of our intestines, mouth, nose, and other areas, we are the world, the environment that drives their evolution. Though scientists and physicians have long known that humans are [...]... Read more »
Poroyko V, White JR, Wang M, Donovan S, Alverdy J, Liu DC, & Morowitz MJ. (2010) Gut microbial gene expression in mother-fed and formula-fed piglets. PloS one, 5(8). PMID: 20805981
- October 6, 2010
- 03:49 PM
- 717 views
Burn Off More Fat with More…Sleep?
by Rob Mitchum in ScienceLife
Losing weight can be described at its simplest as a matter of counting calories during the daytime. Consume fewer calories and burn more through activity and exercise, and you’re likely to lose weight. Eat more high-calorie foods and sit on the couch all day watching football, and you get the opposite effect. But according to [...]... Read more »
Nedeltcheva AV, Kilkus JM, Imperial J, Schoeller DA, & Penev PD. (2010) Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity. Annals of internal medicine, 153(7), 435-41. PMID: 20921542
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