Medicine posts
- February 3, 2012
- 02:57 PM
- 16 views
Ameloblast from the past
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
I've posted a couple times about the prospects of using high-resolution computed tomography imaging to assess cellular-level processes of growth and development. Today, Paul Tafforeau and colleagues present a synchrotron-based visualization of the adventurous paths that individual enamel-forming cells'(ameloblasts) take to form tooth crowns. I've been focusing more on using these techniques for studying bone growth, but I got the idea of that from previous studies of teeth (see Ma........ Read more »
Macchiarelli, R., Bondioli, L., Debénath, A., Mazurier, A., Tournepiche, J., Birch, W., & Dean, M. (2006) How Neanderthal molar teeth grew. Nature, 444(7120), 748-751. DOI: 10.1038/nature05314
Smith, T., Tafforeau, P., Reid, D., Pouech, J., Lazzari, V., Zermeno, J., Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Olejniczak, A., Hoffman, A., Radovcic, J.... (2010) Dental evidence for ontogenetic differences between modern humans and Neanderthals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(49), 20923-20928. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1010906107
Tafforeau, P., Zermeno, J., & Smith, T. (2012) Tracking cellular-level enamel growth and structure in 4D with synchrotron imaging. Journal of Human Evolution. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.01.001
- February 3, 2012
- 02:05 AM
- 29 views
A gene for trauma
by Suzanne Elvidge in Genome Engineering
Why do some people go through some really traumatic experiences and emerge unscathed, and others end up traumatised? It might be down to coping strategies, but genes might influence it too, according to research from Rutgers University.... Read more »
Martel, G., Hevi, C., Wong, A., Zushida, K., Uchida, S., & Shumyatsky, G. (2012) Murine GRPR and Stathmin Control in Opposite Directions both Cued Fear Extinction and Neural Activities of the Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex. PLoS ONE, 7(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030942
- February 3, 2012
- 01:36 AM
- 50 views
Recurrent histone alterations in pediatric brain cancer
by Daniel Koboldt in Massgenomics
Brain tumors are a particularly deadly form of cancer, and the leading cause of cancer-related death in children. Two studies published this week in Nature journals applied next-generation sequencing to pediatric brain tumors, revealing a striking pattern of recurrent somatic mutations in H3F3A, a gene encoding the histone prorein H3.3. These are the first unbiased [...]... Read more »
Schwartzentruber J, Korshunov A, Liu XY, Jones DT, Pfaff E, Jacob K, Sturm D, Fontebasso AM, Quang DA, Tönjes M.... (2012) Driver mutations in histone H3.3 and chromatin remodelling genes in paediatric glioblastoma. Nature. PMID: 22286061
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project, Wu G, Broniscer A, McEachron TA, Lu C, Paugh BS, Becksfort J, Qu C, Ding L, Huether R.... (2012) Somatic histone H3 alterations in pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas and non-brainstem glioblastomas. Nature genetics. PMID: 22286216
- February 2, 2012
- 07:00 PM
- 46 views
Herpes Gladiatorum: Full Contact Infectious Diseases
by rbca in BODY HORRORS
In honor of one of the most lucrative American holidays happening this very weekend, I thought I’d explore sports and infectious diseases. Specifically, contact sports and skin infections! What could be better than watching the Super Bowl and knowing just exactly what kind of diseases could possibly be smeared between the players of the Patriots and Giants?... Read more »
Adams, B. (2010) Skin infections in athletes. Expert Review of Dermatology, 5(5), 567-577. DOI: 10.1586/edm.10.50
- February 2, 2012
- 02:30 PM
- 58 views
A Case for Oral Diagnostics with Microfluidics
by Hector Munoz in Microfluidic Future
What’s So Great About Oral Diagnostics?
Well, a lot of things, but let’s start with the basics. In order to use a microfluidic device, you need some type of fluid right? Sure if you had some powder or fine material you could suspend it in a fluid, but for simplicity sake, let’s look at fluids as our test material. If you wanted to run a health-related diagnostic, you only have so many bodily fluids available before you have to get creative and very invasive:
Blood
........ Read more »
Giannobile, W., McDevitt, J., Niedbala, R., & Malamud, D. (2011) Translational and Clinical Applications of Salivary Diagnostics. Advances in Dental Research, 23(4), 375-380. DOI: 10.1177/0022034511420434
Hart, R., Mauk, M., Liu, C., Qiu, X., Thompson, J., Chen, D., Malamud, D., Abrams, W., & Bau, H. (2011) Point-of-care oral-based diagnostics. Oral Diseases, 17(8), 745-752. DOI: 10.1111/j.1601-0825.2011.01808.x
- February 2, 2012
- 08:44 AM
- 39 views
The missing heritability: the humble opinion of a mathematician
Tomorrow, February 3, is Eric Lander's birthday, the director of the Broad Institute (the well-known MIT/Harvard genomic research center), and the first author of the historic 2001 Nature paper that marked the completion of the Human Genome Project [1]. I heard him once speak at USC and without ever getting technical he managed to engage the whole audience and share his passion for genetics. As you know, I've been honoring famous geneticists by discussing one of their papers on their birthday an........ Read more »
Lander, E., Linton, L., Birren, B., Nusbaum, C., Zody, M., Baldwin, J., Devon, K., Dewar, K., Doyle, M., FitzHugh, W.... (2001) Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome. Nature, 409(6822), 860-921. DOI: 10.1038/35057062
Zuk, O., Hechter, E., Sunyaev, S., & Lander, E. (2012) The mystery of missing heritability: Genetic interactions create phantom heritability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(4), 1193-1198. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1119675109
- February 2, 2012
- 06:30 AM
- 72 views
This is the Way to Bad Medicine - II
by Rogue Medic in Rogue Medic
Their categorization of only 3 (out of 32) serious adverse events as "Probably related to treatment" and none as "Definitely related to treatment" suggests that they are not being objective. How do they explain this in the discussion? They don’t. Maybe they aren’t referring to the serious adverse events, but are referring to deaths. I don’t know and since they do not explain, I can only speculate.... Read more »
Barreto, A., Alexandrov, A., Lyden, P., Lee, J., Martin-Schild, S., Shen, L., Wu, T., Sisson, A., Pandurengan, R., Chen, Z.... (2012) The Argatroban and Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator Stroke Study: Final Results of a Pilot Safety Study. Stroke. DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.111.625574
- February 2, 2012
- 12:04 AM
- 21 views
Effects of Limb Immobilization on the Brain
by Jeffrey Driban in Sports Medicine Research (SMR): In the Lab & In the Field
Therefore, Langer et al. longitudinally examined the structural changes of the gray and white matter of the brain in 10 patients receiving unilateral upper limb immobilization of their dominant (right) arm for at least 14 days.... Read more »
Langer N, Hänggi J, Müller NA, Simmen HP, & Jäncke L. (2012) Effects of limb immobilization on brain plasticity. Neurology, 78(3), 182-8. PMID: 22249495
- February 1, 2012
- 01:12 AM
- 51 views
Solar Cells as Easy as Inkjet Printing
by Paige Brown in From The Lab Bench
Imagine if making solar cells, which harvest light from the sun to produce energy, was as easy as sending this blog post to your inkjet printer.... Read more »
Wang, W., Su, Y., & Chang, C. (2011) Inkjet printed chalcopyrite CuInxGa1−xSe2 thin film solar cells. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 95(9), 2616-2620. DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2011.05.011
- February 1, 2012
- 12:08 AM
- 52 views
Water, Water Everywhere…but How Much Should You Drink?
by Jeffrey Driban in Sports Medicine Research (SMR): In the Lab & In the Field
Williams and colleagues utilized a questionnaire to assess runners’ hydration plans for before, during, and after the London Marathon, and evaluated how closely these plans followed the current recommendations.... Read more »
Williams J, Tzortzioubrown V, Malliaras P, Perry M, & Kipps C. (2012) Hydration Strategies of Runners in the London Marathon. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. PMID: 22246343
- January 31, 2012
- 06:15 PM
- 93 views
How antipsychotics cause side effects such as obesity and diabetes
by Heather Buschman in Beaker
Sanford-Burnham study suggests that many antipsychotics affect metabolism because they activate the TGFbeta pathway—a finding that could lead to safer therapeutics for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia patients.... Read more »
Cohen, T., Sundaresh, S., & Levine, F. (2012) Antipsychotics activate the TGFβ pathway effector SMAD3. Molecular Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1038/mp.2011.186
- January 31, 2012
- 06:09 PM
- 83 views
Update on Medivation’s MDV3100 in advanced prostate cancer
by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog
This weekend heralds the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary (GU) meeting in San Francisco, although ASCO held their press briefing today to provide an update on some of the key topics. For those of you interested in … Continue reading →
... Read more »
Chen CD, Welsbie DS, Tran C, Baek SH, Chen R, Vessella R, Rosenfeld MG, & Sawyers CL. (2004) Molecular determinants of resistance to antiandrogen therapy. Nature medicine, 10(1), 33-9. PMID: 14702632
Carver, B., Chapinski, C., Wongvipat, J., Hieronymus, H., Chen, Y., Chandarlapaty, S., Arora, V., Le, C., Koutcher, J., Scher, H.... (2011) Reciprocal Feedback Regulation of PI3K and Androgen Receptor Signaling in PTEN-Deficient Prostate Cancer. Cancer Cell, 19(5), 575-586. DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2011.04.008
- January 31, 2012
- 11:20 AM
- 65 views
Reward and Punish: Say Hello to Dopamine’s Leetle Friend
by Dirk Hanson in Addiction Inbox
Dopamine recruits a helper to track drug rewards.
Ah, dopamine. Whenever it seems like researchers have finally gotten a bead on how that tricky molecule modulates pleasure and reward, and the role in plays in the process of drug and alcohol addiction, along come new findings that rearrange its role, deepening and complicating our understanding of brain function.
We know that the ultimate site of dopamine activity caused by drugs is the ventral tegmental area, or VTA, and an associated ........ Read more »
Cohen, J., Haesler, S., Vong, L., Lowell, B., & Uchida, N. (2012) Neuron-type-specific signals for reward and punishment in the ventral tegmental area. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature10754
- January 31, 2012
- 08:08 AM
- 32 views
On KRAS, NF-kB activation and pancreatic cancer
by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog
Pancreatic cancer as many readers know, is one of those cancers that is generally diagnosed later than most in stage IV and as a result, has a poor prognosis, often only a year or so from diagnosis. It has been … Continue reading →
... Read more »
Ling, J., Kang, Y., Zhao, R., Xia, Q., Lee, D., Chang, Z., Li, J., Peng, B., Fleming, J., Wang, H.... (2012) KrasG12D-Induced IKK2/β/NF-κB Activation by IL-1α and p62 Feedforward Loops Is Required for Development of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. Cancer Cell, 21(1), 105-120. DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2011.12.006
- January 31, 2012
- 06:00 AM
- 63 views
Correcting presbyopia with corneal inlays: ¿reinventing the wheel or the advantages of simplicity?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
A simple method to correct for presbyopia is evaluated...... Read more »
Tabernero, J., Schwarz, C., Fernandez, E., & Artal, P. (2011) Binocular Visual Simulation of a Corneal Inlay to Increase Depth of Focus. Investigative Ophthalmology , 52(8), 5273-5277. DOI: 10.1167/iovs.10-6436
- January 31, 2012
- 05:36 AM
- 67 views
Neil harbisson, the world's first cyborg.
by Jaime Menchen in United Academics
Neil Harbisson, aged 29, considers himself a cyborg. Affected from birth by achromatopsia, he is unable to perceive colours, just black and white. Since 2004, he wears an eyeborg, a device that allows him to recognize colours through sound waves... Read more »
Warwick, K. (2011) Future Issues with Robots and Cyborgs. Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology, 4(3). DOI: 10.2202/1941-6008.1127
- January 31, 2012
- 12:08 AM
- 38 views
Social Interactions may Influence Inflammation
by Jeffrey Driban in Sports Medicine Research (SMR): In the Lab & In the Field
Chiang et al evaluated if daily social interactions among 122 healthy young adults to determine if these interactions relate to systematic concentrations of proinflammatory mediators (measured via oral collection) at rest and after acute stress. Social interactions were classified into 3 categories: negative (e.g., conflict with another person), competitive (e.g., competing for attention, academic competition, games) and positive (e.g., time with friends, support from partner) daily interactions........ Read more »
Chiang, J., Eisenberger, N., Seeman, T., & Taylor, S. (2012) Negative and competitive social interactions are related to heightened proinflammatory cytokine activity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1120972109
- January 30, 2012
- 11:57 PM
- 29 views
Taking back Epigenetics
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
If I'm good at anything, it's looking into one topic and then getting distracted by something else during my search. In a recent case, I was scouring the literature on growth and life history. One ribald thing led to another, and next thing I know I've stumbled upon Gunter Wagner's recent review of the book Epigenetics: Linking Genotype and Phenotype in Development and Evolution. WTF is epigenetics, you ask? That's actually a pretty good question (see here). In the past ........ Read more »
Chen, E., Zhang, K., Nicolas, E., Cam, H., Zofall, M., & Grewal, S. (2008) Cell cycle control of centromeric repeat transcription and heterochromatin assembly. Nature, 451(7179), 734-737. DOI: 10.1038/nature06561
Feil, R., & Fraga, M. (2012) Epigenetics and the environment: emerging patterns and implications. Nature Reviews Genetics. DOI: 10.1038/nrg3142
Gilbert, S. (1996) Resynthesizing Evolutionary and Developmental Biology. Developmental Biology, 173(2), 357-372. DOI: 10.1006/dbio.1996.0032
Wagner, G. (2011) Epigenetics in all its beauty. Trends in Ecology . DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2011.09.003
- January 30, 2012
- 08:36 PM
- 30 views
3D look at protein family with a long Sanford-Burnham history
by Heather Buschman in Beaker
Structural biologists Stefan Riedl, Ph.D. and Peter Mace, Ph.D. recently answered several perplexing questions about the Cas proteins--a family of cancer-related proteins that's long been studied at Sanford-Burnham.... Read more »
Mace PD, Wallez Y, Dobaczewska MK, Lee JJ, Robinson H, Pasquale EB, & Riedl SJ. (2011) NSP-Cas protein structures reveal a promiscuous interaction module in cell signaling. Nature structural , 18(12), 1381-7. PMID: 22081014
- January 30, 2012
- 11:35 AM
- 48 views
Childhood Pneumonia – What’s the Problem?
by Jason in Views From Beyond the OR
An article caught my eye in last week’s Lancet. Soofi and colleagues conducted a cluster-randomised controlled trial of community case management of severe pneumonia in children aged 2-59 months in a rural district of Pakistan to try and understand how … Continue reading →... Read more »
Soofi, S., Ahmed, S., Fox, M., MacLeod, W., Thea, D., Qazi, S., & Bhutta, Z. (2012) Effectiveness of community case management of severe pneumonia with oral amoxicillin in children aged 2–59 months in Matiari district, rural Pakistan: a cluster-randomised controlled trial. The Lancet. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61714-5
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