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  • March 16, 2010
  • 08:00 AM
  • 2 views

My Nephew and his Brain, Part 2 – Revealed to be Complicated

by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger

Continued from Part 1. After we had arrived at the new hospital and my nephew had been placed into the Pediatric ICU (PICU), the doctors started running more tests, and in conjunction with what the ER doctor had found out, my nephew was diagnosed with a seizure disorder or, as it is more commonly known, [...]... Read more »

  • March 15, 2010
  • 01:04 PM
  • 40 views

Dyslexia and Brain Connectivity: Insights from Periventricular Nodular Heterotopia

by Livia in Reading and Word Recognition Research

Accessibility Level:  Intermediate

One theory of dyslexia is that it stems from abnormal brain connectivity -- that faulty connections between different language areas result in reading difficulty. Now, some evidence from another condition offers some support for this theory.

Periventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH) is a neurological condition in which neurons don’t migrate to the correct



... Read more »

Chang, B., Katzir, T., Liu, T., Corriveau, K., Barzillai, M., Apse, K., Bodell, A., Hackney, D., Alsop, D., Wong, S.... (2007) A structural basis for reading fluency: White matter defects in a genetic brain malformation. Neurology, 69(23), 2146-2154. DOI: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000286365.41070.54  

  • March 15, 2010
  • 01:01 PM
  • 30 views

Hitting cancer’s Achilles’ heel

by Cancer Research UK in Cancer Research UK - Science Update

Like the mythical Greek hero Achilles, whose heel was his only vulnerable spot, we now know that cancer cells have certain weaknesses that we can exploit. The difficulty is finding them.
Today, new research from Professor Alan Ashworth and his team at The Institute of Cancer Research, who have already been involved in the exploitation of [...]... Read more »

Sarah A. Martin, Nuala McCabe, Michelle Mullarkey, Robert Cummins, Darren J. Burgess, Yusaku Nakabeppu, Sugako Oka, Elaine Kay, Christopher J. Lord, & Alan Ashworth. (2010) DNA Polymerases as Potential Therapeutic Targets for Cancers Deficient in the DNA Mismatch Repair Proteins MSH2 or MLH1. Cancer Cell. info:/10.1016/j.ccr.2009.12.046

  • March 15, 2010
  • 12:42 PM
  • 40 views

Is Weight Loss Associated with Increased Risk of Early Mortality?

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea


The current recommendations from major health organizations stipulate that if an individual has a BMI in the obese range (>30 kg/m2), they should be counseled to lose at least 5-10% of their body weight. This advice appears to make some sense given that increasing body weight is generally associated with heightened risk of various diseases, and that reduction of body weight usually improves levels of risk factors for disease (e.g blood pressure, triglycerides, etc). However, the literature h........ Read more »

  • March 15, 2010
  • 09:50 AM
  • 31 views

Tumour associated macrophages and survival in Hodgkins Lymphoma

by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog

While reading my pile of mail on Friday, I realised that an interesting paper on Hodgkins Lymphoma (HL) appeared in the current edition of the New England Journal of Medicine (full reference below). The basics of the paper are that...... Read more »

  • March 15, 2010
  • 09:23 AM
  • 40 views

Surveying the gut microbiota, cross dressing chickens and more, in my Picks of the Week, from RB

by Alejandro Montenegro-Montero in MolBio Research Highlights

Another week has gone by and some very interesting molbio blog posts have been aggregated to Researchblogging.org. Every week [see my opening post on the matter], I'll select some blog posts I consider particularly interesting in the field of molecular biology [see here to get a sense of the criteria that will be used], briefly describe them and list them here for you to check out.Note that I'm ... Read more »

Qin, J., Li, R., Raes, J., Arumugam, M., Burgdorf, K., Manichanh, C., Nielsen, T., Pons, N., Levenez, F., Yamada, T.... (2010) A human gut microbial gene catalogue established by metagenomic sequencing. Nature, 464(7285), 59-65. DOI: 10.1038/nature08821  

Vijay-Kumar, M., Aitken, J., Carvalho, F., Cullender, T., Mwangi, S., Srinivasan, S., Sitaraman, S., Knight, R., Ley, R., & Gewirtz, A. (2010) Metabolic Syndrome and Altered Gut Microbiota in Mice Lacking Toll-Like Receptor 5. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1179721  

Zhao, D., McBride, D., Nandi, S., McQueen, H., McGrew, M., Hocking, P., Lewis, P., Sang, H., & Clinton, M. (2010) Somatic sex identity is cell autonomous in the chicken. Nature, 464(7286), 237-242. DOI: 10.1038/nature08852  

  • March 15, 2010
  • 05:52 AM
  • 55 views

How to Stop Smoking

by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic

1. Don't smoke.2. See 1.This is essentially what Simon Chapman and Ross MacKenzie suggest in a provocative PloS Medicine paper, The Global Research Neglect of Unassisted Smoking Cessation: Causes and Consequences.Their point is deceptively simple: there is lots of research looking at drugs and other treatments to help people quit smoking tobacco, but little attention is paid to people who quit without any help, despite the fact that the majority (up to 75%) of quitters do just that. This is good........ Read more »

  • March 15, 2010
  • 03:33 AM
  • 40 views

The Neuroscience of Anorexia Nervosa

by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD


One of the most striking features of those suffering from anorexia nervosa is their perception of their bodies. You can put them in front of a mirror and they will still tell you they’re to fat when in fact they’re skinny. A recent publication in Nature Proceedings has an explanation.
This explanation is based on the [...]


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Riva, Guiseppe. (2010) Neuroscience and Eating Disorders: The role of the medial-temporal lobe. Nature Proceedings. info:/

  • March 14, 2010
  • 02:20 PM
  • 27 views

Maintaining change

by Adiemusfree in Healthskills: Skills for Healthy Living


I’m sure we’ve all seen it. The person comes into a pain management programme, gets excited, does really well during each session, enjoys the company and makes huge gains – then the programme ends and — FIZZLE! It all stops.
Some critics suggest that any change obtained during a short-term programme (such as a three-week [...]... Read more »

  • March 14, 2010
  • 07:59 AM
  • 28 views

Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Diet Coke & Health. Part I.

by Laika in Laika's Medliblog

At Medical and Technology of Joseph Kim, the upcoming Grand Rounds host, I saw the blog post “Need your help on Facebook to get Diet Coke to Donate $50,000 to the Foundation for NIH”.
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute has started a national campaign in the US, The Heart Truth®. They issued a challenge in [...]... Read more »

Litsa K Lambrakos, Pamela Coxson, Lee Goldman, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo. (2010) Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and the Attributable Burden to Diabetes and Coronary Heart Disease. Circulation. info:other/

Malik VS, Schulze MB, & Hu FB. (2006) Intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain: a systematic review. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 84(2), 274-88. PMID: 16895873  

Wolff E, & Dansinger ML. (2008) Soft drinks and weight gain: how strong is the link?. Medscape journal of medicine, 10(8), 189. PMID: 18924641  

Janssen I, Katzmarzyk PT, Boyce WF, Vereecken C, Mulvihill C, Roberts C, Currie C, Pickett W, & Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Obesity Working Group. (2005) Comparison of overweight and obesity prevalence in school-aged youth from 34 countries and their relationships with physical activity and dietary patterns. Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 6(2), 123-32. PMID: 15836463  

  • March 12, 2010
  • 06:45 PM
  • 36 views

Thymus Transplant Extends Life in Old Mice

by Reason in Fight Aging!

Amidst the preprint list of the Rejuvenation Research journal, I see an interesting paper I'd somehow missed: life span can be extended in old mice by transplant of a young thymus. Noninvasive Neonatal Thymus Graft into the Axillary Cavity Extends the Lifespan of Old Mice: Neonatal thymus grafts exert a rejuvenating action on various immunological and nonimmunological functions found altered in old mice. Commonly, half of a thymus is grafted under the kidney capsule. The invasiveness of the surg........ Read more »

Basso, A., Malavolta, M., Piacenza, F., Santarelli, L., Marcellini, F., Papa, R., & Mocchegiani, E. (2009) Noninvasive Neonatal Thymus Graft into the Axillary Cavity Extends the Lifespan of Old Mice. Rejuvenation Research, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1089/rej.2009.0936  

  • March 12, 2010
  • 12:05 PM
  • 31 views

Google Adds Cycling Routes to Their Maps!

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Regular readers of Obesity Panacea will know that I am a huge fan of active transportation (e.g. walking or cycling to work, rather than commuting by vehicle). I just can't say enough good things about it. It often takes about the same amount of time as commuting by vehicle, plus it ensures that you're getting at least some physical activity on even the busiest days. Even just taking transit instead of driving yourself increases your chances of meeting the daily physical activity gu........ Read more »

Wilkinson, P., Smith, K., Davies, M., Adair, H., Armstrong, B., Barrett, M., Bruce, N., Haines, A., Hamilton, I., & Oreszczyn, T. (2009) Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: household energy. The Lancet, 374(9705), 1917-1929. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61713-X  

  • March 12, 2010
  • 12:00 PM
  • 71 views

The (empirical) rule of 8%

by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential

Some advice on how to deal with students and postdocs...... Read more »

Perez, G., Archer, S., & Artal, P. (2009) Optical Characterization of Bangerter Foils. Investigative Ophthalmology , 51(1), 609-613. DOI: 10.1167/iovs.09-3726  

  • March 12, 2010
  • 07:00 AM
  • 32 views

Deep Brain Stimulation – A New Frontier in Psychiatry

by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger

For as long as the brain has been seen as the site of mental activity, it has followed that altering brain function should be implemented to treat mental illness. Second generation antidepressants and psychotherapy are currently the least invasive ways of affecting brain function but they leave too many patients only partially improved, and have [...]... Read more »

  • March 11, 2010
  • 02:26 PM
  • 25 views

Norovirus and Clinical Research

by Lab Rat in Lab Rat

I've written a lot about bacteria and plants over the last few weeks, so in celebration of the fact that my project is finally on it's way out (with a whimper rather than a bang, unfortunately, but that's how it goes sometimes) I've decided to descend into the world of viruses. I've also decided to have a go at deconstructing some clinical papers, to make a change from academia. The difference between clinical and academic research can probably be described as follows (and I'm pretty sure I've s........ Read more »

Hane Htut Muang. (2008) Norovirus Infection: An Underestimated Danger. Cambridge Medicine, 22-24. info:/

  • March 11, 2010
  • 09:50 AM
  • 20 views

BioSante announce positive data from GVAX leukemia vaccine in CML

by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog

This morning the newswires (HT Mike Huckman) are full of the BioSante (formerly Cell Genesys) news on their leukemia vaccine, GVAX, which is being tested to see whether it is a viable approach for eradication of minimal residual disease. Accordingly,...... Read more »

  • March 10, 2010
  • 11:40 AM
  • 50 views

Body mass index (BMI) as a measure of obesity and health: a critical appraisal

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea


If you go to your physician's office and inquire about your weight status, he or she will measure your height and weight to derive your BMI (weight in kg divided by height in m squared). Then they will compare your BMI to that of established criteria to decide whether you are underweight (<18.5 kg/m2), normal weight (18.5-24.9 kg/m2), overweight (25-29.9 kg/m2), or obese (>30 kg/m2) . Often times, this measure alone determines whether or not you receive lifestyle treatment. But how useful........ Read more »

  • March 10, 2010
  • 04:07 AM
  • 28 views

“Cracked cancer code”? Not just yet

by Cancer Research UK in Cancer Research UK - Science Update

The Sunday Express has run a front page story stating that scientists have made a major breakthrough in cancer treatment “after cracking the ‘code’ behind the disease.”   Sadly the story is actually only based on a theory rather than on concrete scientific evidence.
The story comes from a paper in the Journal of Translational Medicine written [...]... Read more »

  • March 9, 2010
  • 03:09 PM
  • 34 views

Screening probes and probing screens

by The Curious Wavefunction in The Curious Wavefunction

High Throughput Screening (HTS), with all its strengths and limitations, is still the single-best way to discover novel interesting molecules in drug discovery. Thomas Kodadek of Scripps Florida has an interesting article on screening in the latest issue of Nat. Chem. Biol which is a special issue on chemical probes. Kodadek talks about the very different properties required for drugs and probes and the limitations and unmet needs in current HTS strategies. He focuses on mainly two kinds of scre........ Read more »

Kodadek, T. (2010) Rethinking screening. Nature Chemical Biology, 6(3), 162-165. DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.303  

  • March 9, 2010
  • 07:00 AM
  • 31 views

Psychotropics and Youth, Part 3 – Equip Teachers with Prescription Pads?

by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger

Contentious debate is brewing over the large role educators play role in recommending what students receive psychotropics, even though they have limited knowledge of treatment. Consider the standards by which one teacher described the benefits of psychotropics to researchers in a recent pilot investigation: the children are “better able to attend to their work… they [...]... Read more »

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