http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A quartet of studies by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) highlight a special feature on gene regulatory networks recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://www.physorg.com/news152893662.html Biology Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:29:53 EST news152893662 Adolescents and young adults who are heavy users of marijuana are more likely than non-users to have disrupted brain development, according to a new study. Pediatric researchers found abnormalities in areas of the brain that interconnect brain regions involved in memory, attention, decision-making, language and executive functioning skills. The findings are of particular concern because adolescence is a crucial period for brain development and maturation. http://www.physorg.com/news152807191.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:27:08 EST news152807191 New research sheds light on a neural growth factor called proBDNF, finding that it is present and potentially active during the perinatal period when the brain's circuitry and memory-encoding regions are being refined. Led by Weill Cornell Medical College investigators with those at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), and reported in the Jan. 11 issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, the study could lead to a better understanding of brain development and the formation of memories. http://www.physorg.com/news152803626.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:28:33 EST news152803626 Many of the 40 million American adults who suffer from anxiety disorders also have problems with balance. As increasing numbers of children are diagnosed with anxiety, Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered that the link between balance and anxiety can be assessed at an early age - and that something can be done about it before it becomes a problem. http://www.physorg.com/news151853201.html Medicine & Health Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:27:09 EST news151853201 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers long ago established a link between inflammation, cancer and the compound nitric oxide, which may be produced when the immune system responds to bacterial infections, including those of the colon. However, the exact nature of the relationship was unknown -- until now. http://www.physorg.com/news151680304.html Medicine & Health Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:25:20 EST news151680304 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have achieved a feat drug developers had thought difficult, if not impossible, discovering a compound that blocks the functioning of a key developmental protein by binding to an `undruggable` target - an advance that may provide a new avenue to fight skin, pancreatic, prostate, and other cancers. http://www.physorg.com/news151594160.html Biology Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:29:57 EST news151594160 Cincinnati scientists have identified a new biomarker that could help predict a person's risk of developing colon cancer and how aggressive it may become. http://www.physorg.com/news151320742.html Medicine & Health Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:32:22 EST news151320742 Scientists at the University of Jena, Germany have put forth a novel explanation of the evolutionary driving force behind a genetic switching circuit that regulates flower development and survival. The hypothesis, based around the obligatory pairing of certain molecules, is published January 16 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news151319182.html Biology Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:06:22 EST news151319182 Rats whose mothers were fed alcohol during pregnancy are more attracted to the smell of liquor during puberty. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Behavioral and Brain Functions have shown that rats exposed during gestation find the smell of alcohol on another rat's breath during adolescence more attractive than animals with no prior fetal exposure. http://www.physorg.com/news151225465.html Medicine & Health Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:04:25 EST news151225465 A tug-of-war between the two sides of the brain causes it to become asymmetrical, according to research published today in the journal Neuron. Asymmetry in the brain is thought to be important to enable the two hemispheres to specialise and operate more efficiently. http://www.physorg.com/news151159139.html Medicine & Health Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:38:59 EST news151159139 (PhysOrg.com) -- Adelaide researchers have made a world breakthrough in treating premature babies at risk of developmental disorders. http://www.physorg.com/news151152865.html Medicine & Health Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:54:25 EST news151152865 For the first time, scientists at Children's National Medical Center have successfully identified a key developmental program for the amygdala -the part of the limbic system that impacts how the brain creates emotional memories and responses. http://www.physorg.com/news151055259.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:47:39 EST news151055259 While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Drug has quickened review and approval of new medicines, the complex nature of diseases for which new therapeutics are being developed has resulted in longer clinical development times, according to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. http://www.physorg.com/news150647377.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:29:37 EST news150647377 Avoiding detection just got harder for drug cheats who try to use a particular range of untested, but potentially enhancing, compounds. In the past, tests have been developed once a drug is known to be in circulation. Now a German research team has developed tests for a class of drugs that they believe could be used in the near future. http://www.physorg.com/news150616173.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:49:33 EST news150616173 Mice exposed to low temperatures develop more blood vessels in their adipose tissue and metabolise body fat more quickly, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet. Scientists now hope to learn how to control blood vessel development in humans in order to combat obesity and diabetes. http://www.physorg.com/news150543426.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:37:06 EST news150543426 While examining patterns of DNA modification in lung cancer, a team of international researchers has discovered what they say is a surprising new mechanism. They say that "silencing" of a single gene in lung cancer led to a general impairment in genome-wide changes in cells, contributing to cancer development and progression. http://www.physorg.com/news149924210.html Medicine & Health Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:36:50 EST news149924210 Automakers who favor the flexibility and price savings of outsourcing production must weigh carefully the product life cycle implications of sacrificing in-house manufacturing, according to the Management Insights feature in the current issue of Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). http://www.physorg.com/news149866773.html Other Sciences Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:39:33 EST news149866773 Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered that a molecule implicated in leukemia and lung cancer is also important in muscle repair and in a muscle cancer that strikes mainly children. http://www.physorg.com/news149860013.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:46:53 EST news149860013 A research group lead by scientists at the University of Warwick has discovered the trigger that pulls together X chromosomes in female cells at a crucial stage of embryo development. Their discovery could also provide new insights into how other similar chromosomes spontaneously recognize each other and are bound together at key parts of analogous cell processes. This is an important mechanism as the binding togetgher of too many of too few of a particular chromosome can cause a number of medical conditions such as Down's Syndrome or Turner's Syndrome. http://www.physorg.com/news149572674.html Biology Sat, 27 Dec 2008 03:57:54 EST news149572674 Parkinson disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that impairs movement, balance, speech, and other functions. It is characterized by the loss of nerves in the brain that produce a substance known as dopamine. Although the loss of dopamine-containing nerves is accompanied by accumulation of immune cells known as T cells, these accumulating T cells were not thought to have a role in the development of disease. http://www.physorg.com/news149188561.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:16:01 EST news149188561 Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have identified a potential new avenue for altering lung development in the embryo which may help to improve the outcome for very premature babies. The researchers at Cardiff University, in collaboration with those at the Saban Research Institute at Los Angeles Children's Hospital, have discovered a key player in early lung development which is a potential drug target for treating very premature babies with small, immature lungs. http://www.physorg.com/news148488402.html Medicine & Health Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:46:42 EST news148488402 The next generation of case management guidelines for childhood illness need to be more locally informed, rather than relying on those centrally generated by organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO), argues a new essay published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news148057441.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:04:01 EST news148057441 Just as the emotions it represents are dynamic, the heart's development requires dynamic shifts in proteins that prompt alternative spicing, a mechanism that allows a given gene to program the cell to make several proteins, said a group of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news147979902.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:31:42 EST news147979902 New research shows that the delicate balance between maximum clinical impact and toxicity may not be quite as fragile as scientists had previously believed. The study, published by Cell Press in the December issue of the journal Cancer Cell, is likely to have a major impact on the future design and implementation of targeted cancer therapies. http://www.physorg.com/news147967201.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:00:01 EST news147967201 (PhysOrg.com) -- Teachers have a greater impact than new textbooks or computers when it comes to raising math scores, according to a comprehensive research review by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education's Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education. http://www.physorg.com/news147626303.html Other Sciences Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:18:23 EST news147626303 Fifteen years after they completed an intervention program designed to help their social development in elementary school, young adults reported better mental health, sexual health and higher educational and economic achievement than a control group of young adults who didn't receive the intervention, according to a new study. http://www.physorg.com/news147371759.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:35:59 EST news147371759 University of Queensland neuroscientists have discovered the crucial role a specific gene plays in forming the neural tube, the earliest identifiable structure in the developing brain and an essential precursor to the entire central nervous system. http://www.physorg.com/news147010405.html Medicine & Health Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:13:25 EST news147010405 Researchers at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Canada, have discovered that adiponectin, a protein secreted from adipocytes, is a metabolic link that can explain, in part, the known positive relationship between obesity and both bone mineral density and reduced susceptibility to fractures. This study appears in the December issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news146853539.html Medicine & Health Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:38:59 EST news146853539 Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have found that inactivating a specific biomarker for aggressive prostate cancer blocks the development of prostate cancer in animal models. http://www.physorg.com/news146767721.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:48:41 EST news146767721 Canadian researchers are trying to answer why some smokers develop lung cancer while others remain disease free, despite similar lifestyle changes. http://www.physorg.com/news146140117.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:28:37 EST news146140117