Lowering levels of a key protein involved in regulating learning and memory—STtriatal-Enriched tyrosine Phosphatase (STEP)—reversed cognitive deficits in mice with Alzheimer’s disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the October 18 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)
COLUMBIA, Mo. – For some women, the effects of breast cancer, the most common cancer affecting women, do not end when they leave the hospital. Now, researchers in the University of Missouri School of Health Professions have studied the lives of breast cancer patients following chemotherapy and found that their environments and available support systems help determine the quality of their lives.
“A lot of times people get mentally and emotionally ready to deal with chemotherapy and they receive a lot of support during that time,” said Stephanie Reid-Arndt, an assistant professor of health psychology in the School of Health Professions. “Then they go home and everyone feels like it’s over, but the patients still have worries and fears about the changes they’ve been through and what it means for the future.” (more…)
Mandi Schwartz. Image credit: Yale University
After spending six days in intensive care fighting her way through another life-threatening condition, Yale hockey player Mandi Schwartz got some much-needed positive news in her battle with cancer on Friday.
Tests have confirmed that, 23 days after her stem cell transplant, engraftment — i.e., the birth of her new immune system — has taken place. This marks a major positive step, but challenges still remain for the Yale women’s ice hockey center. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A drug marketed to grow bone in osteoporosis patients also works to heal bone wounds in gum disease patients, a University of Michigan study suggests.
“This new approach for the treatment of periodontal disease could allow us to rebuild some of the bone that is lost due to periodontal disease, which until this point has been very difficult to achieve,” said Jill Bashutski, clinical assistant professor at the U-M School of Dentistry and first author on the study. “Current treatments to re-grow bone around teeth affected with gum disease have limited success rates.” (more…)
University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Douglas R. Seals has amassed scientific evidence indicating that exercise, weight loss, 
good nutrition and salt restriction can cut your chances of getting cardiovascular disease, the United States’ No. 1 killer.
But Seals knows that exhorting people to exercise and lose weight, no matter how well the case is buttressed with data, will only go so far. So Seals’ laboratory has begun researching “nutraceuticals,” food extracts or vitamin supplements that could mimic the effects of a healthful lifestyle. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—University of Michigan researchers have discovered a new method to prevent the immune-system attacks that often occur following bone marrow transplants.
Bone marrow transplantation can cure patients with leukemia and other cancers even when the disease is resistant to other treatments. The success of this procedure relies on killing cancer cells by using immune cells from a bone marrow donor while avoiding an immune attack against the patient’s organs, which causes a dangerous complication called graft-versus-host disease. (more…)
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A team of neuroscientists has discovered important new information in the search for an effective 
treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the debilitating neurological disorder that afflicts more than 5.3 million Americans and is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. Hey-Kyoung Lee , associate professor in the University of Maryland Department of Biology, and her research team have shown that they may be able to eliminate debilitating side effects caused by a promising Alzheimer’s drug by stimulating the brain’s nicotine receptors. (more…)
*Study recognized for significance and importance in the world’s most common genetic disease*
COLUMBIA, Mo. – A University of Missouri researcher believes his latest work moves scientists closer to a cure for 
cystic fibrosis, one of the world’s most common fatal genetic diseases. (more…)
