Tag Archives: cancer

Using IBM’s Crowdsourced Supercomputer, Harvard Rates Solar Energy Potential of 2.3 Million New Compounds

White House Applauds Citizen Science, Big Data Initiative

CAMBRIDGE, MA – 24 Jun 2013: The search for more versatile and less expensive materials for solar energy received a boost today as Harvard launched a free database that catalogues the suitability of 2.3 million organic, carbon compounds for converting sunlight into electricity.

Harvard’s Clean Energy project — which screened the molecules using World Community Grid, an IBM-managed virtual supercomputer that harnesses the surplus computer power donated by volunteers — is believed to be the most extensive investigation of quantum chemicals ever performed. (more…)

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UA Grows Gourmet Mushrooms That Recycle Waste

UA plant scientists are growing gourmet mushrooms on coffee grounds, landscape waste, even pizza boxes – and reducing that waste to compost.

The University of Arizona class is called “Mushrooms, Molds and Man.” Intrigued, undergraduate Lauren Jackson decided to learn about “Kingdom Fungi” and its impact on the world.

He was hooked in a heartbeat. Barely into the course, “I just raised my hand and asked about research opportunities.” That week he started working in the lab with UA mycologist Barry Pryor. (more…)

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‘Dark Oxidants’ Form Away from Sunlight in Lake and Ocean Depths, Underground Soils

New findings overturn understanding of light-dependent environmental oxidants

Breathing oxygen… can be hazardous to your health?

Indeed, our bodies aren’t perfect. They make mistakes, among them producing toxic chemicals, called oxidants, in cells. We fight these oxidants naturally, and by eating foods rich in antioxidants such as blueberries and dark chocolate.

All forms of life that breathe oxygen—even ones that can’t be seen with the naked eye, such as bacteria—must fight oxidants to live. (more…)

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Proximity to Coal-Tar-Sealed Pavement Raises Risk of Cancer, Study Finds

People living near asphalt pavement sealed with coal tar have an elevated risk of cancer, according to a study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Much of this calculated excess risk results from exposures in children, age six or younger, to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the sealant.

“The increased cancer risk associated with coal-tar-sealed asphalt (CSA) likely affects a large number of people in the U.S. Our results indicate that the presence of coal-tar-based pavement sealants is associated with significant increases in estimated excess lifetime cancer risk for nearby residents,” said E. Spencer Williams, Ph.D., principal author of the study and Baylor University assistant research scientist at the Center for Reservoir and Aquatic Systems Research in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences. (more…)

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A Whole New Game in Cancer Rehab

Using a video game system to get exercise at home can help patients overcome one of cancer’s most common and cumbersome symptoms: severe, persistent fatigue.

Michigan State University’s Amy Hoffman and colleagues showed in an earlier study that the Nintendo Wii system was a safe and effective source of light-intensity exercise for patients with non-small cell lung cancer in the first six weeks after surgery. (more…)

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New Details on the Molecular Machinery of Cancer

Berkeley Lab Researchers Resolve EGFR Activation Mystery

Researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have provided important new details into the activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a cell surface protein that has been strongly linked to a large number of cancers and is a major target of cancer therapies.

“The more we understand about EGFR and the complex molecular machinery involved in the growth and proliferation of cells, the closer we will be to developing new and more effective ways to cure and treat the many different forms of cancer,” says chemist Jay Groves, one of the leaders of this research. “Through a tour-de-force of quantitative biology techniques that included cutting edge time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy in living cells, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, and computational modeling, we’ve determined definitively how EGFR becomes activated through to its epidermal growth factor (EGF) ligand.” (more…)

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Genes and obesity: Fast food isn’t only culprit in expanding waistlines — DNA is also to blame

Researchers at UCLA say it’s not just what you eat that makes those pants tighter — it’s also genetics. In a new study, scientists discovered that body-fat responses to a typical fast-food diet are determined in large part by genetic factors, and they have identified several genes they say may control those responses.

The study is the first of its kind to detail metabolic responses to a high-fat, high-sugar diet in a large and diverse mouse population under defined environmental conditions, modeling closely what is likely to occur in human populations. The researchers found that the amount of food consumed contributed only modestly to the degree of obesity. (more…)

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Multiple Sclerosis Study Reveals How Killer T Cells Learn to Recognize Nerve Fiber Insulators

Misguided killer T cells may be the missing link in sustained tissue damage in the brains and spines of people with multiple sclerosis, findings from the University of Washington reveal. Cytoxic T cells, also known as CD8+ T cells, are white blood cells that normally are in the body’s arsenal to fight disease.

Multiple sclerosis is characterized by inflamed lesions that damage the insulation surrounding nerve fibers and destroy the axons, electrical impulse conductors that look like long, branching projections. Affected nerves fail to transmit signals effectively. (more…)

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