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God as a Drug: The Rise of American Megachurches

By Guest PostAugust 25, 2012Culture, Generalamerican christians, american megachurche, atmosphere, charismatic leadership, charismatic pastor, christianity, denver, drug, emotional energy, evangelical revivalism, god, holy spirit, hybrid, james wellman, kate stockly meyerdirk, katie e corcoran, message, multisensory mélange, rise, ritual chains, rob bell, rock music, san diego megachurch, sense, sensory pageantry, spiritual growth, spirituality, stagecraft, stereotyped, university of washington, vision

American megachurches use stagecraft, sensory pageantry, charismatic leadership and an upbeat, unchallenging vision of Christianity to provide their congregants with a powerful emotional religious experience, according to research from the University of Washington.

“The megachurches movement is one of the leading indicators of how American Christians exercise their faith these days, so therefore they should be understood,” said James Wellman, associate professor of American religion at the University of Washington. “And our study shows they’re doing a pretty effective job for their members, based on self-reports, contrary to public opinion that tends to pass them off as a type of consumerist religion. In fact, their members speak eloquently of their spiritual growth.” (more…)

Some Harmful Effects of Light at Night Can Be Reversed, Study Finds

By Guest PostJuly 27, 2012Sciencebrain, chronic exposure, depression, depressive disorder, depressive symptom, drug, hamster, harmful effects, hippocampus, light, light cycle, light dark cycle, night, protein, randy nelson, rodent, siberian hamsters, tnf, tnf inhibitor, tracy bedrosian, tumor necrosis factor, xpro1595, zachary weil

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Chronic exposure to dim light at night can lead to depressive symptoms in rodents – but these negative effects can be reversed simply by returning to a standard light-dark cycle, a new study suggests.

While hamsters exposed to light at night for four weeks showed evidence of depressive symptoms, those symptoms essentially disappeared after about two weeks if they returned to normal lighting conditions.

Even changes in the brain that occurred after hamsters lived with chronic light at night reversed themselves after returning to a more normal light cycle. (more…)

Building Molecular ‘Cages’ to Fight Disease

By Guest PostJune 9, 2012Scienceartificial vaccines, bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, building blocks, circulation, david baker, drug, drug delivery, duilio cascio, human like proteins, lego blocks, medicine, michael sawaya, molecular biology, molecular cages, molecular structure, nanoscale materials, neil king, puzzle pieces, specialized proteins, tangles of ribbon, three-dimensional, tiny structures, todd yeates, traditional vaccine, tumor cells, ucla, university of washington, virus derived proteins, yen ting lai

UCLA-created nanoscale protein containers could aid drug, vaccine delivery

UCLA biochemists have designed specialized proteins that assemble themselves to form tiny molecular cages hundreds of times smaller than a single cell. The creation of these miniature structures may be the first step toward developing new methods of drug delivery or even designing artificial vaccines.

“This is the first decisive demonstration of an approach that can be used to combine protein molecules together to create a whole array of nanoscale materials,” said Todd Yeates, a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry and a member of the UCLA–DOE Institute of Genomics and Proteomics and the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. (more…)

Study: Heart Damage after Chemo Linked to Stress in Cardiac Cells

By Guest PostMay 22, 2012Healthblocking, breast cancer, cancer cell, cardiac damage, cardiomyocytes, cellular level, chemotherapy, doxorubicin, drug, gene, govindasamy ilangovan, heart, heart muscle cells, heat shock factor 1, hsf 1, karthikeyan krishnamurthy, kaushik vedam, mdr1, multidrug resistance 1, nf kb, ohio state university, protein, ragu kanagasabai

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Blocking a protein in the heart that is produced under stressful conditions could be a strategy to prevent cardiac damage that results from chemotherapy, a new study suggests.

Previous research has suggested that up to a quarter of patients who receive the common chemotherapy drug doxorubicin are at risk of developing heart failure later in life. Exactly how that heart damage is done remains unclear.

In this study, scientists identified a protein called heat shock factor-1 (HSF-1) as a likely source of chemotherapy-related heart damage in mice and cell cultures. Heat shock factor-1 is known to be induced by stress – in this case, the chemotherapy treatment itself. (more…)

Homeland Security Chief Speaks About Challenges Facing U.S., Global Cooperation

By Guest PostApril 18, 2012Politicsagency, canada, central american border, costa rica, criminal law, cyber criminal, deportation, dream act, drug, education, globalized world, guatemala, homeland security, honduras, human smuggling, immigration reform, intellectual property, janet napolitano, korn hall, Mexico, panama, secretary, ucla, united states

The United States is stronger and more secure than it was prior to 9/11, but threats from overseas remain and must be proactively managed, said Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, who visited campus April 16 for a public talk sponsored by the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations.

In a globalized world, international cooperation is the key to identifying those who intend to do harm, she said, adding that threats to the global supply chain, the activities of drug and human smuggling organizations, and the prevalence of cyber-criminals who attempt to steal information and intellectual property and disrupt critical networks are among the major challenges facing the Department of Homeland Security. (more…)

Freezing Technique Exposes Molecule-to-Molecule Attachments

By Guest PostFebruary 5, 2012Sciencealignment, atomic attachment, complex molecule, cryogenic infared spectroscopy, drug, etienne garand, freezing, large molecules, mark johnson, mechanics, michael z kamrath, molecular structure, nmr, non covalent interaction, non covalently bonded molecules, nuclear magnetic resonance, reactive system, standard analytical technique, supramolecular association, technique, yale university

Researchers at Yale University have developed a new way of exposing the atomic attachments that keep complex molecules in precise alignment. The new method could provide insight into the mechanics of a variety of molecular structures, potentially aiding efforts to manipulate them for drug discovery and other purposes.

“The method appears likely to become a central tool for the characterization of processes that depend on supramolecular associations,” said Mark Johnson, a Yale chemistry professor and the principal investigator of the technique, which is described in a paper published this month in the journal Science. Supramolecular associations are interactions taking place between molecules, rather than within them. (more…)

In Lab, Pannexin1 Restores Tight Binding of Cells Lost in Cancer

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 2012Health, Science3d petri dish, 3d system, accelerating effect, actin, biomechanical role, brain tumor, brian bao, brown university, c6, cancerous cell, carbenoxolone, charles lai, christian naus, drug, glioma, gross multicellular behavior, jeffrey morgan, mechanical integrity, molecule atp, pannexin1, probenecid, protein, rat, receptor, scaffold free, Technology, tissue, tumor cell

*By studying tumor cell behavior in a novel “scaffold-free” 3-D system, researchers have determined that the protein Pannexin1 may play an important biomechanical role in binding tissues together, an effect that is lost in cancerous cells.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — First there is the tumor and then there’s the horrible question of whether the cancerous cells will spread. Scientists increasingly believe that the structural properties of the tumor itself, such as how tightly the tumor cells are packed together, play a decisive role in the progression of the disease. In a new study, researchers show that the protein Pannexin1, known to have tumor-suppressive properties, plays an important role in keeping the cells within a tissue closely packed together, an effect that may be lost with cancer.

“In healthy tissues, the recently discovered protein Pannexin1 may be playing an important role in upholding the mechanical integrity of the tissue,” said first author and Brown University M.D./Ph.D. student Brian Bao. “When we develop cancer, we lose Pannexin1 and we lose this integrity.” (more…)

Researchers Uncover How New Melanoma Drug Accelerates Secondary Skin Cancers

By Guest PostJanuary 20, 2012Healthantoni ribas, braf mutation, cancer growth, cancer mutation, cancer treatment, drug, hematology, malignant cells, mechanism, mek inhibitor, melanoma cells, metastatic melanoma, mutated braf protein, mutation, oncogenic mutations, oncology, patients, plexxikon, ras mutation, roche, ruby family foundation, seaver institute, secondary skin cancers, side effect, skin squamous cell carcinomas, vemurafenib, zelboraf

Patients with metastatic melanoma taking the recently approved drug vemurafenib (marketed as Zelboraf) responded well to the twice-daily pill, but some of them developed a different, secondary skin cancer.

Now, researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, working with investigators from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, Roche and Plexxikon, have elucidated the mechanism by which the drug excels at fighting melanoma but also allows for the development of skin squamous-cell carcinomas. (more…)

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