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Cancer's Distinctive Pattern Of Gene Expression Could Aid Early Screening And Prevention
Distinctive patterns of genes turned off - or left on - in healthy versus cancerous cells could enable early screening for many common cancers and maybe help avoid them, Medical College of Georgia scientists say.
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2009 American Transplant Congress (ATC), Boston
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center physician-scientists are presenting exciting new research at the 2009 American Transplant Congress in Boston from May 30 to June 3.
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GTCbio Announces Its 4th Annual Assay Development And Screening Technologies Conference Taking Place On June 8-9, 2009 In San Francisco
GTCbio Announces 4th Annual Assay Development and Screening Conference taking place June 8-9, 2009. As compounds derived from high throughput screening increasingly find their way into clinical trials, drug screening has become widely accepted as a critical step in the drug discovery process. After more than a decade of rapid growth, tremendous progress has been made in assay technology, laboratory automation, and informatics. These technological developments have not only facilitated a drastic increase in throughput and efficiency in drug screening, but have also provided novel solutions in other areas of drug discovery and development. As screening has also become prominent in biological research, screening facilities have become increasingly popular in academic institutions.
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Darkness Linked To 'Brain Drain' In Depressed People

A lack of sunlight is associated with reduced cognitive function among depressed people. Researchers writing in BioMed Central"s open access journal Environmental Health used weather data from NASA satellites to measure sunlight exposure across the United States and linked this information to the prevalence of cognitive impairment in depressed people. Shia Kent, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, led a team of US researchers who used cross-sectional data from 14,474 people in the NIH-NINDS-funded REGARDS study, a longitudinal study investigating stroke incidence and risk factors, to study associations between depression, cognitive function and sunlight. He said, "We found that among participants with depression, low exposure to sunlight was associated with a significantly higher predicted probability of cognitive impairment. This relationship remained significant after adjustment for season. This new finding that weather may not only affect mood, but also cognition, has significant implications for the treatment of depression, particularly seasonal affective disorder". Kent and his colleagues speculate that the physiological mechanisms that give rise to seasonal depression may also be involved in sunlight"s effect on cognitive function in the context of depressive symptoms. Cognitive function was assessed by measurement of short-term recall and temporal orientation. As well as regulating the hormones serotonin and melatonin, light has been shown to also affect brain blood flow, which has in turn been linked with cognitive functions. The researchers write, "Discovering the environment"s impact on cognitive functioning within the context of seasonal disorders may lead not only to better understanding of the disorders, but also to the development of targeted interventions to enhance everyday functioning and quality of life". Notes: Effect of sunlight exposure on cognitive function among depressed and non-depressed participants: a REGARDS cross-sectional study Shia T Kent, Leslie A McClure, William L Crosson, Donna K Arnett, Virginia G Wadley and Nalini Sathiakumar Environmental Health (in press) http://www.ehjournal.net/ Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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