New Genetic Markers Discovered for Diabetes Traits
The work of an international team of scientists has helped unravel the biological blueprint of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Funded in part by the EU, the two major parallel studies were conducted by researchers representing more than 100 institutes and using genetic data from over 100,000 individuals. The discovery of common genetic variants associated with T2D risk and blood glucose levels is published in two corresponding reports in Nature Genetics.
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Online Video a Viable Way to Reach European Physicians in 2010
Nearly half of online physicians in Western Europe watch online video for professional purposes, according to the latest Taking the Pulse® Europe v9.0 study from pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research. Online video adoption has grown steadily over the past three years, jumping from only 28% of online European physicians using for professional purposes in 2006 to 46% in 2009. Online physicians in Western Europe are even more likely to use online video as part of their clinical research than SMS/text messaging, blogs, or chatrooms/message boards.
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Study uncovers costs of drug resistance for bacteria
Developing resistance to certain antibiotics may come at a price for the bacteria, new Swedish research suggests. Sara Thulin Hedberg of Örebro University studies the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, one of the main causes of meningitis. She found that bacteria that are resistant to the drug rifampicin do not reproduce as fast as non-resistant bacteria and are not as good as infecting people. She hopes that her findings, which form part of her doctoral dissertation, will lead to the development of new, more effective antibiotics.
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Cigarettes and sunlight leave their mark on cancer genomes
Details of the first ever cancer genome sequences are released in two papers published online by the journal Nature. The studies reveal that the genetic sequence of the lung cancer cell line bears all the hallmarks of DNA damage caused by tobacco smoke, while many of the mutations in the melanoma tumour are characteristic of the kind of damage inflicted on DNA by exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light.
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EUR-2-million grant for biofilm research
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded an Advanced Investigator Grant to a scientist at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, to fund a new project studying bacterial biofilms. The project was selected for funding from 1,584 proposals and 513 projects in the life sciences field.
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Message on the occasion of World AIDS Day
On this World AIDS Day we are filled with both hope and concern.
Hope because significant progress has been made towards universal access. New HIV infections have dropped. Fewer children are born with HIV. And more than 4 million people are on treatment.
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High salt intake means more strokes and heart disease
A high salt intake is linked with a significantly increased risk of both strokes and cardiovascular disease, according to a new EU-funded study published this week in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The collaborative research was carried out by teams at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy and the University of Warwick in the UK.
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