IAMNEWS
News in Brief Obesity makes fat cells act like they’re infected Dr. Willa Hsueh teamed up with her Methodist colleagues to understand how weight gain contributes to the development of Type 2 Diabetes. Dr. Tuo Deng, a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Institute, led the team as they began analyzing 44 biopsies from women with obesity using microarray analysis. They found that fat cells has elevated expression of genes involved in MHC class II antigen presentation and processing- central players in the inflammatory process that triggers and escalates Type 2 Diabetes. For the first time, we understand that the fat cells are the instigators of the inflammatory process- and Dr. Hseuh hopes this knowledge can be leveraged to isolate the antigens involved and develop biomarkers that can predict who will develop Type II Diabetes, and potentially be used for a vaccine that blocks the inflammatory process that leads to Type II Diabetes. Read more on our website and in Cell Metabolism.
Methodist research experiments in space
Carl Carruthers, research assistant in the Methodist Diabetes and Metabolism Institute, has experiments in space this month. He is collaborating with NanoRacks and Washington state-based Emerald Bio to run 5,000 microfluidic protein crystallization experiments on the International Space Station. The crystals are expected to be back on earth in May. Read more in The Boston Globe.
‘Bloodless’ lung transplants offer hint at surgery’s future When one patient objected to the common practice of blood transfusion during transplant surgery on religious grounds, it took the skill and innovative approach to patient care of Dr. Scott A. Schein to get her the lifesaving ‘bloodless’ surgery she needed. Read more in The New York Times.
Nanotechnology chips for cancer diagnosis
Innovations such as the MS-Chip, which separates dangerous cancer stem cells from healthy adult cells, are ushering in a new age of oncology by providing cost effective and less invasive tools for cancer diagnosis than biopsy-based methods. Read more in Houston Chronicle.
Nanotech’ed RNA drug reduces ovarian cancer tumors by 83 percent Drs. Haifa Shen and Mauro Ferrari and collaborators at MD Anderson created silicon disc shaped nanoparticles that have been tailored to protect and deliver fragile, but highly effective, anti-cancer therapy. Read more online, in TMC News. and in Clinical Cancer Research.
One key gene lifts the roadblock to reprogramming adult cells to stem cells Dr. Rongfu Wang, director of the Center for Inflammation and Epigenetics at the Research Institute, has identified a key gene that controls the generation of inducible pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs. Read more on our website and in Cell.
2014 Federal science budget released President Obama released his proposed 2014 science budget on April 10. It provides modest sequestration relief for the NIH with a 1.3% increase that includes $40 mil for the BRAIN mapping project and $41 mil for a ‘Big Data’ initiative. If approved, the NSF would receive a 10.8% increase, while the NIH National Nanotechnology initiative would be cut by 8.5%. You can read the entire proposal online.
Researchers targeted by pseudoacademia
Several recent publications caution researchers about doing due diligence on requests to participate in open access style journals and conferences. Read more in The New York Times and in Nature.
by Krishna Suri and Rebecca Hall, Ph.D.