Tag Archives: knowledge

Bacterial biofilms are associated with colon cancer, imaging technique reveals

“This is the first time that biofilms have been shown to be associated with colon cancer, to our knowledge,” says co-author Jessica Mark Welch, a scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass. The discovery, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, draws on a novel way to “see” microbial community structure that was developed by Mark Welch and colleagues at the MBL. Called combinatorial imaging, it could potentially be used to clinically diagnose pre-cancerous and cancerous conditions in the ascending colon…

Breast cancer recurrence: Study provides insight — ScienceDaily

Around 5,000 cases of DCIS, a condition where cancerous cells are contained within the milk ducts of the breast, are diagnosed each year in the UK, with two thirds diagnosed through breast screening. If left untreated, up to half of DCIS cases could progress into invasive breast cancer, but it is not possible to say which ones, so all women are offered treatment. …

First detailed picture of cancer-related cell enzyme in action on chromosome unit

Enzymes like PRC1 turn on or turn off the activity of genes in a cell by manipulating individual chromosome units called nucleosomes. “The nucleosome is a key target of the enzymes that conduct genetic processes critical for life,” said Song Tan, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University and the leader of the study’s research team…

First step: From human cells to tissue-engineered esophagus

The tissue-engineered esophagus formed on a relatively simple biodegradable scaffold after the researchers transplanted mouse and human organ-specific stem/progenitor cells into a murine model, according to principal investigator Tracy C. Grikscheit, MD, of the Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine program of The Saban Research Institute and pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles…

New educational modules harness power of e-learning for pancreatic cancer education

The ePOSSOM endeavour was jointly developed by ecancer and the Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery, where surgical trainees led by Miss Katrina Butcher developed the content of the modules, providing key educational information for other surgical trainees and healthcare professionals. “ePOSSOM creates innovative e-learning material for audiences across the world, allowing each learner access to complex evidence-based medicine, wherever their learning environment allows them,” Miss Butcher writes in the accompanying editorial. These modules follow the UK ISCP (Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme) Curriculum, and aim to be a concise, up-to-date best evidence resource, for either new learning or revision. Experts from across the UK have contributed to and peer-reviewed the modules to ensure that the content is of the highest scientific quality — and poised on the frontier of pancreatic cancer knowledge. …

Ovarian cancer oncogene found in ‘junk DNA’

Most of those studies have focused on the portion of the human genome that encodes protein — a fraction that accounts for just 2 percent of human DNA overall. Yet the vast majority of genomic alterations associated with cancer lie outside protein-coding genes, in what traditionally has been derided as “junk DNA.” Researchers today know that “junk DNA” is anything but — much of it is transcribed into RNA, for instance — but finding meaning in those sequences remains a challenge. Now a team led by Lin Zhang, PhD, research associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has mined those sequences to identify a non-protein-coding RNA whose expression is linked to ovarian cancer. …