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DNA Altered By Strenuous Exercise And A Strong Cup Of Coffee

Posted on March 8, 2012 by ev1

March 7, 2012

Bad news for those who use their genetic makeup as an excuse not to hit the gym: Researchers have found that our DNA can be altered with just a few minutes of strenuous exercise.

Writing in the March issue of Cell Press publication Cell Metabolism, researchers have posted results of a study which prove that strenuous exercise, even as brief as a minute, can immediately change our DNA.

By studying healthy yet inactive men and women, these researchers found that we are more in control of our bodies than we have previously thought.

The changes made to the DNA molecules isnt a complete overhaul, however. The basic genetic code that makes up the DNA remains the same. What modifications are made appear to be the early stages of genetic reprogramming. This reprogramming is the foundation for building muscle strength and ultimately the metabolic benefits of exercise.

In other words, exercise jump starts your DNA to begin to burn fat and build muscle. According to the Cell Metabolism report, even a brief yet brisk 20 minute bicycle ride can make all the difference.

Researcher Juleen Zierath of the Karolinska Institute of Sweden had this to say about their findings: Our muscles are really plastic. We often say that you are what you eat. Well, muscle adapts to what you do. If you dont use it, you lose it and this is one of the mechanisms that allows this to happen.

Along with colleagues from Dublin and Denmark, Professor Zierath conducted 2 experiments with men who did not exercise regularly, yet were relatively healthy. The researchers had the men exercise vigorously on an exercise bike before they took slivers of muscle from the mens thighs. The DNA found in these muscle tissue samples were then analyzed for chemical changes.

A simple walk in the park may not be enough to spark this genetic change, however. According to the research, a person must be out of breath and, while able to speak, must have some difficulty carrying on a conversation.

The results of these tests showed similar results from contracted muscle tissues created in a test-tube from previous research. The muscle tissue also reacted similarly when subjected to the caffeine.

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DNA Altered By Strenuous Exercise And A Strong Cup Of Coffee

DNA study: Gorillas even more similar to us than we thought

Posted on March 8, 2012 by ev1

LOS ANGELES - Take a trip to the zoo and you can see gorillas are a lot like us. But a new DNA study says we're even more similar than scientists thought.

From the evolutionary family tree, you'd expect our DNA to be the most similar to chimps, our closest relatives. The new work found that's true for the most part, but it also found that a sizable portion of our genome is closer to a gorilla's than to a chimp's.

"The chimpanzee is often cited as 'our closest living relative,' and this is certainly true based on total genome sequence, but the gorilla is nearly as close a relative," Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University, who was not part of the project, said in an email.

That agrees with hints from with some smaller previous

This undated image provided by San Diego Zoo Global shows a female western lowland gorilla named Kamilah at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in San Diego, Calif. Scientists recently published a draft of her DNA and compared it to the genetic blueprints of humans and chimpanzees to better understand how humans evolved. (AP Photo/San Diego Zoo Global)

It reveals "a closer connection between our genome and that of the gorilla than was previously appreciated," Richard Gibbs and Jeffrey Rogers of the Baylor College of Medicine wrote in an editorial accompanying the work published in today's issue of the journal Nature.

With the new research, scientists now have complete genetic blueprints of the living great apes - humans, chimps, gorillas and orangutans - to compare and gain fresh understanding of how humans evolved and developed such key traits as higher brain function and the ability to walk upright.

Humans and chimps evolved separately since splitting

The latest study was led by scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, a nonprofit British genome research center. Researchers mapped the DNA of a female gorilla and compared it with the genomes of humans and chimps.

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DNA study: Gorillas even more similar to us than we thought

Rapid DNA analysis system introduced

Posted on March 8, 2012 by ev1

Published: March. 7, 2012 at 8:37 AM

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 7 (UPI) -- A rapid DNA analysis system for forensic, homeland security and intelligence community use is being launched by U.S. firms Lockheed Martin and ZyGem Corp.

The system uses advanced microfluidics and ZyGem's proprietary nucleic acid isolation technology to accelerate DNA identification, all integrated into compact laboratory on a single chip that the companies say reduces DNA processing steps.

"With the successful development of our fully integrated cartridge device, this platform now has the potential to transform today's DNA identification process from one that takes a great deal of training, sophisticated equipment and time into a far simpler, more affordable process that can be performed in the lab or field in under 90 minutes," said Joan Bienvenue, Lockheed Martin program manager and chief scientist.

The technology was unveiled during the recent Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and pre-production units will be made available to key customers this summer.

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Rapid DNA analysis system introduced

Genome study finds some gorilla DNA aping our own

Posted on March 8, 2012 by ev1

LOS ANGELES (AP) Take a trip to the zoo and you can see gorillas are a lot like us. But a new DNA study says we're even more similar than scientists thought.

"The chimpanzee is often cited as 'our closest living relative' and this is certainly true based on total genome sequence, but the gorilla is nearly as close a relative," Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University, who was not part of the project, said in an email.

That agrees with hints from with some smaller previous genetic studies. The latest work deciphered the entire genome of the gorilla, which Lovejoy called "a substantial achievement."

With the new research, scientists now have complete genetic blueprints of the living great apes humans, chimps, gorillas and orangutans to compare and gain fresh understanding of how humans evolved and developed key traits such as higher brain function and the ability to walk upright.

Humans and chimps evolved separately since splitting from a common ancestor about 6 million years ago.

As expected, most of the human genome was closer to the chimp's than to the gorilla's. But in about 15 percent of the genome, human and gorilla resemble each other the most. In another 15 percent, chimp and gorilla DNA are closer to each other than chimp is to human. Both those situations clash with what you'd expect from the evolutionary tree, which says humans and chimps should always be the most similar, the researchers said.

The analysis also found gene variants in gorillas that are harmless to them but are linked to dementia and heart failure in people.

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Genome study finds some gorilla DNA aping our own

Nanomanufacturing using DNA origami

Posted on March 8, 2012 by ev1

ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2012) In recent years, scientists have begun to harness DNA's powerful molecular machinery to build artificial structures at the nanoscale using the natural ability of pairs of DNA molecules to assemble into complex structures. Such "DNA origami," first developed at the California Institute of Technology, could provide a means of assembling complex nanostructures such as semiconductor devices, sensors and drug delivery systems, from the bottom up.

While most researchers in the field are working to demonstrate what's possible, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are seeking to determine what's practical.

According to NIST researcher Alex Liddle, it's a lot like building with LEGOs -- some patterns enable the blocks to fit together snugly and stick together strongly and some don't.

"If the technology is actually going to be useful, you have to figure out how well it works," says Liddle. "We have determined what a number of the critical factors are for the specific case of assembling nanostructures using a DNA-origami template and have shown how proper design of the desired nanostructures is essential to achieving good yield, moving, we hope, the technology a step forward."

In DNA origami, researchers lay down a long thread of DNA and attach "staples" composed of complementary strands that bind to make the DNA fold up into various shapes, including rectangles, squares and triangles. The shapes serve as a template onto which nanoscale objects such as nanoparticles and quantum dots can be attached using strings of linker molecules.

The NIST researchers measured how quickly nanoscale structures can be assembled using this technique, how precise the assembly process is, how closely they can be spaced, and the strength of the bonds between the nanoparticles and the DNA origami template.

What they found is that a simple structure, four quantum dots at the corners of a 70-nanometer by 100-nanometer origami rectangle, takes up to 24 hours to self-assemble with an error rate of about 5 percent.

Other patterns that placed three and four dots in a line through the middle of the origami template were increasingly error prone. Sheathing the dots in biomaterials, a necessity for attaching them to the template, increases their effective diameter. A wider effective diameter (about 20 nanometers) limits how closely the dots can be positioned and also increases their tendency to interfere with one another during self-assembly, leading to higher error rates and lower bonding strength. This trend was especially pronounced for the four-dot patterns.

"Overall, we think that this process is good for building structures for biological applications like sensors and drug delivery, but it might be a bit of a stretch when applied to semiconductor device manufacturing -- the distances can't be made small enough and the error rate is just too high," says Liddle.

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Nanomanufacturing using DNA origami

DNA may link dead killer to as many as 26 murders

Posted on March 8, 2012 by ev1

DENVER (Reuters) - Cold-case detectives have positively matched a deceased serial killer's DNA to the decades-old murders of four women in Denver, and they suspect that he may be responsible for as many as 26 unsolved homicides, authorities said on Wednesday.

Vincent Groves, who was convicted of three slayings and died in prison of natural causes in 1996, has now been tied conclusively to the slayings of three other women in 1979 and one more in 1988, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey said in an interview.

"I fully expect we will tie him to at least one, and possibly three or four other unsolved cases" through DNA, Morrissey said.

Morrissey said investigators were examining possible connections between Groves and 26 unsolved murders but may not be able to positively link him to the entire batch of homicides for which he is a suspect.

Groves was sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for two murders he committed while on parole for a 1982 second-degree murder conviction.

The women Groves killed or is suspected of killing ranged from prostitutes and drug addicts to women he knew from church or in business, Morrissey said.

The victims were typically strangled and sexually assaulted before their bodies were dumped in alleys, rural areas or in the mountains west of Denver, the prosecutor said.

The latest cases positively tied to Groves were closed with the help of a U.S. Justice Department grant that paid for Denver police to use DNA analysis in examining some 250 unsolved murders between 1970 and 1984.

Once detectives learned Groves had a terminal illness, they went to interview him in person seeking confessions to any additional murders he had been suspected of committing.

"He would toy with the detectives and admit he knew the victims or that he was the last person to be seen with them but never confessed to the killings," Morrissey said.

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DNA may link dead killer to as many as 26 murders

Local Middle School Students Win Awards at Regional Science Fair

Posted on March 8, 2012 by ev1

On March 6, eight middle school students from Lexington and Rockbridge County won awards at the Shenandoah Regional Science Fair at James Madison University.

Three eighth graders from Lylburn Downing Middle School - Harrison Branner, Caroline Connelly and Diego Velasquez - all got gold medals in their categories. Branner also received the Naval Science Award for Earth and Planetary Science awarded by the Office of Naval Research for his Hair Hygrometers Experiment. Connelly competed in behavioral and social science with her experiment on The Effect of Emotion on Perception. Velasquez studied depth perception and competed in the Medicine, Health, and Nutrition Science category.

Spencer Hough and Jackson Beacham were each awarded a silver medal in the engineering category. Hough investigated windmill design and Beacham worked with bilge keels.

Toree Baldwin also received a silver medal in Medicine, Health, and Nutrition Science for her project on Fingerprint Genetics.

Katherine Bowles represented LDMS in the very competitive category of physics with a study on Storing Tennis Balls.

Audrey Johnston is the eighth grade science teacher at LDMS who guided all the students through their independent projects. It was the most awards ever for a group of LDMS students.

Two Maury River Middle School students also received awards.

There were also two winners from Maury River Middle School. Jennifer Hildredth won a bronze medal in the Environmental Science category. Kayleigh Addington received a special award from the Virginia Section of the American Water Works Association, which comes with a $200 savings bond for her project in the earth and planetary science category.

Over 100 middle school students from public and private schools were in the competition.

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Local Middle School Students Win Awards at Regional Science Fair

Georgia Tech Selects Prometheus Research for Expedition in Computational Behavioral Science

Posted on March 8, 2012 by ev1

NEW HAVEN, Conn., March 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Prometheus Research, a leading provider of data management services for behavioral and biomedical research, announced today that it has been selected by the Georgia Institute of Technology to support their $10M National Science Foundation (NSF) "Expeditions in Computing" Award. Prometheus Research will create a web-based data management infrastructure, based on the extensible RexDB platform, to support research associated with the computing grant. The RexDB-based system will allow collaborators to acquire, curate, and access data and files generated by multiple modalities for the measurement and analysis of behavior in children. The application will be HIPPA-/HITECH-compliant and securely available to remote team members.

"This phase of work will meet the immediate needs of acquiring and sharing data generated by social-interaction protocols, as well as provide a platform to reliably manage future data collected fromquestionnaires," said David Voccola, Chief Operating Officer at Prometheus Research.

Prometheus Research's domain expertise in autism and related disorders makes it an ideal partner for the Georgia Tech team.Prometheus has supported or collaborated on some of the largest and most ambitious autism research endeavors in the world, including the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) and the National Database for Autism Research (NDAR). The tools and processes they've helped develop in the areas of study governance, data collection, data curation, data distribution, and data persistence are now considered best practices for collaborative research, and are already in use at places like the Yale Child Study Center (CT) and the Marcus Autism Center (GA).

"Georgia Tech is working with Prometheus as part of our NSF Expeditions in Computing Award project to develop novel computational modeling and data analysis techniques for capturing and measuring behaviors relevant to diagnosing and treating autism," said James M. Rehg, professor in the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing and principal investigator for this project. "Georgia Tech has selected Prometheus to develop a foundational, first-of-its-kind data management system capable of managing the high-bandwidth media assets associated with the research project, such as video and audio, along with more traditional survey and scientific data sets."

About Prometheus Research

Prometheus Research provides data management services and web-native data-management software to biomedical researchers investigating autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Its team specializes in designing and building systems capable of accelerating complex interdisciplinary research and of multiplying the value of hard-won research data. Prometheus staff are consummate innovators, and Prometheus technology powers some of the most ambitious and important research endeavors in autism, including the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI). Many of these innovations also are made available to the open source software community, most notably HTSQL, an instant Web interface for databases, and the Research Exchange Database, RexDB.

For more information go to http://www.prometheusresearch.com or call us at +1 (800) 693-9057. Reach us by e-mail at Lux@PrometheusResearch.com

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Georgia Tech Selects Prometheus Research for Expedition in Computational Behavioral Science

Jeremy Lin: Anatomy of a Sports Star and Cultural Sensation

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Danzig

When I did a online search of Jeremy Lin this morning, many of the headlines that popped up were pronouncing an end to the so-called "Linsanity" - that would be the media and cultural frenzy set off by the NY Knicks point guard and his outstanding performance.

Lin is the rookie basketball player who allegedly came out of nowhere to help ramp up the Knicks' season. But beyond the team's future, pundits and fans alike have seized on his accomplishments to ask questions about diversity in sports, how Asians and Asian-Americans are represented (or not) in popular culture and more.

Lin may not keep racking up points, but I doubt the media interest in him is going away - another recent headline promised to reveal "What Jeremy Lin can teach us about dating."

Yeesh. Whether you're into sports or not, you've likely caught wind of this story. The folks over at the Illinois Humanities Council certainly have. They've commissioned a number of people - from the arts, media and academia - to write out their thoughts on the cultural swirl around Lin. I'm going to feature some of their posts in this here blog over the next few days.

Of course you're invited to join the conversation as well. You can weigh in below with your reaction. And why not meet up with the IHC crew at Jane Addams Hull-House Museum next Monday evening for the conversation Linsanity: What's Beyond the Hype?

The "Feel-Good" Story in the Racial Frame: Jeremy Lin and the Same Politics of Race, by David Stovall.

Before any type of deep analysis on the recent rise of Jeremy Lin in the National Basketball Association (NBA), its important to state the facts: In 2006 Jeremy Lin was Northern Californias Player of the Year in Basketball at Palo Alto High. His hometown university of Stanford wouldnt offer him a four-year scholarship and instead offered him the opportunity to play basketball as a walk-on. Coach Dawkins former backcourt running mate at Duke (Tommy Amaker) decided to take a chance on Lin at Harvard.

In 2010 he graduated from Harvard with a degree in economics. Fast-forward six years and you have all the makings for a made-for-TV movie. Lin goes undrafted in the first two rounds of the 2010 draft despite numerous inquiries on his ability to play the point-guard position by NBA scouts, his All-Ivy selection and him being in the top three in assists in the country. His hometown team (the Golden State Warriors) takes him as an undrafted free agent, and he makes the roster. He sees limited playing time as a rookie, gets cut, gets picked up by Houston, gets cut, goes to the NBA developmental league, gets picked up by the Knicks on a 10-day, sleeps on his brother's couch for a couple of days, surfs to another teammate's house for a spot on the couch, and leads the Knicks on a 8-0 winning streak in the process. I know whod a thunk it? All of this is great for the ESPN documentary, but its also absent many of the racial realities of the day. Despite the fallacy of a post-racial society, we still try to obfuscate the realities of race. Without question, Lin is a great talent who deserves to be on the court. Simultaneously our oddity addiction in the U.S. could easily make Lin a caricature of himself. With all of the new monikers that roll off the tongue (Linsanity, Linpossible, etc.), we have to grapple with the fact that Lins individual journey takes place in a social, political and economic context.

Part of that context is the fact that the American mainstream media has an extremely limited number of themes in its repetoire: tragedy/disaster, triumph, scandal or oddity. Commentary with any type of critical analysis is relegated to the fringes as we become engulfed by Lins feel-good story of triumph. Never to discount his struggles, but Lin would have been all right without the NBA. An econ degree from Harvard goes a long way.

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Jeremy Lin: Anatomy of a Sports Star and Cultural Sensation

ANaToMY oF FeAR…EuRoPean STYLe

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Danzig

'BREAK A LEG'

Do you remember this picture? I do and I'm sure you do as well. It has been all down hill from there hasn't it.

If you don't do this or that, terrible, ugly, horrendous, unfathomable things are going to happen and the blood will all be on your hands. Not the bankers, not the politicians, not the central bankers, not the regulators, not the good little austere sheeple.

This is not simply moral hazard. It is financial extortion and we allowed it to start in America. Now it is polluting the rest of of the world.

American capitalism Wall Street style is what it is, this is the monstrosity that is hijacking the world economy.

We have been listening to this dramatic apocalyptic drone for months, years already and now, during the next 24 hours or so, the cacophony of fear will once again rise to an operatic crescendo.

Something tells me the people who vultured up this crappy Greek paper from the European banks and insurance companies during the past year do not fancy themselves as saviours of the world.

The evil hedge fund speculators should be digging in for another healthy round of financial xenophobia and Euro villification.

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ANaToMY oF FeAR...EuRoPean STYLe

Nuvilex Forecasts Vast Partnership Opportunities Using Breakthrough Stem Cell Technology

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ev1

SILVER SPRING, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Nuvilex, Inc. (OTCQB:NVLX), an emerging biotechnology provider of cell and gene therapy solutions, today pointed out the potential for substantial partnership and licensing opportunities using the companys cell encapsulation technology for applications in stem cell research and medicine. Migration of implanted cells away from the target site and host rejection have been recognized as fundamental challenges faced by the stem cell community regarding their use in therapy, which the companys technology overcomes.

The technology being acquired from associate SG Austria is used to place live stem cells into strong, flexible and permeable capsules. These capsules can then be implanted into animals or humans for specific therapies. Stem cells can then exist at the desired location inside the capsules, prevented from migrating and protected from the immune system that aims to eliminate such foreign cells from the body.

Stem cell therapy is being used by clinicians throughout the world for treating such diverse diseases as spinal cord injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, burns, glioma, multiple myeloma, arthritis, heart disease, stroke, Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy, and age-related macular degeneration, among others, most of which can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov.

Historically, researchers have faced numerous difficulties in succeeding with certain stem cell treatments, because of the problems associated with keeping stem cells alive for significant periods of time, stopping rejection and destruction by the recipients immune system, and keeping stem cells from migrating away from the desired sites. Cells encapsulated in SG Austrias porous beads have been shown to remain alive for long periods of time in humans, surviving intact for at least two years. Once encapsulated, cells are protected from the bodys immune system. Furthermore, encapsulated cells remain within the beads and are unable to migrate to other sites in the body.

In the February 29, 2012 research report, Goldman Small Cap Research stated, The Cell-in-a-Box approach could significantly advance the implementation and utilization of stem cells for a host of debilitating diseases and conditions, making it a uniquely valuable commodity. We believe that by partnering with leading players in the field, Nuvilex could find that companies with deep pockets would be happy to collaborate or license the delivery system and engage in further research which could result in meaningful development and licensing revenue.

Dr. Robert Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of Nuvilex, discussed the value for licensing the companys stem cell therapy, adding, By overcoming traditional barriers to effective stem cell therapy, namely viability, migration, and host rejection, we believe these new advances in medical science utilizing stem cells and encapsulation will enable us to take quantum leaps forward now and in the future. As a result of challenges SG Austria has overcome, new advances will be surprisingly close at hand and are part of the driving force behind our desire to work with a number of companies in this endeavor. Our primary goal has been and remains to use our technology to bring life changing treatments to patients on an expedited basis.

About Nuvilex

Nuvilex, Inc. (OTCQB:NVLX) is an emerging international biotechnology provider of clinically useful therapeutic live encapsulated cells and services for encapsulating live cells for the research and medical communities. Through our effort, all aspects of our corporate activities alone, and especially in concert with SG Austria, are rapidly moving toward completion, including closing our agreement. One of our planned offerings will include cancer treatments using the companys industry-leading live-cell encapsulation technology.

Safe Harbor Statement

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Nuvilex Forecasts Vast Partnership Opportunities Using Breakthrough Stem Cell Technology

Olympic legacy will make kids scientists

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ev1

Olympic legacy will make kids scientists

1:00pm Tuesday 6th March 2012 in News By Wendy Brading

A SENIOR Essex University lecturer has been involved in a nationwide initiative to create an Olympic legacy.

Dr Valerie Gladwell, a senior lecturer in physiology, has been advising the Wellcome Trust on the In the Zone project.

It will see every school in the country receiving a free experiment kit to allow students to learn how their bodies work during exercise, movement and rest.

The 5million project aims to create an Olympic legacy of an interest in science and movement. The kits, which are now being distributed to schools, contain equipment and resources needed to carry out scientific experiments related to human physiology.

They will help pupils explore questions such as whether having longer legs helps you jump further and what happens inside a persons body and mind when they take part in sport.

Dr Gladwell, who is based in the universitys school of biological sciences, worked with the Wellcome Trust project team as a sports science expert, advising them on the experiments for secondary school students.

She features in the Ive Got The Power zone for 16 to 19-year-olds, which explores how the body is powered during exercise.

She also helped to create the projects live data zone, where pupils will go online to enter their data, which can then be used by pupils and scientists in research.

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Olympic legacy will make kids scientists

GenoVive Expands Scientific Advisory Board, Adds Prominent Experts in Nutrigenomics and Exercise Physiology

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ev1

NEW ORLEANS, LA--(Marketwire -03/06/12)- GenoVive, a pioneer in DNA-based, all-natural weight management solutions, today announced that Dr. Ruth DeBusk, PhD, RD, and Dr. Barbara E. Ainsworth, PhD, MPH, FACSM, FNAK, have joined the company's Scientific Advisory Board, advising on the integration of nutrition and exercise into the innovative and all-natural weight management program based on genetic science.

Dr. Ainsworth is a professor in the Exercise and Wellness Program within the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion at Arizona State University, and a fellow in the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the National Academy of Kinesiology, the Research Consortium of American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, and the North American Society of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Professionals. Dr. Ainsworth holds an honorary academic appointment at the Akershus University College in Oslo, Norway, has served as President for the ACSM and was a 2006 ACSM Citation Award recipient. Her ongoing research relates to physical activity and public health with a focus on the assessment of physical activity in populations. She has authored more than 250 publications and is the lead author for the Compendium of Physical Activities.

Dr. DeBusk is a geneticist and clinical dietician in practice in Tallahassee, Florida. Trained first as a food and nutrition professional and subsequently as a geneticist and molecular biologist, Dr. DeBusk has been a member of the genetics faculty at Florida State University for many years. Her research combines nutrition and genetics, focusing on genetic regulation of nutrient absorption in response to environmental signals. She has served on local, state, national and international committees and advisory boards related to nutrition, genetics and biotechnology, is an author of several books, including the American Dietetic Association's Genetics: The Nutrition Connection. Her many awards include the Florida Dietetic Association's 2009 Outstanding Dietician Award, and the 2007 Harold Harper Award for Science and Practice by the American College for the Advancement in Medicine.

Drs. Ainsworth and DeBusk join Scientific Advisory Board Chairman, Dr. Steven H. Zeisel, MD, PhD, and board members Dr. David Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, and Dr. Daniel Pomp, MS, PhD.

"Dr. Ainsworth and Dr. DeBusk are both exceedingly respected in their fields for their deep expertise and practical experience, and their membership on the GenoVive Scientific Advisory Board is an outstanding addition to our team of leaders in the fields of genetics, nutrition and exercise physiology," said Vic Castellon, founder and CEO, GenoVive LLC. "As Americans continue to battle the overweight and obesity epidemic, GenoVive remains committed to the continued development of a long-term and comprehensive solution to weight management based on individual genetics and personalized nutrition and exercise through collaboration with our Scientific Advisory Board members," Castellon added.

The GenoVive Scientific Advisory Board was established to guide the company's research activities, seeking out the most innovative and promising research projects for continuing validation of the emerging field of nutrigenomics, which is the study of the effects of foods on gene expression and the role certain genes play in weight gain.

"Combining gene-informed diets and physical activity protocols to address weight management and metabolic health is the scientific foundation for personalized lifestyle medicine," said Dr. Ainsworth. "Not only does the application of nutrigenomics inform dietary choices, understanding individual differences in responsiveness to exercise protocols provide a roadmap for metabolic health and effective weight control."

"Our personal health continuum is influenced by our daily diet and lifestyle choices and those choices interact with our genes throughout our lifetime," said Dr. DeBusk. "Advances in understanding the role of genes in health and disease and that food is powerful information for our genes has made us keenly aware of the importance of knowing what's in our genetic makeup and being able to match our diet and lifestyle choices to our genetic potential."

About GenoVive LLC

Founded in 2008, GenoVive, a division of Genvis Bio Group, LLC, based in New Orleans, LA, represents a new approach to weight loss and sustained healthy eating. GenoVive's geneticists and food scientists developed customized, all-natural meal and exercise programs, featuring ideal combinations of macronutrients based on individual DNA. GenoVive is sold directly to the consumer at GenoVive.com and by phone with convenient home delivery. Follow GenoVive on Twitter @myGenovive, Facebook, and YouTube.

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GenoVive Expands Scientific Advisory Board, Adds Prominent Experts in Nutrigenomics and Exercise Physiology

UH, Methodist team up to prepare surgeons for the operating room

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ev1

Public release date: 6-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Lisa Merkl lkmerkl@uh.edu 713-743-8192 University of Houston

George Kovacik ggkovacik@tmhs.org 832-667-5844

HOUSTON, March 6, 2012 Measure twice and cut once is a well-known phrase among surgeons, but this is not always what happens. To better prepare new surgeons for the operating room, University of Houston (UH) computer scientists are working with medical researchers at the Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation and Education (MITIE) to improve existing training processes. At the core of their effort is understanding the role of stress on a surgeon's path to competency.

Ioannis Pavlidis, director of the Computational Physiology Laboratory at UH, Dr. Barbara Bass, chair of the department of surgery at The Methodist Hospital, and their colleagues describe their findings in a paper titled "Fast by Nature How Stress Patterns Define Human Experience and Performance in Dexterous Tasks." The article appears in Scientific Reports, the new open-access research publication from the Nature Publishing Group.

The group recently completed a three-year study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that measured the stress levels of physicians during surgical training. In addition to the $500,000 from NSF, the researchers received a $200,000 grant from the John F. and Carolyn Bookout Fund to supplement the study.

Pavlidis and his colleagues developed a non-contact method of measuring stress and the body's response to threats or challenges. This new thermal imaging method is capable of quantifying performance and physiological stress indicators by measuring facial perspiration, revealing how a person reacts to a threatening situation. This is called a sympathetic response. Pavlidis, Bass and their teams were able to monitor these sympathetic responses of 17 surgeons 10 experienced and 7 novices while engaged in laparoscopic surgical training over the course of several months.

Bass, an authority in surgical education and director of MITIE, had long recognized that surgeons in training exhibit stress as they learn to perform surgical procedures. The team hypothesized this stress could be measured using the thermal facial mapping technology developed by the Pavlidis research laboratory and set out to determine if facial thermal stress would correlate with surgical skill performance.

"We found that regardless of experience level, surgeons attempt to perform tasks at the same speed," Pavlidis said. "This is counterintuitive, because you would expect common sense to tell a novice to be more careful and slow down in an effort to reduce errors. This was not the case in our study. Instead, the novices attempted the tool transferring, cutting and suturing tasks as fast as the experienced surgeons, thereby making many more errors due to their lack of experience to accommodate such speed."

This led Pavlidis and his colleagues to question why this was the case, and they discovered that high stress levels in novices were the likely trigger of fast behavior. When presented with a challenging task, he said, the basic human instinct of survival mode kicked in precipitating action, even if the speed of that action was counterproductive for the desired result.

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UH, Methodist team up to prepare surgeons for the operating room

Pathology jobs gone as service closes

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ev1

SOUTH West Pathology Services will close its Albury laboratory on Monday resulting in the loss of 14 jobs.

The Lavington collection centre will also close.

The publicly funded service which began 64 years ago has faced an uncertain future since the merger of the Albury and Wodonga hospitals in 2010.

South West serviced Albury Base Hospital until Albury Wodonga Health called for tenders for pathology services at both hospitals.

Private operator Dorevitch won the tender in October 2010.

That saw South West lose up to 70per cent of its business, said Albury-based service unit manager Eugene Butkowski, who has worked at the Smollett Street laboratory for nearly 40 years.

As you would expect it is not a pleasant time to be shutting a facility which has been a major part of a lot of peoples lives over the years, Mr Butkowski said.

The laboratory employed more than 30 staff in 2010 and last year those remaining at South West were offered redundancies or relocation opportunities.

All staff have accepted the latest redundancy packages with limited positions at present on offer at Dorevitch or the other local provider, Border Pathology.

Dorevitch recently advertised for a scientist, but has yet to fill the position.

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Pathology jobs gone as service closes

Practical Nutrition: For a healthier you, get your plate in shape

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ev1

By: MARY-JO SAWYER | Special Correspondent Published: March 07, 2012 Updated: March 07, 2012 - 12:00 AM

Is your plate in shape? The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association) wants it to be so you'll be healthier. That's why it has based its National Nutrition Month theme on the USDA's new MyPlate plan.

Get your plate in shape by following the academy's four simple suggestions.

If you don't have veggies at each meal yet, try something simple, such as baby carrots or celery sticks, then move up to a salad. Cook some frozen veggies in the microwave, or steam fresh ones on the stove.

For easy fruits at lunch, include whole fresh fruits, such as apples, bananas, pears or oranges. For dinner, add grapes, berries or fruit cups. To save money, buy fresh produce in season, and check for sales.

Animal protein sources include beef, pork, poultry, fish and eggs. A healthful meat portion is 3 ounces, which is about the size of a deck of cards. If that's smaller than what you currently eat, cut back gradually, while increasing your produce portions.

Nonmeat sources of protein include peanut butter, soy products, dried beans and peas, and tofu. Try the Lentil Chili recipe, which marries meat and nonmeat protein sources. The lentils provide an excellent source of fiber, too.

Try a little stealth nutrition by using white wheat bread for sandwiches, or hiding the whole-grain pasta under the red spaghetti sauce. Or mix the white rice or pasta with their brown varieties, and gradually increase the ratio until you're eating the whole grains most of the time.

After the holidays, many people went to the gym to get in shape. Why not use March as a time to get your plate in shape? Start by making one new change at meals each day.

Lentil Chili

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Practical Nutrition: For a healthier you, get your plate in shape

Give your snack a national nutrition month makeover with pistachios

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ev1

Public release date: 6-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kelly Plowe, M.S., R.D. kplowe@pistachiohealth.com 310-966-8316 Paramount Farms

March is National Nutrition Month and as the spotlight shines on all things healthy, celebrate with a mindful snack that loves you backCalifornia pistachios.

The theme of this year's "National Nutrition Month" is "Get your Plate in Shape." The annual campaign, created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association), highlights the importance of healthy meals as well as snacks.

With U.S. children and adults consuming food more frequently than they did 30 years ago, three meals a day is no longer the norm. Instead, snacks play a predominant role in the U.S. diet and there are now more opportunities than ever before to eat, so it is important what you choose packs a nutritional punch.

Once regarded as a high-fat food that health-conscious dieters should seek to avoid, nuts are now touted as nutritional powerhouses and are an ideal healthy snack. New research, supported by the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research and Education Foundation, adds to the growing number of studies that have consistently found that those who regularly consume nuts, like pistachios, tend to weigh less and have lower odds of developing certain chronic diseases.

Tree Nut Consumers May Have Lower Weight and Reduced Risk Factors for Certain Diseases

The study, recently published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, suggests that tree nut consumers are less likely to have certain risk factors associated with heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The researchers examined the diets of more than 13,000 adults participating in the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and found that tree nut consumption was associated with a lower prevalence rate of four risk factors for metabolic syndromeabdominal obesity, hypertension (high blood pressure), low HDL-C (good cholesterol) and elevated fasting glucoseas well as a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome in general, as compared to non-nut consumers. Metabolic syndrome occurs when you have a cluster of conditions that together increase your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. In addition, tree nut consumers had higher levels of HDL-C and folate and lower levels of C-reactive protein and homocysteine, all of which are important indicators of heart health.

The researchers also discovered that, on average, tree nut consumers had significantly lower weight, waist circumference and body mass index (BMI) compared to non-tree nut consumers. The average weight, BMI and waist circumference of tree-nut consumers were about 4 pounds, 1 kg/m2, and an inch lower, respectively, than non-consumers.

"We found that in addition to lower body weight, tree nut consumers also had a 22 percent lower risk of becoming overweight or obese and 17 percent lower risk of developing abdominal obesity than non-tree nut consumers," stated Carol O'Neil, PhD, MPH, RD, lead author of the study and Professor at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. This data confirms similar results found by researchers at Harvard University in 2011 which found that consumption of nuts was inversely associated with weight gain.

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Give your snack a national nutrition month makeover with pistachios

Research and Markets: Discover the World of Microbes: Bacteria, Archaea, and Viruses

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ev1

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/154bc3/discover_the_world) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Discover the World of Microbes: Bacteria, Archaea, and Viruses" to their offering.

This title is an essential primer for all students who need some background in microbiology and want to become familiar with the universal importance of bacteria for all forms of life.

Written by Gerhard Gottschalk, Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and one of the most prominent microbiologists in our time, this text covers the topic in its whole breadth and does not only focus on bacteria as pathogens.

The book is written in an easy-to-read, entertaining style but each chapter also contains a `facts' section with compact text and diagrams for easy learning. In addition, more than 40 famous scientists, including several Nobel Prize winners, contributed sections, written specifically for this title. The book comes with color figures and a companion website with questions and answers.

Key Features:

Author:

Gerhard Gottschalk studied Chemistry at the Humboldt-University in Berlin. He finished his Ph.D. in Gottingen in 1963 and worked as a Post-Doc from 1964 - 1966 at the Department of Biochemistry at University of California, Berkeley (USA). He became full professor for microbiology in Gottingen in 1970, where he worked until 2003. He was visting professor in UC Davis in 1973 und UC Berkeley in 1979, and was head of the laboratory for Genome analysis at the Institute for Microbiology and Genetics in Gottingen from 1999 to 2007.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/154bc3/discover_the_world

There's no secret formula to Sun City's centenarians' longevity

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ev1

A healthy diet and getting enough rest is good advice for people of all ages. For two Sun City residents who are beginning their second century of living, they're just part of what keeps them ticking.

Amelia Krapfs Williams and Hazel Burger also include playing the piano, taking tennis and tap dance lessons, working puzzles, painting, dancing and reading.

Williams lives with her daughter and son-in-law, Janet and John Garnjost. She will be 101 in September.

"I don't feel 100," Williams said. "I don't act it."

The former Latin andGerman language teacher said her mother taught her to do all things in moderation.

"I think I'm still going because of my diet, keeping active, enjoying life. I did play tennis. I would say that's pretty good," she said. She enjoys fruit and milk. "I like variety. I like my sweets."

The daughter of a Lutheran minister who moved his family to serve at different churches, Williams enjoyed living by the seashore when they lived inAtlantic City. By the time she was in high school, the family had moved to Pittston,Pa., not far from Hershey where she was born.

That neighbor boy

The one thing that stood out in her memory was being able to see the home of a neighbor boy outside her back door across the cemetery. Soon they began dating.

"My mother didn't like that so much,"Williams said with a twinkle. "He worked at the Vulcan IronWorks. My mother sent me off to Susquehanna College to become a teacher."

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There's no secret formula to Sun City's centenarians' longevity

Minus Branden Dawson, Michigan State's NCAA tournament longevity in doubt

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ev1

EAST LANSING Tom Izzo said so himself this week: "The one thing about the NCAAs, it's all about matchups."

Through the span of six Final Four runs at Michigan State, perhaps no coach in college basketball has utilized this understanding more effectively.

If there's a seventh such NCAA tournament run this month, it'll be done without the Spartans' primary athletic mismatch.

When freshman Branden Dawson tore the ACL in his left knee midway through the first half against Ohio State on Sunday, it cost the Spartans the game from the 15-point lead that dissipated, to the Buckeyes' final shot, which was taken by the player Dawson would have been defending.

The same could be argued for when Dawson tweaked his other knee slipping on the midcourt logo on the USS Carl Vinson in the season opener against North Carolina.

Two games bookending the regular season, both against elite competition, both beginning with a confident and healthy Dawson and either ending without him or without him trusting his legs.

In both cases, Michigan State looked like the better team and the scoreboard read like it until Dawson went down.

Matchups are the reason the Spartans outscored Ohio State by 25 points through the 50 minutes this season with a healthy Dawson.

The Buckeyes' three usual offensive mismatches center Jared Sullinger, 4-man Deshaun Thomas and wing William Buford found themselves with no real advantage at all.

Michigan State centers Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix bothered Sullinger with either length or the pounds to push him off the block. All-American Draymond Green abused Thomas, especially in the first meeting.

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Minus Branden Dawson, Michigan State's NCAA tournament longevity in doubt

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