Posts

June 19, 2013

+

7:42 AM | Do you believe in magic in medicine?

Sometimes, between blogging, a demanding day (and night) job doing surgery and science, and everything else, I embarrass myself. Sure, sometimes I embarrass myself by saying something that, in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t. More often, I embarrass myself by letting things slide that I shouldn’t. For instance, when friends send me a prepublication copy…

+

7:42 AM | Do you believe in magic in medicine?

Sometimes, between blogging, a demanding day (and night) job doing surgery and science, and everything else, I embarrass myself. Sure, sometimes I embarrass myself by saying something that, in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t. More often, I embarrass myself by letting things slide that I shouldn’t. For instance, when friends send me a prepublication copy…

+

4:01 AM | “Sense and nonsense” about alternative medicine in USA Today

Sometimes, between blogging, a demanding day (and night) job doing surgery and science, and everything else, I embarrass myself. Sure, sometimes I embarrass myself by saying something that, in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t. More often, I embarrass myself by letting things slide that I shouldn’t. For instance, when friends send me a prepublication copy [...]

June 18, 2013

+

7:05 PM | Nanog protein promotes the growth of cancer stem cells in head and neck cancer

A new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center -- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James) has identified a biochemical pathway in cancer stem cells that is essential for promoting head and neck cancer.The study shows that a protein called Nanog, which is normally active in embryonic stem cells, promotes the growth of cancer stem cells in head and neck cancer. The findings provide information essential for […]

Xie, X., Piao, L., Cavey, G., Old, M., Teknos, T., Mapp, A. & Pan, Q. (2013). Phosphorylation of Nanog is essential to regulate Bmi1 and promote tumorigenesis, Oncogene, DOI: 10.1038/onc.2013.173

Citation

+

1:13 PM | Cancer gene sequencing effort struggles through waves of false IDs

Muscle proteins, smell receptors show up in some putative lists.

+

8:42 AM | "Undruggable" cancers may by druggable

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have identified in the most aggressive forms of cancer a gene known to regulate embryonic stem cell self-renewal, beginning a creative search for a drug that can block its activity.The gene, SALL4, gives stem cells their ability to continue dividing as stem cells rather than becoming mature cells. Typically, cells only express SALL4 during embryonic development, but the gene is re-expressed in nearly all cases of acute myeloid leukemia and 10 to 30 […]

Yong, K., Gao, C., Lim, J., Yan, B., Yang, H., Dimitrov, T., Kawasaki, A., Ong, C., Wong, K., Lee, S. & Ravikumar, S. (2013). Oncofetal Gene in Aggressive Hepatocellular Carcinoma , New England Journal of Medicine, 368 (24) 2266-2276. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1300297

Citation

+

8:42 AM | "Undruggable" cancers may by druggable

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have identified in the most aggressive forms of cancer a gene known to regulate embryonic stem cell self-renewal, beginning a creative search for a drug that can block its activity.The gene, SALL4, gives stem cells their ability to continue dividing as stem cells rather than becoming mature cells. Typically, cells only express SALL4 during embryonic development, but the gene is re-expressed in nearly all cases of acute myeloid leukemia and 10 to 30 […]

Yong, K., Gao, C., Lim, J., Yan, B., Yang, H., Dimitrov, T., Kawasaki, A., Ong, C., Wong, K., Lee, S. & Ravikumar, S. (2013). Oncofetal Gene in Aggressive Hepatocellular Carcinoma , New England Journal of Medicine, 368 (24) 2266-2276. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1300297

Citation

June 16, 2013

+

11:18 PM | A Few Tidbits about Epigenetics: The Methylome

The Methylome is a new toy of genetic science. It adds yet another level of complexity “above genetics”, responsible for affecting patterns of gene expression and, relevant to my line […]

June 14, 2013

+

6:27 PM | LabBook June 14, 2013

Breast cancer, iPads, the Supreme Court's gene patent decision and more in this week's double edition of LabBook.

+

12:05 AM | Supreme Court Rules that Genes Can Not Be Patented

This is an exciting day for both lawyers and scientists! This past April, EpiBeat posted a summary that described the Supreme Court case to determine whether genes can be patented. Today, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in a unanimous decision that patents for genes, their sequences, and the information they encode, such ...The post Supreme Court Rules that Genes Can Not Be Patented appeared first on .

+

12:05 AM | Supreme Court Rules that Genes Cannot Be Patented

This is an exciting day for molecular biologists—with this discipline featured front and center in the recent Supreme Court ruling on gene patenting. This past April, EpiBeat posted a summary that described the Supreme Court case to determine whether genes can be patented. Today, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in a unanimous ...The post Supreme Court Rules that Genes Cannot Be Patented appeared first on .

June 13, 2013

+

8:12 PM | Life, Interrupted: The Cost of Cancer

When I blow out my birthday candles next month, I’ll celebrate being alive. But my 25th birthday will also mark a countdown to the date when I will no longer be eligible to stay on my parents’ insurance.

+

6:05 PM | Supreme Court Rejects Patents on Two Naturally Occurring Genes

When Angelina Jolie announced last month that she decided to get a prophylactic double mastectomy, she based her decision on the presence of the BRCA1 gene in her body—a gene that was detected via a costly medical test. The Supreme Court today unanimously struck down patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2—two genes linked to hereditary forms [...]

+

4:36 PM | UChicago Experts Weigh in on Supreme Court Gene Patent Ruling

University of Chicago Medicine experts assess the impact of today's US Supreme Court decision that human genes cannot be patented.

+

3:28 PM | NY Times on E-cigs: Failure to answer key questions.

This morning's New York Times business section features what I'd call a style story entitled, "E-Cigarettes Are in Vogue and at a Crossroads," by Liz Alderman. It's a story about a new fashion, which might be more at home in the living section than in the business pages. But wherever it shows up, and whatever its approach, it owes readers a fair and full accounting of its subject, just as it would be obliged to tell […]

+

2:32 PM | High Tech World Triggers a Modern-Day Syndrome

Oh, for the days: Remember when everyone used to be really, really worried about power lines? youtube.com/watch?feature=… — Ketan Joshi (@ArghJoshi) June 13, 2013 Those were worried Australians in the mid-2000s, so it wasn’t all that long ago. In the United States, people were really, really worried in the 1980s and 1990s about getting cancer from [...]

+

5:22 AM | How dogs may be able to help in the fight against cancer

Dr. Liz Phular and colleagues at the University of Minnesota have been testing an experimental cancer treatment for brain tumors in dogs that also offers hope to humans with brain tumors: KMSP-TV

June 12, 2013

+

2:12 PM | Osteo…huh?

Doctors search for new ways to solve the puzzle of a rare bone cancer Zach Sobiech (Image courtesy of YouTube) Recently, the world watched as 18-year-old Zach Sobiech transformed from a high school student living with cancer, to a rock star, living his dream of recording music and embracing his...

June 11, 2013

+

7:08 PM | AI: Now-overlapping Hobbysteria

One of the things that frustrates me enormously is the lack of real science in fitness reporting…. and the overwhelming amount of non-science that all conflicts with the rest of it. Another thing that really frustrates me is the way that women’s magazines focused on fitness are really focused on looking sexy for your man. So last week, in an attempt to combine skepticism, fitness and women in one place, I started the Skepchick Quickies Running Club on Facebook. It’s pretty […]

+

11:15 AM | Modulation of apoptosis by oncogenic viruses

Hmm, this sounds like a good exam question for next year's paper.The post Modulation of apoptosis by oncogenic viruses appeared first on MicrobiologyBytes.

June 10, 2013

+

8:53 PM | Oral Cancer Sneaks Up

Unlike the Pap smear, which has nearly eliminated cervical cancer as a death threat in America, there is still no early screening for throat cancers.

+

8:02 PM | CT Scans Overused in Kids, Upping Lifetime Risk for Cancer

Tweet The next time that you take your daughter or son to the doctor, try to put out of your mind that the more tests done, the better. Fishing expeditions to come up with a diagnosis are all too common … Continue reading →

+

7:14 PM | Exciting times in CLL: an ASCO 2013 interview with Dr Susan O’Brien

At the recent ASCO 2013 meeting in Chicago, I had the great pleasure to interview Susan M. O’Brien, MD who…

+

11:14 AM | Big Ten Universities Form Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium

Last week, leaders from Big Ten universities' cancer centers kicked off the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium.

+

5:00 AM | BBC Panorama investigates Stanislaw Burzynski

Last week, I reviewed a long-expected (and, to some extent, long-dreaded) documentary by Eric Merola, a filmmaker whose talent is inversely proportional to his yen for conspiracy, pseudoscience, and quackery. Through a quirk of fate that couldn’t have worked out better if I had planned it myself, a long-expected investigation of the Burzynski Clinic by [...]

June 09, 2013

+

10:13 PM | Iain (M) Banks

The Scottish writer Iain Banks—who signed Ian M Banks for his science-fiction works—has passed away this week after a few months fighting cancer. He was considered as one of the greatest Scottish writers alive, although I must confess I only read Iain M Banks’ books, even buying The Algebraist twice, so far (but I will […]

June 08, 2013

+

1:28 PM | Turning insect viruses into cancer therapies

Gene therapy is a pretty promising approach for lots of different diseases, and has already overcome a huge hurdle with the approval of the very first gene therapy product, Glybera, by the European Commission in 2012. At its core, gene … Continue reading →

Swift, S., Rivera, G., Dussupt, V., Leadley, R., Hudson, L., MA de Ridder, C., Kraaij, R., Burns, J., Maitland, N. & Georgopoulos, L. & (2013). Evaluating Baculovirus as a Vector for Human Prostate Cancer Gene Therapy, PLoS ONE, 8 (6) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065557

Citation

+

2:35 AM | The Gift of Surviving Cancer and Giving Back

She’s a striking blond. Attractive, warm, funny, caring, and always smiling. He’s also a striking blond – and warm and caring and funny – and seems to always be smiling as well. “She” is Ginny Fineberg, a youthful looking 64 year old cancer survivor. And “he” is her self-proclaimed “Momma’s...

June 07, 2013

+

8:58 PM | Morsels for the mind – 7/6/2013

Every day we provide you with #SixIncredibleThingsBeforeBreakfast to nibble away at. Here you can fill your brain with the most intellectually stimulating “amuse bouches” from the past week – a veritable smorgasbord for the cranium. They’re all here for you to load up your plate – this week’s “Morsels for the mind”. Enjoy! **** Feather, fur & fin – birds, beasts, fishes, and the things they do Reach out with your mind. With all eight appendages. Imagine being an […]

+

3:00 PM | Significant cell death

Bleach also works. And high concentrations of ethanol (works for humans too). Also, just leaving the petri dish out on your lab bench to desiccate.

June 19, 2013

June 18, 2013

June 16, 2013

June 14, 2013

June 13, 2013

June 12, 2013

June 11, 2013

June 10, 2013

June 09, 2013

June 08, 2013

June 07, 2013

Posts with Citations

User Activity