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CCBAR Newsletter – November, 2007

Editors:  Natalia Gavrilova and Stacy Tessler Lindau

CCBAR News

CCBAR has organized and sponsored a regular teleconference of C2S monthly colloquium presentations (thanks to significant efforts and ingenuity of Saad Iqbal).  The first teleconference was held at the University of Chicago Hospital premises (the Department of OB/GYN conference room) and broadcasted a talk by Dr. Richard Rogers from the University of Colorado (Boulder) entitled "Social Disparities and Health: Sex Differentials in Mortality." Please contact Jessica Schwartz if you have questions regarding this event or would like to be informed about the future C2S teleconferences (email jschwartz@babies.bsd.uchicago.edu or call 773-834-4832). 

News From the NEJM, Nature Journals, Science, BMJ and PNAS

Using maths to tackle cancer
Multicellular animals have been around for about 600 million years, and cancer has been a problem for most of this time. There is a risk of cancer whenever the component cells grow and divide, so cancer incidence has increased progressively as the size and lifespan
EDITORIAL: Molecular Screening for Cervical Cancer -- Time to Give up Pap Tests?
In 1943, Papanicolaou and Traut published their famous monograph on vaginal cytology as a screening method for uterine cancer.1 Since then, the Papanicolaou (Pap) smear has become the most commonly ...
ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: Fresh Evidence Points to an Old Suspect: Ca...
Proteins known to contribute to Alzheimer's pathology have been linked to disturbances in calcium ion regulation that could underlie neuronal death in the disease.
NEUROSCIENCE: Maternal Effects on Schizophrenia Risk
Local environmental factors impinging on the fetal brain can tip the balance toward mental illness.
[NEWS FOCUS] IMMUNOLOGY: Testing the Line Between Too Much and Too Little
Keeping peanuts and other risky foods from toddlers in the hopes of preventing allergy has been common practice for years. But is avoidance actually safer?
[Evolution] From the Cover: Effects of body size and lifestyle on evolution o...
It has recently been proposed that life-history evolution is subject to a fundamental size-dependent constraint. This constraint limits the rate...
[Genetics] Impaired glutathione synthesis in schizophrenia: Convergent geneti...
Schizophrenia is a complex multifactorial brain disorder with a genetic component. Convergent evidence has implicated oxidative stress and glutathione (GSH)...
[Sustainability_Science-SS] Mortality traps and the dynamics of health transi... 
An examination of life expectancy in 1963 reveals twin peaks in the empirical distribution across countries: one group of countries...
[Medical_Sciences] Educational status and cardiovascular risk profile in Indians
The inverse graded relationship of education and risk factors of coronary heart disease (CHD) has been reported from Western populations....
[Evolution] Negative correlation does not imply a tradeoff between growth and...
A tradeoff between growth and reproduction, often inferred from an inverse correlation between these two variables, is a fundamental paradigm...

Biomarkers and Aging in the News Media

Naked mole-rat's longevity secret cloaked in mystery
What a naked mole-rat lack in looks, those so-ugly-they're-cute naked mole-rats make up for in life span. One of the wrinkled, ...
Extra Weight Said Won't Raise Death Risk
Being 25 pounds overweight doesn't appear to raise your risk of dying from cancer or heart disease, says a new government study that seems to vindicate Grandma's claim that a few extra pounds won't kill you....
Study Connects Pill to Artery Buildups
A troubling study from Belgium hints that long-term use of oral contraceptives - at least the high-estrogen ones sold decades ago - might increase the chances of having artery buildups that can raise the risk of heart disease....

Feel-Good Gene May Spur Snacking
Variations in a dopamine gene may boost motivation to eat and could make food addictive, obesity experts report in Behavioral Neuroscience.
Prostate Cancer Survival Varies by Season
Men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the summer and fall have a better chance of survival than those diagnosed in the spring and winter, a new study of Norwegian men suggests.
Financial choices influenced by genes
New research by a team that includes a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student suggests that our genes may play an important role in influencing our economic behavior.
Removing Colon Polyps Cuts Death Risk
An initial colonoscopy during which the colon is cleared of precancerous polyps significantly reduces deaths from colon cancer -- even if there are no follow-up exams, researchers report.
Obesity Ups Women's Colon Cancer Risk
Obesity more than doubles a woman's risk of developing colon cancer or growths that can lead to colon cancer, researchers say.
Why Garlic Is Good for You
Eating garlic may release compounds in the blood that relax blood vessels and increase blood flow to lower heart disease risk.
Genetics Has Key Role In Obesity
A new line of evidence ties the risk of obesity to genetics. The modern Pima Indians have an unusually high rate of obesity but the new findings could be extrapolated to other populations.
Early Detection Of Human Papilloma And Other Viral Infections
Scientists have developed a new, amazingly sensitive method for identifying the earliest stages of infection with human papilloma virus (HPV), a common virus that can increase the risk of cervical cancer in women. The test also has the potential for early identification of infection with other so-called DNA viruses, which cause a range of diseases that includes genital herpes and hepatitis.
Research fleshes out the benefits of exercise
Walking briskly for almost an hour daily or doing other regular physical activity is the key to losing a lot of weight and ...
Study: Low-Fat Diet May Cut Cancer Risk
Cutting dietary fat may also cut the risk of ovarian cancer, says a study of almost 40,000 older women that found the first hard evidence that menu changes protect against this particularly lethal cancer.
My Hormones Didn't Make Me Do It
In mice, genes don't need hormones to cause sex differences in behavior 
Wide Income Gap Linked To Deaths In Both Rich And Poor Nations
A wide income gap between the most affluent and the worst off in society is closely associated with higher death rates worldwide, especially for younger adults, finds a new study.
Vitamin D May Not Lower Cancer Deaths
A large new study found no sign that vitamin D lowers the overall risk of dying from cancer, injecting a note of caution to the latest vitamin craze....
Brain Scan Abnormalities Not Uncommon
One in 60 older people may be walking around with benign brain tumors and don't know it. Even more may have bulging blood vessels in the head that could burst. These results come from a surprising new Dutch study that finds brain abnormalities are not all that uncommon....
Heart disease drops among adult diabetics
From 1997 to 2005, the percentage of U.S. diabetics, 35 years of age or older, with self-reported heart disease decreased by 11 percent, according to findings released Thursday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Study: Obesity May Surpass Smoking As Cancer Risk
A major report cites obesity as a cancer risk factor that one co-author says approaches and may even surpass smoking. Another co-author calls the obesity-cancer link the report demonstrates "remarkable."
Genes affecting generosity may be found:
One gene underlying altruism is an evolutionarily ancient strip of DNA also found in rodents, a study indicates.
Hormone found to predict mother-child bonding:
Levels of a hormone in a pregnant woman predict how closely she'll bond with her baby, scientists say.
Overweight Or Underweight, Causes Of Death Differ
The association between weight and causes of death can vary considerably, with obesity associated with a significantly increased mortality from cardiovascular disease, underweight associated with increased mortality from primarily non-cancer, non-CVD causes, and overweight associated with increased mortality from diabetes and kidney disease combined, but with reduced mortality from other non-cancer non-CVD causes of death, according to a new study.
Aging: Flip Side to Education Is Seen in Dementia
For people with more years of schooling, a new study suggests that once the effects of dementia begin, they move more rapidly.

NIH Press Releases

NIAID Funds $51 Million Contract to Create Comprehensive Model of Immune Resp...
A team of scientists is expanding efforts to develop a detailed picture of immune system function with a new $51 million, five-year contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The research builds on a project originally funded by NIAID in 2003, and will continue to be led by Richard Ulevitch, Ph.D., of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. The contract will also involve scientists from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle; Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.; and the Australian National University, Canberra.

Stress: Brain Yields Clues About Why Some Succumb While Other...
Results of a new study may one day help scientists learn how to enhance a naturally occurring mechanism in the brain that promotes resilience to psychological stress. Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found that, in a mouse model, the ability to adapt to stress is driven by a distinctly different molecular mechanism than is the tendency to be overwhelmed by stress. The researchers mapped out the mechanisms -- components of which also are present in the human brain -- that govern both kinds of responses.

How Schizophrenia Develops: Major Clues Discovered - October 16, 2007
Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because of a problem in an intermittent on/off switch for a gene involved in making a key chemical messenger in the brain, scientists have found in a study of human brain tissue. The researchers found that the gene is turned on at increasingly high rates during normal development of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in higher functions like thinking and decision-making -- but that this normal increase may not occur in people with schizophrenia.

One in Seven Americans Age 71 and Older Has Some Type of Deme...
A new analysis suggests that about 3.4 million Americans age 71 and older -- one in seven people in that age group -- have dementia, and 2.4 million of them have Alzheimer's disease (AD). The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is the latest in a series of analyses attempting to assess the prevalence of dementia and AD, the most common form of dementia. Published online this week in "Neuroepidemiology", the study is the first to estimate rates of dementia and AD using a nationally representative sample of older adults across the United States.

NIH Announcements

Predictive Multiscale Models of the Physiome in Health and Disease (R01)

ELSI Regular Research Program (R01)

ELSI Small Research Grant Program (R03)

Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging (K08 & K23)

Notice of a Report from the National Institute on Aging Meetings on New Interventions for Menopausal Symptoms

Basic and Translational Research Opportunities in the Social Neuroscience of Mental Health (R01)

New Interventions for Menopausal Symptoms (U01)

Harmonization of Longitudinal Cross-National Surveys of Aging (R21)

Advancing Novel Science in Women s Health Research (ANSWHR) [R21]

Events

NIH videocast

Improving Public Health Grey Literature Access for the Public Health Workforce
Presented by: Elizabeth D. Liddy, Ph.D., Syracuse University
Aired date: 11/05/2007

 The Gerontological Society of America’s 60th Annual Scientific Meeting "The Era of Global Aging: Challenges and Opportunities"
November 16-20, 2007. San Francisco, United States
Aging, Genome Maintenance and Methabolism. AFAR Conference, Thursday, December 6, 2007, New York Academy of Sciences, 7 World Trade Center, 40th floor, New York, NY
Living to 100: Survival to Advanced Ages International Seminar,  January 8-9, 2008.  Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort, Lake Buena Vista, FL
Association for Gerontology in Higher Education Annual Meeting,  February 21-24, 2008. Baltimore, USA
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This Newsletter  is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health (Grant No. 5 P30 AG012857)