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
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This
Newsletter is
supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, National
Institutes of Health (Grant No. 5 P30 AG012857)