Predicts

Chromosome Deletion Predicts Aggressive Neuroblastoma

When genes are deleted on a particular section of chromosome 11, the result is an aggressive form of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. A new study suggests that detecting this genetic deletion during the initial evaluation of children with neuroblastoma may indicate to physicians that they should recommend a more aggressive regimen of chemotherapy to fight the cancer. Edward F. Attiyeh,...

Multiple-drug resistant gene expression pattern predicts treatment outcome for pediatric leukemia

A new study is providing scientists with a better understanding of why some pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients fail to respond to treatment even when existing clinical predictive criteria point towards a positive treatment outcome. The research, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, is likely to facilitate development of new strategies to combat drug resistance and treat...

Measuring Enzymes At End Of Cancer Pathway Predicts Outcome Of Tarceva, Taxol

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have developed a way to test whether the new targeted therapy Tarceva and the widely used chemotherapy drug Taxol are effectively killing tumor cells. They say that with further refinement, the test may make it possible to accurately assess whether patients are responding to these agents, as well as potentially others, within day...

Computational Tool Predicts How Drugs Work In Cells, Advancing Efforts To Design Better Medicines

The ability to select and develop compounds that act on specific cellular targets has just gained a computational ally ?a mathematical algorithm that predicts the precise effects a given compound will have on a cell’s molecular components or chemical processes. Using this tool, drug developers can design compounds that will act on only desired gene and protein targets, eliciting therapeutic respo...

Ocean climate predicts elk population in Canadian Rockies

Mark Hebblewhite can look at specific climate statistics from the north Pacific Ocean and tell you how the elk are doing in Banff National Park. The University of Alberta doctoral student is the first researcher to show a correlation between the North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) and a mammal population. Based on many climate-related ocean measurements, researchers are able to determine posit...

Identification of specific genes predicts which patients will respond to Hepatitis C treatment

For the first time, physicians at University Health Network and University of Toronto have identified a small subset of genes that can predict whether a patient with chronic Hepatitis C will be able to respond to current treatments. The study, published in t...

Rensselaer researchers develop approach that predicts protein separation behavior

Applying math and computers to the drug-discovery process, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a method to predict protein separation behavior directly from protein structure. This new multi-scale protein modeling approach may reduce the time it takes to bring pharmaceuticals to market and may have significant implications for an array of biotechnology applications, inc...

Eleven gene 'signature' reliably predicts cancer prognosis

The rather new concept of "tumor stem cells" maintains that a rare, stem cell-like population of cancer cells exists among the mix of other cells found in a tumor and that these tumor stem cells are responsible for tumor progression and metastasis. In a revolutionary study appearing in the June 1 print issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Gennadi Glinsky and colleagues from the Sidney...

Sweet 'water taste' paradoxically predicts sweet taste inhibitors

A scientific paradox linking artificial sweeteners such as saccharin with a sensory experience in which plain water takes on a sweet taste has guided researchers to an increased understanding of how humans detect sweet taste. Reporting in an advance online publication in Nature, scientists from the Monell Chemical Senses Center describe how certain artificial sweeteners, including sodium...

'Signature' of chromosome instability predicts cancer outcomes

Microscopic examination of tumor specimens cannot always predict a cancer's aggressiveness, leading to increased interest in molecular approaches to diagnosis. Now, researchers in the Children's Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP) at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology report that a genetic profile indicating chromosomal instability -- an increased tendency to develop chrom...

Blood test predicts success of quitting smoking using the nicotine patch

A blood test may enable doctors to predict which smokers using the nicotine patch are likely to experience the least amount of cravings and have the highest probability of success in quitting cigarettes, according to the results of a study in the June issus of the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The blood test, which is a measure of the rate at which nicotine is metabo...

First-ever genomic test predicts which lung cancer patients need chemotherapy to live

Duke University Medical Center scientists have developed the first-ever genomic test to predict which patients with early-stage lung cancer will need chemotherapy to live and which patients can avoid the toxic regimen of drugs. The test has the potential to save thousands of lives each year by recommending chemotherapy for patients who are currently advised against it, said the test's de...

Ocean temperature predicts spread of marine species

Scientists can predict how the distance marine larvae travel varies with ocean temperature ?a key component in conservation and management of fish, shellfish and other marine species ?according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Most marine life, including commercially important species, reproduces via larvae that drift far along ocean currents before retu...

Math model predicts cancer behavior

Vito Quaranta clicks on a small black dot on his computer screen. The dot ?which represents about a thousand cancer cells ?begins to "grow," morphing into a mass with finger-like projections that looks like an invasive tumor. The Vanderbilt professor of cancer biology envisions a future when computer simulations like this will be used to predict a tumor's clinical progression and formulate...

Procedure predicts embryos most likely to result in pregnancy

To address the high rate of multiple births resulting from in-vitro-fertilization (IVF), researchers at Yale School of Medicine and McGill University have developed a procedure that estimates the reproductive potential of individual embryos, possibly leading to a decrease in multiple-infant births and a higher success rate in women undergoing IVF. Over 100,000 in-vitro fertilization proced...

NASA predicts nongreen plants on other planets

NASA scientists believe they have found a way to predict the color of plants on planets in other solar systems. Green, yellow or even red-dominant plants may live on extra-solar planets, according to scientists whose two scientific papers appear in the March issue of the journal, Astrobiology. The scientists studied light absorbed and reflected by organisms on Earth, and determined that i...