Science Talk

April 26, 2010 — Tiny, melanin-covered nanoparticles may protect bone marrow from the harmful effects of radiation therapy, according to scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University who successfully tested the strategy in mouse models. The research is published in the April 26, 2010 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics.

April 22, 2010 — Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have determined the crystal structures of two key fluorescent proteins — one blue, one red — used to "light up" molecules in cells. Their study appears in the April 22 online edition of Chemistry and Biology, a Cell Press publication.

April 11, 2010 — In a step towards a possible treatment for Huntington's disease, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have shown for the first time that the accumulation of a mutated protein may explain damaging cellular behavior in Huntington's disease. Their research is described in the April 11 online edition of Nature Neuroscience.

April 7, 2010 — A study of nearly 13,000 rescue workers from the Fire Department of the City of New York shows that those who suffered acute lung damage after exposure to World Trade Center dust have not recovered normal lung function. The study appears in the April 8, 2010 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine.

March 21, 2010 — Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found two novel ways of killing the bacteria that cause tuberculosis, a disease responsible for an estimated two million deaths each year. The findings are published in the March 21 online issue of Nature Chemical Biology.

February 10, 2010 — Migraine sufferers are twice as likely to have heart attacks as people without migraine, according to a new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The study, published in the February 10 online issue of Neurology, found that migraine sufferers also face increased risk for stroke and were more likely to have key risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

January 26, 2010 — A new study shows that a protein found in blood alleviates anemia, a condition in which the body's tissues don't get enough oxygen from the blood. In this animal study, injections of the protein, known as transferrin, also protected against potentially fatal iron overload in mice with thalassemia, a type of inherited anemia that affects millions of people worldwide.

January 12, 2010 — Older women with hypertension are at increased risk for developing brain lesions that cause dementia later in life, according to data from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS). The findings were published in the December 2009 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension.

January 12, 2010 — Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that a "longevity gene" helps to slow age-related decline in brain function in older adults. Drugs that mimic the gene's effect are now under development, the researchers note, and could help protect against Alzheimer's disease.

December 22, 2009 — Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed a new approach for treating and healing skin abscesses caused by bacteria resistant to most antibiotics. For their new treatment strategy, the Einstein scientists developed tiny nanoparticles — smaller than a grain of pollen — that carry nitric oxide (NO), a gas that helps in the body's natural immune response to infection.