A group of Belgian researchers has determined that a pregnant woman's ability to metabolize fats is determined not only by her genes but by her baby's genes as well. The details of their findings appear in the November issue of the Journal of Lipid Research, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal.

A new study has found wild-type measles virus in tissues from patients who died of a fatal brain infection, providing evidence against the notion that the strain of virus in the measles vaccine caused the infection. The study, in the November 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online, also concludes that vaccination against measles could prevent many more cases of the disease, known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, or SSPE, than previously thought.

Religious institutions serving New York City's Asian immigrants are not educating their congregations about HIV prevention and healthcare, in part because some leaders hold stigma and fear about the disease, according to a new study by The New York Academy of Medicine in the upcoming issue of the international journal AIDS Education and Prevention. This special issue devoted to Asians/Pacific Islanders and HIV is being published this week.

Faster computation of haplotypes provides insight into genetic basis of human diseaseHigh-throughput sequencing of an individual's DNA yields a map of genetic variation which can give clues to the genetic underpinning of human disease. The current technologies collect genotypes, or information from the individual's two chromosomes. Yet many scientists believe that drilling down to the variations between individuals' DNA at the level of each chromosome -- so-called haplotypes -- will permit more accurate study of genetic differences and their consequences for medical research and the study of evolution.

Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School, in collaboration with researchers at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, have discovered a recurring pattern of scrambled chromosomes and abnormal gene activity that occurs only in prostate cancer.

Scientists are one step closer to unraveling the complex mechanisms in the brain that regulate body weight. Working with mice -- whose appetites are controlled by systems very similar to those in humans -- they have identified a specific type of neuron that is essential for feeding behavior. Without these neurons, adult mice stop eating and undergo rapid weight loss.

Researchers at Purdue University have taken a step toward developing a new type of ultra-sensitive medical imaging technique that works by shining a laser through the skin to detect tiny gold nanorods injected into the bloodstream.