Children who have at least one parent who smokes have 5.5 times higher levels of cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine, in their urine, according to a study by researchers from Warwick Medical School at the the University of Warwick, and the University of Leicester, published online ahead of print in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Scientists have found a novel signaling pathway in cells that is altered by genetic mutations recently identified in Parkinson disease development. These new findings show how the mutations affect cellular function and could provide a target for drug therapies to treat the disease. The research by a team of Emory University scientists will be published June 18 in the Public Library of Science Biology (PLoS Biology) journal.

Nice, France: Many of the areas of the human genome previously thought to be deserts are in fact teeming with life, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Tuesday 19 June).

A scientific discovery by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers helps explain how “memory” T cells protect the body from viral diseases. The research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science Online Early Edition shows lymph nodes are not just organs where immune cells reside and proliferate, but also are the sites where a major fight against the spread of an invading virus occurs.

Restrictions on the non-urgent use of hospital-based services that were imposed when a provincial health emergency was declared during the 2003 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in Toronto, Ontario, resulted in only modest reductions in overall admissions. In this study, Dr. Michael J. Schull and colleagues determined that restrictions on the non-urgent use of hospital-based services at 32 hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area resulted in a 12% decrease in admissions. The findings suggest that the ability of a health system to admit large numbers of affected patients during a future epidemic would be limited by continued high levels of hospital occupancy. For example, the 12% decrease in overall admissions seen during the SARS restrictions would only offset one-quarter of the number of additional admissions expected in an influenza pandemic in Toronto.

An international research team has documented the link between the way an animal moves and the dimensions of an important part of its organ of balance, the three semicircular canals of the inner ear on each side of the skull. The team's article on its research will be published on 26 June in the print edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and in the journal's online early edition during the week of 18 to 22 June.

In a paper that will be published online in advance of its July 1st publication date, Drs. Niko Geldner, Joanne Chory and colleagues (The Salk Institute and HHMI) demonstrate that endosomes can function as signaling platforms in plants, as well as in animals.

Researchers announced this week the discovery of a mechanism by which Mycobacterium avium – a bacterium which can result in serious lung infections and is prevalent in emphysema and AIDS patients among others – infects tissue cells or “macrophages” and thus compromises the body’s immunity.

Although it may sound like an oxymoron, a University of Iowa anthropologist and his colleagues report the first discovery of a skull from a "pygmy-sized" giant panda -- the earliest-known ancestor of the giant panda -- that lived in south China some two million years ago.

Everyone knows that eating lean fish helps slim waistlines, but researchers from the Center for the Study of Weight Regulation and Associated Disorders at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, OR, have found a new way fish can help eliminate obesity. In a study to be published in the July 2007 print issue of The FASEB Journal, researchers describe the first genetic model of obesity in a fish. Having this model should greatly accelerate the development of new drugs to help people lose weight and keep it off.

Our bodies could not maintain their existence without thousands of proteins performing myriad vital tasks within cells. Since malfunctioning proteins can cause disease, the study of protein structure and function can lead to the development of drugs and treatments for numerous disorders. For example, the discovery of insulin’s role in diabetes paved the way for the development of a treatment based on insulin injections. Yet, despite enormous research efforts led by scientists worldwide, the cellular function of numerous proteins is still unknown. To reveal this function, scientists perform various genetic manipulations to increase or, conversely, decrease the production of a certain protein, but existing manipulations of this sort are complicated and do not fully meet the researchers’ needs.