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Study To Follow Pregnant Women To Better Understand Causes, Early Signs Of Autism
NIH and the advocacy group Autism Speaks are enrolling 1,200 pregnant women who have other children with autism spectrum disorders to participate in a large study that aims to identify early signs of the condition and its possible causes, the Wall Street Journal reports. Women who participate in the study -- known as the Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation, or EARLI, study -- will be monitored throughout their pregnancies, and their infants will be monitored until age three. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 150 children in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder, which includes autism, Asperger"s syndrome and pervasive developmental disorders. The study will focus on women who already have one child with an autism spectrum disorder because such women have a higher chance of having another child with the condition. Craig Newschaffer, the study"s lead investigator and a department chair at Philadelphia"s Drexel University School of Public Health, said, "By studying families who are already affected by autism, we feel we have the best chance at learning how genetics and environmental factors could work together to cause autism." Autism usually is characterized by social interaction and communication impairments, as well as unusual interests or behaviors. Although there is no cure for autism, its symptoms can be improved through therapy and medication, the Journal reports.According to Newschaffer, researchers throughout the study will collect blood and urine for DNA analysis. Samples also will be collected from the umbilical cord, placenta and meconium -- the infant"s first stool -- after birth. Infants born during the study will be provided with a series of developmental assessments, and older siblings with autism also could receive assessments to confirm their diagnosis (Corbett Dooren, Wall Street Journal, 6/9).
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'Taking Up A Dialogue' With The Brain: Letter Decoding From Single-trial Brain Signals
Brain-computer interfaces "translate" what a person is thinking in words or actions. Researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands performed functional MRI brain scans on healthy participants, instructing them to "type" by performing mental tasks corresponding to different letters in the English alphabet. Researchers were able to use signals from the participants" brain activation patterns to decode information about the intended letter that a participant was thinking about, and to use this in a conversation with the experimenters without any spoken words. It is hoped that such technology can enable communication with "locked-in" patients or assessment of consciousness in non-responsive patients.
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Young Adults Face Tough Time Getting Insurance
Young adults are facing tough times with limited job prospects and no health insurance. The Associated Press reports on recent college graduate Emily Weinstein as being representative of the many young uninsured Americans: "Like millions of other uninsured adults in their 20s, Weinstein is watching Congress as it advances legislation to overhaul health care. The recession has deepened young adults" career struggles. It has also sharpened their interest in health insurance. Already the least likely of any age group to have coverage, adults in their 20s face brutal job searches and more time uninsured because of the recession. Nearly 30 percent, 13.2 million, were uninsured in 2007, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based research center. Many young adults work entry-level jobs without insurance and, despite new laws in some states, they"re eventually too old to stay on their parents" policies."
Endocrinology

Cell Infected By Virus Viewed For The First Time By MSU Scientists

The June cover of the Journal of Virology features a photograph of the unusual effects on a cell infected by a virus. Montana State University researchers were the first to view the virus, which they collected from a boiling, acidic spring in Yellowstone. The article linked with the cover photograph describes the researchers" findings about the life cycle of the virus Sulfolobus turreted icosahedral virus (STIV). No one has seen STIV replicate within a host cell prior to the work done by MSU scientists. "What is really surprising is how the virus gets out of the infected cell," said MSU virologist Mark Young. STIV forms a pyramid-like projection on the surface of the cell. "It looks just like the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre," Young said. Understanding how particular viruses assemble and replicate often leads to new uses for the virus. For example, laboratories run by Young and chemist Trevor Douglas at MSU have demonstrated that viruses can be used for beneficial purposes ranging from creating smart drug delivery and imaging systems to making viruses act as nano-containers for making high performance magnetic materials for the computer industry. Susan Brumfield, Vincent Ruigrok, Peter Suci, Douglas and Young of MSU and Alice Ortmann of the University of South Alabama, Mobile, investigated the effects of the virus on its host cell. The pyramid-like projections have not been documented in any other host-virus system, according to the paper"s authors. The structures are thought to be at sites where the virus" progeny are released from the cell. The STIV virus was collected from Yellowstone National Park and brought back to a laboratory at MSU. The extreme environment that STIV lives in had to be replicated in order to keep the virus alive for study. "Essentially we had to recreate Yellowstone in the lab," said Young. The virus and its host cells continued to grow in an acid solution that mimics the water of Yellowstone hot springs and in specialized incubators that kept the virus at a toasty 176 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, the scientists were able to view the virus within its host using a high power electron microscope. "We can look at the virus inside the cell for the first time," said principle author, Brumfield. "We could watch the construction of the virus in the cell and see how it released itself from the host cell." "It"s really an engineering feat," Young added. "It"s kind of like building a house, and we saw it do that inside the cell for the first time." "We"ll continue to look in Yellowstone, and places like Yellowstone around the world," said Young. "Understanding viruses is fundamental work." Mark Young Montana State University


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