Clues to resistance. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. February 5, 2019. In 2000, 23-year-old Gimble from Gombe National Park — made famous by Jane Goodall — became the first wild chimpanzee to test positive for simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the primate precursor to HIV. Now, he and hundreds of other wild chimpanzees across sub-Saharan Africa are helping researchers understand what makes some chimps more resistant to infection.
Category Archives: medicine
Why once-promising cancer drugs failed
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Why once-promising cancer drugs failed. Duke Today, Jan. 28, 2019. New findings in worms may help explain the failure, nearly two decades ago, of a class of once-promising cancer drugs and point to better ways to halt cancer’s spread.
Living like a caveman won’t make you thin
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Living like a caveman won’t make you thin. But it might make you healthy. Duke Today, January 17, 2019. Duke professor studies how our species’ past shapes human health today.
Baboon sexes differ in how social status gets ‘under the skin’
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Baboon sexes differ in how social status gets ‘under the skin.’ Duke Today, December 17, 2018. In humans and many other animals, the lower an individual’s social status, the worse their health. But new research in wild baboons suggests that the nature of the status-health relationship depends on whether an individual has to fight for status, or it’s given to them.
Anatomy Lessons
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Anatomy Lessons. Duke Today, October 17, 2018. Hung criminals. Grave robbers. The dawn of human anatomy was a grisly, sordid time.
Doctor dolls, coming soon in 3-D
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Doctor dolls, coming soon in 3-D. Duke Today, May 25, 2018. These centuries-old ivory sculptures have sat in storage or behind display glass at Duke since the 1950s, too fragile to handle. Soon, X-ray imaging technology will make them available to view, download, even make 3-D printed replicas.
Mouse lemurs, decoded
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Mouse lemurs, decoded. 1,100 Words on Duke Research, April 12, 2018. Scientists have published a new and improved genome sequence for mouse lemurs, tiny primates that sometimes develop Alzheimer’s-like symptoms as they age, just like humans.
Women survive crises better than men
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Women survive crises better than men. Duke Today, Jan. 9, 2018. Women tend to live longer than men almost everywhere worldwide. Now, three centuries of data show that women don’t just outlive men in normal times: They’re more likely to survive even in the worst of circumstances, such as famines and epidemics. Picked up by Xinhua, The Guardian, United Press International, Futurity, U.S. News & World Report, New York Post and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
How 3-D printing is changing surgical care at Duke
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How 3-D printing is changing surgical care at Duke. Duke Today, Dec. 21, 2017. Custom-made models help doctors plan and practice surgeries before entering the operating room.
Cells bulge to squeeze through barriers
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Cells bulge to squeeze through barriers. Nov. 27, 2017. Duke scientists have discovered a new tool in the cell’s invasion machinery that may help explain cancer’s ability to spread. Time-lapse imaging of the worm C. elegans reveals a fleeting protrusion that wedges into a tiny gap in the protective layer that surrounds the cell, and swells until the breach is wide enough for the cell to squeeze through. The findings could point to new ways to prevent metastasis, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Picked up by Futurity and STAT.
Vital signs
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Vital signs. Duke Today, Nov. 7, 2017. Where some see noisy spikes and dips on an electrocardiogram, one researcher sees hidden mathematical problems.
Starvation mode
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Starvation mode. 1,100 words on Duke Research, Oct. 27, 2017. This roundworm can survive weeks without eating thanks to a coping mechanism similar to humans.
Boundary zone
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Boundary zone. 1,100 words on Duke Research, Oct. 16, 2017. This pink line of fly cells could help researchers understand Barrett’s esophagus, which can turn into cancer.
iPhone app could guide MS research, treatment
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iPhone app could guide MS research, treatment. Duke Today, Oct. 3, 2017. For some diseases, a simple blood test is all that’s needed to gauge severity or confirm a diagnosis. Not so for multiple sclerosis. No single lab test can tell doctors what type of MS a patient has, nor whether it’s responding to treatment. By better tracking patients with help from a new iPhone app, researchers hope to take some of the guesswork out of treating MS and pave the way to more personalized care. Picked up by the News & Observer and the Herald-Sun.
Pinpointing where Durham’s nicotine addicts get their fix
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Pinpointing where Durham’s nicotine addicts get their fix. Duke Research blog, Aug. 10, 2017. It’s been five years since Durham expanded its smoking ban beyond bars and restaurants to include public parks, bus stops, even sidewalks. While smoking in the state overall may be down, 19 percent of North Carolinians still light up, particularly the poor and those without a high school or college diploma. Now, new maps show where Durham’s nicotine addicts get their fix.
Live-in grandparents helped human ancestors get a safer night’s sleep
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Live-in grandparents helped human ancestors get a safer night’s sleep. Duke Today, July 12, 2017. A sound night’s sleep grows more elusive as people get older. But what some call insomnia may actually be an age-old survival mechanism, researchers report. A study of modern hunter-gatherers in Tanzania finds that, for people who live in groups, differences in sleep patterns commonly associated with age help ensure that at least one person is awake at all times. Picked up by The New York Times, CBS News, New Scientist, Discover Magazine, Science, Huffington Post, Daily Mail, Cosmos, The Guardian, BBC News, Mental Floss, Popular Science, Toronto Star, Reader’s Digest, USA Today and The Telegraph.
Lemur research gets a gut check
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Lemur research gets a gut check. Duke Research blog, June 19, 2017. Researchers have tracked changes in lemur gut microbiomes during and after infection with a widespread intestinal parasite called Cryptosporidium. The diarrheal illness caused by the parasite wipes out much of the animals’ gut flora, the researchers found, but fecal transplants can help them recover. The team says their findings could help develop probiotic treatments for captive primates, as well as humans battling similar diarrheal diseases.
Jumping genes suspected in Alzheimer’s
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Jumping genes suspected in Alzheimer’s. Duke Today, Mar. 8, 2017. A string of failed drug trials for Alzheimer’s has researchers questioning the reigning approach to battling the disease, which focuses on preventing amyloid buildup in the brain. Duke scientists have identified a molecular mechanism that could help explain how neurons begin to falter even before amyloid clumps appear. The culprit, they say, may be “jumping genes” that lose their normal controls with age and start to disrupt the machinery that fuels brain cells. Picked up by STAT and Science News.
Upward mobility boosts immunity in monkeys
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Upward mobility boosts immunity in monkeys. Duke Today, Nov. 24, 2016. The richest and poorest Americans differ in life expectancy by more than a decade. Health inequalities across the socioeconomic spectrum are often attributed to medical care and lifestyle habits. But a study of rhesus monkeys shows the stress of life at the bottom can impact immunity even in the absence of other risk factors. Infection sends immune cells of low-ranking monkeys into overdrive, but social mobility can turn things around, researchers report in Science. Picked up by BBC News, Scientific American, The Telegraph, The Scientist, Science Magazine, Science News, the Daily Mail, New Scientist and The New York Times.
Underfed worms program their babies to cope with famine
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Underfed worms program their babies to cope with famine. Duke Today, Oct. 27, 2016. Worms whose mothers didn’t get enough to eat during pregnancy cope better with famine, finds a new study of the tiny nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The findings are consistent with a decades-old idea for humans, namely that pregnant women who don’t get enough to eat produce babies with “thrifty” metabolisms that are good at rationing nutrients and storing fat.
Analog DNA circuit does math in a test tube
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Analog DNA circuit does math in a test tube. Duke Today, Aug. 23, 2016. Duke University researchers have created strands of synthetic DNA that, when mixed together in a test tube in the right concentrations, form an analog circuit that can add, subtract and multiply as the molecules form and break bonds. While most DNA circuits are digital, their device performs calculations in an analog fashion by measuring the varying concentrations of specific DNA molecules directly, without requiring special circuitry to convert them to zeroes and ones first. Picked up by NPR affiliate WFDD.
Taking math beyond the blackboard
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Taking math beyond the blackboard. Duke Research blog, July 6, 2016. Mix together 80 or so scientists and engineers from industry and academia with bottomless coffee, and stir for a week. That was the recipe for the 32nd annual Mathematical Problems in Industry Workshop held this summer at Duke.
Moving beyond race-based drugs
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Moving beyond race-based drugs. Duke Today, May 26, 2016. Prescribing certain medications on the basis of a patient’s race has long come under fire from those uneasy with using race as a surrogate for biology when treating disease. But there are multiple challenges to overcome before we can move beyond race-based treatment decisions, experts say.
Hijacked cell division helped fuel rise of fungi
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Hijacked cell division helped fuel rise of fungi. Duke Today, May 10, 2016. The more than 90,000 known species of fungi may owe their abilities to spread and even cause disease to an ancient virus that hijacked their cell division machinery, researchers report. Over a billion years ago, a viral protein invaded the fungal genome, generating a family of proteins that now play key roles in fungal growth. The research could point to new antifungals that inhibit cell division in fungi but not in their plant or animal hosts.
Rough childhoods have ripple effects for wild baboons
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Rough childhoods have ripple effects for wild baboons. Duke Today, April 19, 2016. Numerous studies show that childhood trauma can have far-reaching effects on adult health; new research finds the same is true for wild baboons. Baboons that experience multiple misfortunes in early life grow up to live shorter adult lives, researchers report. The results show that early adversity can have long-term negative effects even in the absence of factors commonly evoked to explain similar patterns in humans, such as smoking, drinking or medical care. Picked up by New York Magazine, Pacific Standard, Washington Post, CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, and Smithsonian Magazine.