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The Downside Of Microtubule Stability - Study Shows Stalled Microtubules Might Be Responsible For Some Cases Of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease
Stalled microtubules might be responsible for some cases of the neurological disorder Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, Tanabe and Takei report in the June 15, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology. A mutant protein makes the microtubules too stable to perform their jobs, the researchers find.
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Comparative Effectiveness Research Underway At 28 Research Centers
"You hear the pitch in drug ads all the time: "Ask your doctor if this medication is right for you,"" reports MSNBC. However, evidence to show whether a treatment is appropriate for a given patient is often scarce. Matching therapies to patients is further complicated by vast difference in how people respond to medicines. However, a national push for so-called comparative effectiveness research could make that job easier. The economic stimulus package includes $1 billion to support the research.
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Female Human Embryos Adjust The Balance Of X Chromosomes Before Implantation
Dutch researchers have found the first evidence that a process of inactivating the X chromosome during embryo development and implantation, which was known to occur in mice but unknown in humans, does, in fact, take place in human female embryos prior to implantation in the womb.
Mental Health

Using Math To Take The Lag Out Of Jet Lag

Researchers at Brigham and Women"s Hospital and the University of Michigan have developed a software program that prescribes a regimen for avoiding jet lag using timed light exposure. The method is described in an article published June 19 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology. Traveling across several times zones can cause an individual to experience jet lag, which includes trouble sleeping at night and difficulty remaining awake during the day. These effects largely reflect de-synchronization between the body"s internal time clock and local environmental cues. The program, which seeks to re-synchronize the body with its new environment, considers inputs like background light level and the number of time zones traveled. Then, based on a mathematical model, the program gives users exact times of the day when they should apply countermeasures such as bright light to intervene and reduce the effects of jet lag. Timed light exposure is a well known synchronization method, and when used properly, this intervention can reset an individual"s internal clock to align with local time. The result is more efficient sleep, a decrease in fatigue, and an increase in cognitive performance. Poorly timed light exposure can prolong the re-synchronization process. Using their computational method, researchers simulated shifting sleep-wake schedules and the subsequent light interventions for realigning internal clocks with local time. They found that the mathematical computation resulted in quicker design of schedules and also predictions of substantial performance improvements. They were able to show that the computation provided the optimal result for timing light exposure to reduce jet lag symptoms. "Using this computation in a prototyped software application allows a user to set a background light level and the number of time zones traveled to obtain a recommendation of when to expose a subject to bright light, such as the bright lights sometimes used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder" said lead-author Dennis Dean. "Although this method is not yet available to the public, it has direct implications for designing schedules for jet lag, shift-work, and extreme environments, such as in space, undersea or in polar regions." "This work shows how interventions can cut the number of days needed to adjust to a new time zone by half," said co-author Daniel Forger. The next phase of this research includes the addition of interventions such as naps, caffeine and melatonin to help the process of realigning the internal body clock while reducing decreased performance experienced during travel across time zones. To learn more about why sleep matters, the science behind it and how to improve your sleep, visit http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu Citation: "Taking the Lag out of Jet Lag through Model-Based Schedule Design." Dean DA II, Forger DB, Klerman EB (2009) PLoS Comput Biol 5(6): e1000418 doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000418 PLoS Computational Biology


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