Research News

The world's largest catalogue of genomic differences among humans, has been created by an international team of scientists. This catalogue would provide researchers with powerful clues to help them establish why some people are susceptible to various diseases. The findings were detailed in two studies that appeared online in the Nature.

A new study from the University of California, Berkeley has found an association between sleep and body mass index. Teenagers and adults who go to bed late on weeknights are more likely to gain weight than their peers who hit the bed earlier.  Moreover, exercise, screen time, and the number of hours they slept did not mitigate this BMI increase, according to the study published in the October issue of the journal, Sleep.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed marketing of a new hearing aid that uses a laser diode and direct vibration of the eardrum to amplify sound. The combination of laser light pulses and a custom-fit device component that comes in direct contact with the eardrum is designed to use the patient’s own eardrum as a speaker and enables amplification over a wider range of frequencies for some hearing impaired persons. The EarLens Contact Hearing Device (CHD) is indicated for use by adults with mild to severe sensorineural hearing impairment.

In adults, previous studies have suggested that stress promotes habits and reduces cognitive flexibility. Psychologists from Germany's Ruhr University Bochum have revealed that the same is true for infants. While under stress, even infants are inclined to resort to habits, rather than try out new things. The findings were published in PNAS.

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NuMedii, Inc. announced the formation of a research alliance with Allergan to explore new therapeutic options for the potential treatment of psoriasis. NuMedii has already generated multiple lead compounds/candidates by utilising its data intelligence technology for psoriasis, which will be the focus of the research alliance with Allergan.

Tuberculosis is the number one cause of death in HIV-infected patients in Africa and a leading cause of death in this population worldwide, yet the majority of these patients are excluded from the early stages in the development of new, anti-tuberculosis drugs, according to findings presented today (29 September, 2015) at the European Respiratory Society's International Congress 2015.

Atezolizumab is set to substantially change treatment strategies for patients with refractory lung cancer, according to Dr Martin Reck, Chief Oncology Physician in the Department of Thoracic Oncology, Hospital Grosshansdorf, Germany. Reck’s comments came as the results from the POPLAR and BIRCH studies showing the first results of efficacy with atezolizumab across lines were presented at the European Cancer Congress 2015 (ECC 2015) in Vienna, Austria.1

Updated results from the CheckMate 057 phase III clinical trial, show that nivolumab continues to show an overall survival benefit compared to docetaxel in patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer