News by Subject Biology

A new study on satiety published in the October issue of the journal Appetite indicates that eating a mushroom-rich breakfast may result in less hunger and a greater feeling of fullness after the mushroom breakfast compared to the meat breakfast.

Breast cancer cells recycle ammonia, a waste byproduct of cell metabolism, and use it as a source of nitrogen to fuel tumor growth, report scientists from Harvard Medical School. The insights shed light on the biological role of ammonia in cancer and may inform the design of new therapeutic strategies to slow tumor growth.

A study led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Diane Spatz, Ph.D., RN-BC, FAAN, the Helen M. Shearer Term Professor of Nutrition, has found that delayed lactogenesis was more prevalent among women who were obese pre-pregnancy and that excessive gestational weight gain was also associated with a delay in lactogenesis II. The study has been published in the Journal of Human Lactation.

An obesity intervention for Hispanic middle school students led by researchers at the University of Houston found that with consistent guidance from high school health mentors, called compañeros, students not only lost significantly more weight but also kept it off longer.

Up to sixteen weeks of intermittent fasting without otherwise having to count calories helps fight obesity and other metabolic disorders. Such fasting already shows benefits after only six weeks. This is according to a study by Kyoung-Han Kim and Yun Hye Kim in the journal Cell Research which is published by Springer Nature.

Researchers have identified a region of the genome that regulates vitamin D activation in the kidneys, opening the door for more sophisticated treatments of diseases, including bone and immune disorders, involving vitamin D. The results of this research will be published in the Oct. 20 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Researchers surveyed 257 medical students and found more than 55 percent were confident they could counsel patients on nutritional recommendations, but half did not achieve a passing score on a nutrition quiz. Of particular note, only 12 percent were aware of Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), a key guide to differentiated nutrition requirements, although more than 68 percent agreed that primary care physicians should counsel patients about nutrition.

Hatching eggs in large-scale hatcheries are currently treated with formaldehyde to eliminate germs. Austrian researchers from TU Graz, acib and Roombiotic have now developed a natural alternative.