Latest Baylor College of Medicine Stories

Smoking during pregnancy profoundly changes both DNA and the expression of placental genes, a possible factor in physical changes that can last a lifetime, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report in the current edition of the journal Epigenetics. In a study that correlated changes in DNA methylation (a chemical change that affects the level of gene expression) to changes in gene expression across the genome of the placenta (the small ovoid organ that nourishes the...

[ Watch the Video ] The human brain is bombarded with a cacophony of information from the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin. Now a team of scientists at the University of Rochester, Washington University in St. Louis, and Baylor College of Medicine has unraveled how the brain manages to process those complex, rapidly changing, and often conflicting sensory signals to make sense of our world. The answer lies in a relatively simple computation performed by single nerve cells, an operation...

Results of a study by Baylor College of Medicine physicians underscore the important role that clinical genetic evaluation can have in the management plan of patients with retinoblastoma, a childhood cancer of the eye. The report documents the success of using a multi-disciplinary team approach to achieving the goal of providing genetic evaluation and testing of all retinoblastoma patients at Texas Children's Cancer Center over an eight-year period. Results were published in the Archives...

When Dr. John Fryer and Dr. Huda Zoghbi prescribed mild exercise for mice with a neurodegenerative disorder called spinocerebellar ataxia 1 (SCA1), they did not know what to expect. Fryer, then a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Zoghbi, the Baylor College of Medicine researcher who co-discovered the gene for the disorder, was disappointed when the exercise did not affect the mice's gait or walking ability. However, he and Zoghbi decided to put them back in their cages and see what...

Separate Phone Lines to Be Available for General Finance, Medical, and Financial Abuse Advice WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new national hotline for seniors and adult children of the elderly will be available on November 10th to deal with one of America's biggest fraud problems: the estimated one out of every five citizens over the age of 65 who have been victimized by a financial swindle. Of particular concern are seniors with mild cognitive...

Two Baylor College of Medicine physicians have received support from the nonprofit group Cookies for Kids' Cancer for their research on neuroblastoma – a common type of solid tumor in children. Dr. Leonid Metelitsa, associate professor of pediatrics at BCM and a pediatric oncologist at Texas Children's Cancer Center, and Dr. Jed Nuchtern, professor of pediatrics and of surgery at BCM, who is a surgical oncologist at the center, each received $100,000 from the organization. The funding...

Over the years, there has been speculation that changes in the way vegetables are grown have decreased their nutritional value. This is not the case with broccoli, according to experts led by Baylor College of Medicine. In a study that analyzed 14 varieties of broccoli grown in the same field and environment, researchers at the USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital found that there was no...

Ordinarily, embryonic stem cells exist only a day or two as they begin the formation of the embryo itself. Then they are gone. In the laboratory dish, however, they act more like perpetual stem cells – renewing themselves and exhibiting the ability to form cells of almost any type, a status called totipotency. Dr. Thomas Zwaka, associate professor in the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center at Baylor College of Medicine, and his colleagues here and abroad showed that...

By studying the genomes of 29 mammals, scientists have gained greater understanding of how the human genome controls when and where specific genes are activated, as well as how they form proteins and how genetic mutations can lead to diseases. The study, which was led by Kerstin Lindblad-Toh of the US-based Broad Institute and Sweden's Uppsala University, included work from an international team of scientists, including those at the Human Genome Sequencing Center, the Baylor College of...

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the same group that told women in their 40s that they didn’t need mammograms, is now recommending that middle-aged men skip routine screening for prostate cancer, saying the PSA blood tests that check for the disease do more harm than good. The government panel recommends that healthy men should no longer receive the PSA tests as part of routine cancer screening. Its recommendations, made public today, will be officially issued next...