ITMAT in the News

• Block Its Recycling System, and Cancer Kicks the Can, According to New Penn Study 8 May 2012
  All cells have the ability to recycle unwanted or damaged proteins and reuse the building blocks as food. But cancer cells have ramped up the system, called autophagy, and rely on it to escape damage in the face of chemotherapy and other treatments.
• Liver Fat Gets a Wake-Up Call That Maintains Blood Sugar Levels, According to Penn Study 7 May 2012
  A Penn research team, led by Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, reports in Nature Medicine that mice in which an enzyme called histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) was deleted had massively fatty livers, but lower blood sugar, and were thus protected from glucose intolerance and insulin resistance, the hallmark of diabetes.
• Penn Receives $3.8 Million to Study Psoriasis Treatment and Cardiovascular Disease 19 Apr 2012
  A team of researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has received a $3.8 million dollar grant from the National Institute of Health's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), to conduct a trial to study the impact of psoriasis treatment on vascular inflammation and lipid metabolism.
• Penn Study Cautions Use of Drugs to Block "Niacin Flush" in Heart Patients 6 Apr 2012
  Niacin, or vitamin B3, is the one approved drug that elevates good cholesterol (high density lipoprotein, HDL) while depressing bad cholesterol (low density lipoprotein , LDL), and has thereby attracted much attention from patients and physicians. Niacin keeps fat from breaking down, and so obstructs the availability of LDL building blocks.
• Coordinating the Circadian Clock: Perelman School of Medicine Researchers Find that Molecular Pair Controls Time-Keeping and Fat Metabolism 4 Apr 2012
  The 24-hour internal clock controls many aspects of human behavior and physiology, including sleep, blood pressure, and metabolism.
• Duality of Longevity Drug Explained by Perelman School of Medicine Researchers 29 Mar 2012
  A Penn- and MIT-led team explained how rapamycin, a drug that extends mouse lifespan, also causes insulin resistance.
• Perelman School of Medicine Experts Identify Inhibitor Causing Male Pattern Baldness and Target for Hair Loss Treatments 21 Mar 2012
  Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have identified an abnormal amount a protein called Prostaglandin D2 in the bald scalp of men with male pattern baldness, a discovery that may lead directly to new treatments for the most common cause of hair loss in men.
• Revising the "Textbook" on Liver Metabolism Offers New Targets for Diabetes Drugs, According to Penn Study 22 Feb 2012
  A team led by researchers from the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (IDOM) at the erelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, has overturned a "textbook" view of what the body does after a meal.
• New Combo of Chemo and Well-Known Malaria Drug Delivers Double Punch to Tumors 20 Feb 2012
  Blocking autophagy -- the process of "self-eating" within cells -- is turning out to be a viable way to enhance the effectiveness of a wide variety of cancer treatments.
• Gene Therapy for Inherited Blindness Succeeds in Patients' Other Eye 7 Feb 2012
  Gene therapy for congenital blindness has taken another step forward, as researchers further improved vision in three adult patients previously treated in one eye. After receiving the same treatment in their other eye, the patients became better able to see in dim light, and two were able to navigate obstacles in low-light situations. No adverse effects occurred.