NIDA News Scan #65

NewsScan #65 includes summaries of eight NIDA-funded scientific studies on a variety of topics, including school responses to suspicionless random drug testing, effects of targeting the brain’s dopamine D3 receptor, how glutamate transmissions eliminates cocaine-induced place preference in rats, how men with AAS dependence have prevalence of opioid dependence, benzotropine analogs reduces cocaine self-administration in rats, new database for addiction-related genes, injection drug users in Mexico have latent TB infection and how drug combinations contribute to HIV risk in gay/bisexual men.

NIH to Hold Press Telebriefing on February 4 following State-of-the-Science Conference on Colorectal Cancer Screening

Although colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, screening for this disease is currently underutilized among eligible individuals. An NIH State-of-the-Science Conference on Enhancing Use and Quality of Colorectal Cancer Screening will be held February 2-4, 2010.

NIGMS Awards Contract to Expand Human Genetic Cell Repository

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) has awarded a $27 million, five-year contract to the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Camden, N.J., to continue and expand operation of the NIGMS Human Genetic Cell Repository (HGCR). Under the new contract, the HGCR plans to enhance its collection of carefully maintained human cell lines by adding induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that carry disease gene mutations.

National Library of Medicine Launches Mobile MedlinePlus to Meet the Health Information Needs of an On-the-Go Public

Wondering what the side effects are for your new prescription? Go to Mobile MedlinePlus while you’re waiting for the pharmacist to fill your order! Or, instantly look up the symptoms of H1N1 flu if you’re at the supermarket and your child’s school calls you to tell you he doesn’t feel well. The National Library of Medicine’s Mobile Medline Plus builds on the NLM’s MedlinePlus Internet service, which provides authoritative consumer health information to over 10 million visitors per month.

New Gene Discovered for Recessive Form of Brittle Bone Disease

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions have discovered the third in a sequence of genes that accounts for previously unexplained forms of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a genetic condition that weakens bones, results in frequent fractures and is sometimes fatal.