Cellular Transport and the Nobel Prize for Medicine

October 8, 2013 | by

nobel medal in medicine

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced yesterday [1]. The prize was awarded to three U.S. scientists for their work on how the cell coordinates its transport system to shuttle proteins and other molecules from one location to another.

The prize of 8-million-Swedish-krona ($1.2-million USD) was divided evenly to Randy W. Schekman, age 65, at the University of California at Berkeley; James E. Rothman, age 63, at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut; and Thomas C. Südhof, age 58, at Stanford University, for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in cells.

Study Finds Generally Lower Premiums from Health Insurance Marketplace

October 1, 2013 | by

Open enrollment in the new Health Insurance Marketplace — a part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) — began today, allowing individuals and families to purchase private insurance for coverage beginning January 1, 2014. A new Kaiser Family Foundation study provides an early look at insurance premiums in 2014 [1]. The report finds that U.S. consumers generally will see lower health insurance premiums through the marketplace.

Health insurance premiums

Age Does Not Impair Decision-making, Provides Some Cognitive Benefits

September 25, 2013 | by

Contrary to the widely held belief that cognitive function starts to decline in the mid-forties, a new study finds that aging does not correlate with a decrease in the ability to make logically consistent decisions. That’s the conclusion of Healthy Brain, Healthy Decisions: The MetLife Study of Decision-Making Potential [1].

Metlife healthy decisions

Biomarker Bulletin: September 23, 2013

September 23, 2013 | by

Biomarker Bulletin is an occasionally recurring update of news focused on biomarkers aggregated at BiomarkerCommons.org. Biomarkers are physical, functional or biochemical indicators of normal physiological or disease processes. The individualization of disease management — personalized medicine — is dependent on developing biomarkers that promote specific clinical domains, including early detection, risk, diagnosis, prognosis and predicted response to therapy.

Biomarker Commons

Genetic Mutation May Explain Increase in U.S. Whooping Cough Cases

September 11, 2013 | by

An old disease is making a comeback, possibly due to a bacterial mutation. Seventeen states and Washington D.C. are reporting an increase in whooping cough this year. It’s an epidemic in Texas, on pace to be the worst in half a century [1]. The very young are most at risk.

Whooping cough