NHLBI In the News: Unlocked protein, female animals in research, and platelets

September 25, 2014: Health News Digest
UCLA Scientists Unlock Protein that Can Accelerate Recovery in Cancer Patients Following Radiation and Chemotherapy

Scientists from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) have shown for the first time how a unique protein found in human bone marrow can drive stem cells to repair our blood system after an injury. These groundbreaking findings provide a roadmap to make existing radiation and chemotherapy treatments more effective for patients with cancer and other blood-related diseases. This research was funded in part by the NHLBI.

September 23, 2014: The Verge
Including female animals in scientific studies really pays off
Arielle Duhaime-Ross

Pretty much any animal medical researchers test is male. So too are the tissues they use to conduct tests. Despite the loads of research demonstrating important biological differences between how men and women react to various drugs or diseases, the default study subject is male.That trend's about to change, as the world's largest medical funding agency — the US National Institutes of Health — announced today that it would grant a total of $10 million to 80 researchers who will study the effects of gender in their work.

September 23, 2014: Emory News Center
Platelets modulate clotting behavior by "feeling" their surroundings
Quinn Eastman

Platelets, the tiny cell fragments whose job it is to stop bleeding, are very simple. They don't have a cell nucleus. But they can "feel" the physical environment around them, researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech have discovered