In the January 1 issue of G&D, Dr. Gerardo Ferbeyre and colleagues at the University of Montreal report that the DNA damage response pathway is a necessary mediator of oncogene-induced senescence. Using RNAi and a cell culture model of oncogene-induced senescence, the researchers determined that the DNA damage signaling pathways links oncogene expression (either STAT5A, E2F1 or Ras) and cellular senescence. Dr. [click link for full article]

Hypertension affects some 65 million people in the United States, making it a massive public health burden. It’s associated with a twofold increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and total mortality. Studies have shown that moderate consumption of alcohol, up to a limit of one to two drinks a day, may decrease the risk of CVD and total mortality. Drinking more than two drinks a day, however, may increase the risk of hypertension. [click link for full article]

People with diabetes must rely on a complicated set of laws and conflicting court cases to challenge discrimination in the workplace, while employers also struggle “with confusion about whether diabetes is a legitimate disability and with concerns about whether it is overly expensive, hazardous and disruptive to accommodate the illness,” the New York Times reports. [click link for full article]

Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI) have announced the results of a first of its kind study analyzing all published data worldwide on influenza A virus antibody and T cell epitopes. Antibody and T cell epitopes are small sites on a virus that are the targets of the immune response, and they are critical for developing therapies and vaccines to combat infectious disease. [click link for full article]

“[C]ompassion can collide with hard-nosed financial considerations” related to medical and other concerns “as the U.S. decides which immigrants should be admitted and which should be turned back,” the Wall Street Journal reports. The Journal profiles a Brazilian family whose son is blind and has developmental disabilities. Zandro Souza pays out of pocket for his son’s medical care, which totals about $20,000 annually. [click link for full article]

An Asheville, N.C., program that gives municipal workers with diabetes no-cost medicines and supplies if they agree to monthly counseling from specially trained pharmacists has helped participants better manage their disease, the New York Times reports. According to city officials, the decade-old program has saved more than $2,000 in medical costs per patient annually. [click link for full article]

In a possible contradiction to common belief that a person’s body mass index, immune responses and stressful life events are factors that may cause narcolepsy, a comprehensive review published in the January 1st issue of the journal SLEEP finds that, as with other diseases characterized by selective cell loss, narcolepsy may be caused by environmental exposures before the age of onset in genetically susceptible individuals.Will Longstreth Jr. [click link for full article]

In the first known report of its kind, a study published in the January 1st issue of the journal SLEEP finds that sleep disturbances are common among suicide attempters, and that nightmares are associated with suicidality. [click link for full article]

Drawing upon a massive database established with funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), scientists have completed the most comprehensive analysis to date of published influenza A virus epitopes–the critical sites on the virus that are recognized by the immune system. [click link for full article]

Undernourished women who take a vitamin and mineral supplement while pregnant may be less likely than women taking only iron and folic acid supplements to have babies weighing less than 2,500 grams, and their newborns may be less likely to have morbidity in the first seven days of life, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. [click link for full article]