Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABPI; Accentia) reports that the Mayo Medical and Graduate Schools and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute have been awarded a National Institute of Health (NIH) grant of $2.4 million for a project entitled “The Pathogenesis of Chronic Rhinosinusitis.” The grant, in part, is to support identification of which antigens of the Alternaria fungus are responsible for the inflammation of chronic sinusitis (CS). [click link for full article]

A study, led by Dr. Joan Blade, researcher of the Haematooncology Group of Hospital Clinic-IDIBAPS (Barcelona), in collaboration with Dr. Laura Rosinol, researcher of the same group, assessed the efficiency in terms of response and survival of autologous bone marrow transplantation in patients suffering from refractory myeloma previously having undergone high-dose chemotherapy (HDT). [click link for full article]

Researchers investigating the evidence for a potential causal link between khat use and mental illness - in the first ever systematic review of the topic - have called for improved research on the stimulant plant, and its possible association with psychiatric disorders. [click link for full article]

A blood test that detects proteins commonly released by a growing tumor could one day become a useful tool for monitoring the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation treatment in people with advanced throat cancer, according to a study published in Clinical Cancer Research. [click link for full article]

Why do so many people continue to suffer from life-altering, chronic pain long after their injuries have actually healed”The definitive answer — and an effective treatment — has long eluded scientists. Traditional analgesic drugs, such as aspirin and morphine derivatives, haven’t worked very well. [click link for full article]

Scientists have captured on video the intracellular version of a postal delivery service. Reporting in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (BBRC), bioengineering researchers at UC San Diego published videos of a key message-carrying protein called paxillin moving abruptly from hubs of communication and transportation activity on the cell surface toward the nucleus. Paxillin was labeled with a red fluorescence marker to make it stand out in live cells. [click link for full article]

The American Medical Association on Monday launched a $2 million lobbying campaign against a scheduled 10% cut in Medicare reimbursements to physicians, CQ HealthBeat reports. The cut is scheduled to take effect on Jan. [click link for full article]

The science has long been clear that smoking causes cancer, but new research shows that children could inherit genetic damage from a father who smokes.Canadian researchers have demonstrated in mice that smoking can cause changes in the DNA sequence of sperm cells, alterations that could potentially be inherited by offspring. The results of their study are published in the June 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. [click link for full article]

The debate over federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research should include a debate about the “larger issue of embryo research” and the “stunning escalation” in multiple births during the last 30 years, Washington Post reporter Liza Mundy writes in an opinion piece (Mundy, Washington Post, 6/5). [click link for full article]

With the increase in the number of people with food allergies, restaurants are becoming more responsive to the needs of those with dietary limitations. Just a few years ago, you…