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Two researchers at the University of Minnesota Center for Microbial and Plant Genomics have discovered a group of genes that make some mosquitoes resistant to malaria, one of the world’s most common and deadly infectious diseases. The discovery could be used to develop strategies to control the disease. Some mosquitoes transmit malaria to humans after feeding on human blood that has been infected with the malaria parasite. But the study suggests that other mosquitoes are genetically resistant and kill the parasite in the infected blood without transmitting it. The researchers speculate that mosquitoes that transmit malaria may have defective immune systems.

A Way out of Segregation

Choice about where to send kids to school coupled with more affordable housing in the suburbs are pathways out of the severe school segregation that plagues the Twin Cities region, according to a report by the Institute on Race & Poverty at the University of Minnesota. The report, “The Choice Is Ours: Expanding Educational Opportunities for All Twin Cities Children,” documents the disturbing extent to which schools in the central cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and in a growing number of suburbs are segregated. It calls for the expansion of a pilot program that permits some students in segregated Minneapolis schools to attend schools in the suburbs that do not have high poverty enrollments. Affordable housing should be available so that families can live near where their children attend school, the report says. The full report is available at www.irpumn.org.

Weeding Out Pot from Hemp

University of Minnesota scientists have become the first to unequivocally distinguish marijuana from its close cousin, hemp, by using genetic markers. The discovery may help smooth the way for developing hemp as an alternative crop for American farmers. Hemp, a natural for northern climates, is a hardy plant that has potential for use in paper, textiles, building materials, food, medicine, paint, fuel, and other applications. The breakthrough could also have implications in law enforcement and the medical use of marijuana.

Currently, all hemp products are imported into the United States because it is illegal to grow. That could change if distinguishing the two forms of Cannabis becomes possible. The researchers were able to separate hemp from marijuana using a new DNA “fingerprinting” technique. Scientists have previously been able to distinguish the two types of Cannabis from one another, but not unequivocally, as the new technique allows.

Butt-Kicking Insights

Health education is more effective than nicotine gum in helping African Americans who are light smokers to kick the habit. That is the conclusion of the first clinical trial to focus on light smokers, conducted by the University of Minnesota Medical School and Cancer Center. The 26-week study included 755 African Americans who smoked 10 or fewer cigarettes per day. About half of African Americans who smoke are light smokers, but they experience a disproportionate share of tobacco-related illnesses, including a higher rate of death.

Another University study found that the telephone could be a valuable tool in helping smokers quit. In a study of 837 daily smokers, researchers at the U’s Medical School and the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center demonstrated that smokers who received regular telephone support as part of their cessation program had a higher quit rate than those who did not. The telephone counseling consisted of seven calls over a two-month period; after three months, about 40 percent of the telephone-care group had not smoked in the previous seven days, compared with about 10 percent of the group who did not receive telephone care.

Babies Do Inhale

Infants 1 year old and younger whose parents smoke inhale enough secondhand smoke to accumulate cancer-causing chemicals in their urine, according to a study by the University of Minnesota Cancer Center. Researchers examined urine samples from 144 infants and found detectable levels of a carcinogen found only in tobacco in almost half of them. Of those, some had levels similar to those found in adult smokers. The infants lived in homes where an average of about four packs of cigarettes per week were smoked.

The study expands on a previous study by the same research team that found that newborns of mothers who smoked took in the cancer-causing chemical directly from their mothers through the placenta.