A new study has suggested a novel way of combating diseases related to the immune system, including cancer and autoimmune diseases such as type I diabetes and arthritis. The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, appears online in the journal Nature.
Mary Lee Dequeant, Ph.D., a Predoctoral Researcher at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and Olivier Pourqui?, Ph.D., Stowers Institute Investigator and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, are the first and last authors, respectively, on a paper that identifies a network of cyclic genes that shed light on the molecular basis of spine formation in the embryo.
Scientists from King’s submitted a licence application yesterday (6 November) to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to allow them to fuse human cells with animal eggs. If granted, the licence will boost research into some of the most debilitating and untreatable neurological diseases.
As the number of older people increases, the number of people who experience dementia before they die is also likely to increase, according to a new study. The research, spearheaded by Professor Carol Brayne at the University of Cambridge, has shown that factors believed to protect against dementia at earlier stages in life may not provide protection from dementia at the end of life.
Overweight aged male mice whose high calorie (fat) diet was supplemented by resveratrol, a natural compound found in common foods like grapes, wines and nuts, had better health and survival than aged overweight mice who did not receive it, according to a study published online in the Nov. 1 issue of Nature. The study was conducted and supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Researchers have used a single compound to increase the lifespan of obese mice, and found that the drug reversed nearly all of the changes in gene expression patterns found in mice on high calorie diets–some of which are associated with diabetes, heart disease, and other significant diseases related to obesity. The research, led by investigators at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging, is the first time that the small molecule resveratrol has been shown to offer survival benefits in a mammal. The study is reported in the November 1 advanced online edition of Nature.
Merck & Co., Inc. announced that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has added Merck’s cervical cancer vaccine, GARDASIL? [Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus (Types 6, 11, 16, 18) Recombinant Vaccine] to the CDC’s Vaccines for Children (VFC) contract for girls and women aged 9 to 18. GARDASIL was approved on June 8 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in girls and women ages 9 to 26 years. GARDASIL is the world’s first and only vaccine available for the prevention of HPV types 16- and 18-related cervical cancer, cervical pre-cancers (CIN 2/3 and AIS), vulvar pre-cancers (VIN 2/3) and vaginal pre-cancers (VaIN 2/3) and for the prevention of genital warts and low-grade cervical lesions (CIN 1) caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18.
In the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind to date, researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) showed clinical improvements out to one year when stroke survivors who had lost function in one arm were given a unique, two-week rehabilitation regimen.
“Cardiovascular disease remains our country’s biggest killer,” said Minister Clement. “Canada’s new government is following through on our promise to develop a heart health strategy. The strategy developed will ensure crucial information on prevention and treatment is available quickly and effectively to all provinces and territories. A new Heart Health Strategy will save lives.”
A research center newly created by the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) aims to put light-sensitive switches in the body’s cells that can be flipped on and off as easily as a remote control operates a TV. Optical switches like these could trigger a chemical reaction, initiate a muscle contraction, activate a drug or stimulate a nerve cell – all at the flash of a light.