Health care professionals say a computerized emergency response system for public health laboratories developed in Nebraska is proving to be a valuable tool for other states and has the potential to impact public health systems worldwide.
The part of the brain responsible for making most decisions about how to behave seems to develop less quickly in children exposed to cocaine before they were born, University of Florida researchers have found.
Inhibiting a particular cancer-causing gene can enhance the cell-killing effects of radiation, a team of radiation oncologists and cancer biologists has found. Using a combination of zebrafish and antisense technology, they’ve shown that the drug flavopiridol works by blocking the activity of a gene, cyclin D1, which is overexpressed in about half of all breast cancers. Similar techniques in the future, the scientists say, may enable researchers to better gauge the effects of drugs.
Neuroscientists had long believed that the only way to repair a spinal cord injury was to grow new neural connections, but researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have found that, especially in young rats, powerful cells near the injury site also work overtime to restrict nerve damage and restore movement and sensation.
With the help of tiny, transparent zebrafish embryos, researchers are hoping to prove that a microscopic nanoparticle can be part of a “new class of radioprotective agents” that help protect normal tissue from radiation damage just as well as standard drugs. They’ve shown that the nanoparticle, DF-1 — a soccer ball-shaped, hollow, carbon-based structure known as a fullerene — is as good as two antioxidant drugs and FDA-approved Amifostine in fending off radiation damage from normal tissue.
A gene variant associated with mental illness goes hand-in-hand with enlargement of a brain region that handles negative emotions, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System have found.
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.
DSM is continuing to build its personalised nutrition capabilities with its venturing arm making a ?2m investment in IntegraGen, and a collaboration with the French biotech to apply its genetic tests to weight management products.
It is possible to enjoy the tempting offerings of the holiday season and still manage your weight, according to nutrition and weight management expert Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D., director of the UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) Weight Management Center.
Despite an overall decline in invasive breast cancer in the United States in recent years, African-American women, particularly younger ones, have not seen a significant decline in their rates, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. These findings, which are being presented at the American Public Health Association (AHPA) Annual Meeting in Boston, Nov. 4 ? 8, strongly suggest the need for additional research to understand why these differences persist and to determine whether avoidable or preventable factors account for these puzzling patterns, according to the investigators.