A breakthrough finding on the mechanism of myelin formation by Jonah Chan, assistant professor of cell and neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, could have a major impact on the treatment of diseases such as multiple sclerosis and demyelination as a result of spinal cord injuries.
With the help of some high tech equipment, well-defined mouse models and analytical know how, researchers are trying to understand why a flu virus kills some people but not others. Studies to be presented at “Physiological Genomics and Proteomics of Lung Disease” found that a strain of mice more likely to die of influenza infection mounts a dramatically enhanced immune response in the lungs compared to a strain of mice that generally develops milder disease.
UT Southwestern Medical Center will host the North Texas Autism Summit, featuring presentations by national and local experts in autism research and treatment on Saturday, Nov. 11.
The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Department of Defense’s military health system today released TeamSTEPPS, a new evidence-based team training and implementation toolkit that demonstrates techniques of effective communication and other teamwork skills. The new toolkit, which responds to the Institute of Medicine’s call for “interdisciplinary team training programs that incorporate proven methods for team management” to prevent medical errors, is designed to optimize team performance and outcomes across the health care delivery system.
Using the medium of dance, “Ferocious Beauty: Genome” turns the spotlight on human genomics in a setting other than a scientific laboratory. Demonstrating the topic’s relevance to the entire community, the production explores the future of genetic science and its impact on human life. The timely performance is especially relevant to the Rochester community, as host to the newest genomics research facility in the Midwest the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics.
Scientists supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, report in this week?s New England Journal of Medicine that pregnant women who received non-surgical treatment for their periodontal, or gum, disease did not also significantly lower their risk of delivering a premature or low-birthweight baby.
New plans for faster, better and more convenient care for the millions of people who suffer from bone and joint ailments such as arthritis, back pain and fractures were announced today by Health Minister Andy Burnham.
Chemotherapy for breast cancer was first introduced 30 years ago, and doctors have been refining the treatment ever since. Countless studies have asked which drugs work best and when they should be given, but many women still have not realized the full benefits of chemotherapy.
Amniocentesis, or an Amniotic Fluid Test (AFT), is a medical procedure used for prenatal diagnosis, in which a small amount of amniotic fluid is extracted from the amnion around a developing fetus. It is usually offered when there may be an increased risk for genetic conditions in the pregnancy.
Pharmion Corporation (Nasdaq: PHRM) announced today the enrollment of the first patient in AVIDA(TM), a registry for patients treated with Vidaza(R) (azacitidine for injectable suspension). Vidaza was approved in May 2004 for the treatment of all five French-American-British (FAB) subtypes of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS): refractory anemia (RA) or refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARS) if accompanied by neutropenia or thrombocytopenia or requiring transfusions; refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB), refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation (RAEB-T), and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMMoL). Myelodysplastic syndromes are a serious and life-threatening group of diseases in which the bone marrow does not function normally, resulting in the production of malformed or immature blood cells.