New evidence from a patient shows that the area of the brain that processes visual inputs can reorganize after an injury caused by stroke. Scientists found that a brain region that had stopped receiving signals from the eyes because of a stroke began responding to signals formerly processed in adjacent brain areas.
Studies with rats have revealed the potential in an entirely new class of antidepressants that take effect after only days of treatment versus the weeks required for current drugs. The researchers said that they hope their findings will spur development of such new antidepressant drugs so that clinical testing can begin quickly.
Better use should be made of electronic databases and patient records to help scientists understand patterns of health and disease in the population, say leading UK funders. However, they warn that it is essential to develop such studies in consultation with the public. Their call comes at the launch of a new initiative to support research that uses such information for health research purposes.
A plant cell biologist at UC Riverside has received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate how plant stem-cells maintain their identity and how they eventually get specialized into different cell types.
The deterioration in immune function that occurs as an individual ages is thought to occur because the thymus involutes with age, causing a dramatic decrease in T cell output.
A new study has found an unexpected number of viruses and viral subtypes in patients with respiratory tract infections (RTIs). The technique used in the study may help identify new viruses associated with human diseases.
A Purdue University researcher is working on a new technique to diagnose hearing loss in a way that more accurately reflects real-world situations.
A partnership between Kent State University, Summa Health System and IC-MedTech Inc. has yielded an innovative liquid crystal technology that offers the promise of new drugs which may more effectively manage cancer and other diseases.
Congestive heart failure rarely occurs among leukemia patients who take imatinib, researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center found after an exhaustive review of the detailed medical histories of 1,276 patients who enrolled in clinical trials for the drug.
Women who are obese, have type 2 diabetes or a family history of type 2 diabetes could one day have more successful pregnancies because of a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.