Scientists have discovered that at the same time the immune system is vigorously attacking invading viruses or bacteria, it is unexpectedly reducing its production of a particular type of factor that directs the movement of immune cells.
Biologists still have no clear idea how many active genes there are coding for proteins in humans and other organisms, even though for some species the genomes have been completely sequenced.
In a new paper in the open access journal PLoS Biology, Michael Hofreiter from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, and colleagues from Switzerland and the United States, announce the sequencing of the complete mitochondrial genome of the mastodon (Mammut americanum), a recently extinct relative of the living elephants that diverged about 26 million years ago.
Results from a new study involving high blood pressure patients taking Tekturna? (aliskiren) and Diovan? (valsartan) were published in The Lancet.
The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, published his Annual Report for 2006, On the State of Public Health, in which he reviews key health problems and developments.
Decreasing the number of nurses on duty in an intensive care unit (ICU) increases the risk of serious infection, according to a report published in the open access journal Critical Care.
Alien hand syndrome (AHS) is a rare neurological disorder that causes hand movement without the person being aware of what is happening or having control over the action.
A virus that has been specifically designed by scientists to be safe to normal tissue but deadly to cancer is showing early promise in a preliminary study, researchers said at the ESMO Conference Lugano (ECLU), Switzerland.
People affected by cancer in Switzerland and northern Italy have an opportunity during the ESMO Congress Lugano to talk about the latest in cancer research and share their knowledge and personal experiences, at the 6th ESMO Patient Seminar.
An international team of investigators has identified the first human antibodies that can neutralize different strains of virus responsible for outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The researchers used a mouse model and in vitro assays (lab tests) to test the neutralizing activity of the antibodies.