An inexpensive tracing agent used in combination with ultrasound can pinpoint how effectively drugs targeting pancreatic cancer work, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have demonstrated for the first time.
A UCL (University College London) study has found that you are more likely to perform well if you do not think too hard and instead trust your instincts. The research, published online today in the journal Current Biology, shows that, in some cases, instinctive snap decisions are more reliable than decisions taken using higher-level cognitive processes.
Cincinnati burn researchers have created genetically modified skin cells that, when added to cultured skin substitutes, may help fight off potentially lethal infections in patients with severe burns. Led by University of Cincinnati scientists, the team found that skin cells that were genetically altered to produce higher levels of a protein known as human beta defensin 4 killed more bacteria than normal skin cells.
While millions of Americans place fitness as one of their top New Year’s resolutions to improve shape, muscle tone and overall appearance, cancer survivors have another priority — life.
Prof Michael King of the University of Rochester has invented a device that filters the blood for cancer and stem cells. When he captures cancer cells, he kills them. When he captures stem cells, he harvests them for later use in tissue engineering, bone marrow transplants, and other health applications. This is a non-controversial way of obtaining stem cells that can be differentiated into other, useful cells.
Evidence for a significant new class of supernova has been found with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton. These results strengthen the case for a population of stars that evolve rapidly and are destroyed by thermonuclear explosions. Such “prompt” supernovas could be valuable tools for probing the early history of the cosmos.
Newly published research by Rice University chemists and North Carolina State University toxicologists finds that repetitive movement can speed the uptake of nanoparticles through the skin. The research is based on in vitro experiments involving animal skin that was exposed to buckyball-containing amino acids. It appears in the January 10 issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal Nano Letters.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a tiny piece of genetic code apparently goes where no bit of it has gone before, and it gets there under its own internal code.
A team of University of California, San Diego physicists and neuroscientists has discovered a bottleneck in the network of blood vessels in the brain that makes it vulnerable to strokes. The finding may explain the origin of the puzzling damage to the brain?s gray matter often detected in brain scans, especially among the elderly.
Research led by a team from UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) has shown that a dopamine agonist called rotigotine could be effective in treating symptoms of Parkinson?s disease (PD). In a study published Jan. 3 in the online edition of Neurology, rotigotine significantly improved symptoms in patients with early-stage PD.