Surgery :: Computer scientists unravel language of surgery
Computer scientists are building mathematical models to represent the safest and most effective ways to perform surgery, including tasks such as suturing, dissecting and joining tissue.
Team
Heart :: A new approach to growing heart muscle
It looks, contracts and responds almost like natural heart muscle ? even though it was grown in the lab. And it brings scientists another step closer to the goal of creating replacement parts for damaged human hearts, or eventually growing an entirely new heart from just a spoonful of loose heart cells.
Pancreatic Cancer :: Blood pressure drugs could help halt pancreatic cancer spread
Common blood pressure medications might help block the spread of pancreatic cancer, researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have found.
Melanoma :: Infectious disease researchers develop basis for experimental melanoma treatment
While investigating a fungus known to cause an infection in people with AIDS, two grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), unexpectedly discovered a potential strategy for treating metastatic melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer.
Stem Cell :: Aggressive stem cells might improve transplant outcome
Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have demonstrated in mice a way that might reduce the time it takes for a bone marrow transplant to rebuild a child’s immune system, and so reduce the risk of potentially fatal virus infections that can occur during this time.
Bioprospecting not biopiracy
By training professionals in high-biodiversity regions to advance the drug discovery process in-country, a novel program drives drug discovery costs down as it promotes tropical biodiversity conservation. An international team describes a successful test of the program in Panama in the December, 2006 issue of BioScience.
Cancer :: Erectile dysfunction drugs heighten natural anti-cancer activity
Sildenafil and other “impotence drugs” that boost the production of a gassy chemical messenger to dilate blood vessels and produce an erection now also show promise in unmasking cancer cells so that the immune system can recognize and attack them, say scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Osteoporosis :: Electronic Health Record-based programs triples osteoporosis screening rate
A team of Geisinger Health System researchers in central Pennsylvania recently discovered that use of the Electronic Health Record in care programs significantly increases the screening rate of women who are at risk for osteoporosis. The study found that redesigning care to incorporate the EHR also helps streamline the work of doctors.
Surgery :: Advanced technology to revolutionize surgical care
A new Surgical Simulation and Technology Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center, one of only a few hospital-based centers of its kind in the United States, will open on December 6, 2006. The center brings together a diverse group of experts to solve important challenges in surgery, such as how to improve and expand minimally invasive surgical procedures that enhance patient care, how to advance the design of surgical instruments and how to redesign operating rooms to prevent surgeons from suffering from shoulder and neck injuries.
DNA :: First molecular simulation of a long DNA strand shows unexpected flexibility
Virginia Tech researchers used novel methodology and the university’s System X supercomputer to carry out what is probably the first simulation that explores full range of motions of a DNA strand of 147 base pairs, the length that is required to form the fundamental unit of DNA packing in the living cells — the nucleosome. Contrary to a long-held belief that DNA is hard to bend, the simulation shows in crisp atomic detail that DNA is considerably more flexible than commonly thought.