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Genome research sheds light on Bardet-Biedl syndrome

By comparing the genomes of an alga, a weed and humans, a team of researchers has identified a new gene behind Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS), a complex condition marked by learning disabilities, vision loss and obesity.

21 May 2004

Using smart fluids to retrain muscles

Physical rehabilitation has traditionally consisted of arduously retraining the body on weight machines and other resistance devices, but with the growing interest in “smart fluids,” NU engineering professor Constantinos Mavroidis envisions a simple brace that can increase the resistance on a healing joint with the turn of a dial.

21 May 2004

New 100 teraflop supercomputer will help simulation of brain seizures

The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory will play a major role in the development of a new national computational science facility aimed at deploying a supercomputer capable of sustained performance of 100 trillion floating-point operations per second (teraflops) by 2007.

21 May 2004

Are we as crazy as mad cows?

When proteins in our body work properly, we can see, smell, consume and digest food, grow muscle and brain cells. But when these infinitely useful biological building blocks fail, the most pernicious diseases arise. Susan Lindquist has scrutinized the complex origami-like shapes of proteins and come to understand how structural mistakes can lead to a frightening class of neurodegenerative disorders, including “Mad Cow Disease.”

20 May 2004

Health Canada to tackle human health impacts of air pollution

Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew today announced the Government of Canada is allocating $1 million over the next year to fund cutting-edge research on the human health impacts of air pollution in support of the Georgia Basin/Puget Sound International Airshed Strategy, one of three pilot projects under the Canada-United States Border Air Quality Strategy.

20 May 2004

New medical device indentifies abnormal heart rhythms called atrial fibrillation

A new device identified abnormal heart rhythms called atrial fibrillation in one of 18 stroke patients in whom two standard tests failed to detect the irregularity, researchers report in today’s rapid access issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

20 May 2004

Pacemaker-type device and medicines reduce hospital stays and death rates

A nationwide clinical trial of more than 1,600 heart failure patients showed that when medicines are combined with the use of a pacemaker-type device that resynchronizes both sides of the heart, hospital stays and death rates drop significantly.

20 May 2004

Tumour suppressor gene family may be key to new colon cancer drugs

In the hunt for new cancer drug targets, scientists from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have discovered mutations in a family of genes linked to more than a quarter of colon cancers, as well as several other common cancers including breast and lung.

20 May 2004

Improving the care delivered to children with special health care needs

Health care delivered close to home is vitally important, especially when the patient is a child. But how do community pediatric practices adapt to offer the best care when faced with a child who has complex and often, multiple health needs? Reporting in this month's issue of Pediatrics, Dartmouth researchers outline a process designed to help any practice become a state of the art "medical home" for such children.

20 May 2004

Zinc may help to accelerate recovery from pneumonia

The addition of zinc to standard antimicrobial treatment may accelerate recovery from pneumonia, say researchers in this week's issue of The Lancet.

20 May 2004

Hospitalisation for angina and chest pain has risen dramatically in the last decade

Researchers analysed hospital discharge records for Scottish residents aged at least 18 years with a first emergency hospitalisation for heart attack, angina, or other chest pain between 1990 and 2000.

20 May 2004

20 percent of all black men born from 1965 through 1969 had served time in prison

Being jailed in federal or state prisons has become so common today that more young black men in the United States have done time than have served in the military or earned a college degree, according to new study.

20 May 2004

No justification for claims that cleaning and hygiene contribute to an increase in allergies

A landmark report by the London-based International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH) on the so-called hygiene hypothesis finds "no justification" for claims that cleaning and hygiene contribute to an increase in allergies.

20 May 2004

Scientists believe that the dog genome holds a wealth of information that will benefit human health

Recently completed genetic analysis reveals that half of the more than 300 inherited canine disorders — including a number of cancers — resemble specific diseases of man; many scientists believe that the dog genome holds a wealth of information that will benefit human health.

20 May 2004

Diabetes drug improves metabolic changes associated with HIV combination therapy

Use of an oral antidiabetes medication produced significant improvement in a group of patients with HIV lipodsytrophy, a syndrome involving the redistribution of fat and other metabolic changes in those receiving combination drug therapy for HIV infection.

20 May 2004

Chloropropanols in Australian meat products

A Food Standards Agency investigation into 1,3-dichloropropanol (1,3-DCP) has not found it in any of the meat products tested. 1,3-DCP is a chemical that might harm people's health.

20 May 2004

Natural biological process by which yeast cells dismantle amyloid fibers

Amyloid fibers, those clumps of plaque-like proteins that clog up the brains of Alzheimer's patients, have perplexed scientists with their robust structures. In laboratory experiments, they are able to withstand extreme heat and cold and powerful detergents that cripple most other proteins.

20 May 2004

Protein that appears to play a key role in Alzheimer's disease

A protein that allows human cancer to resist multiple anticancer drugs also appears to play a key role in Alzheimer's disease, according to research conducted at Fox Chase Cancer Center. The protein, active in brain tissue, could be a target for new drugs to treat patients with Alzheimer's.

20 May 2004

Researchers to study link between diabetes and early dementia

Understanding the link between diabetes and early dementia – as well as how diabetes relates to other causes of memory loss – is the focus of a new study at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and approximately 40 other medical institutions nationwide.

20 May 2004

CMS announces jump in number of hospitals reporting quality care data

Hospital participation in the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative is booming as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMA) posts its second web site refresh of hospital quality of care data, CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., announced today.

20 May 2004