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Blood tests improve within two weeks of quitting smoking

Long-term smokers who quit may benefit from almost immediate improvements in blood platelet function, which could potentially reduce their risk of heart attacks or strokes caused by blood clots, according to a new study in the Feb. 15, 2005 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

16 Feb 2005

IVF process may lack natural growth factors in fluid

The lack of natural growth factors in the fluid in which IVF embryos are grown could have lifelong effects on people conceived this way. That is the implication of a study on mice by Australian researchers, who say preliminary studies of human embryos back their claims.

16 Feb 2005

Nanoscale mechanism to externally control the function and action of a protein

"We can switch a protein on and off, and while we have controlled a specific protein, we believe our approach will work with virtually any protein," said Giovanni Zocchi, assistant professor of physics at UCLA, member of the California NanoSystems Institute and leader of the research effort. "This research has the potential to start a new approach to protein engineering."

16 Feb 2005

Research shows that individual NAc neurons play a role in Pavlovian learning

While the brain center called the nucleus accumbens (NAc) has been called a key component of the brain's "reward" pathways, researchers' experiments with rats have now shown that the center processes not only rewarding stimuli, but also aversive stimuli.

16 Feb 2005

New detection system to test athletes for performance-enhancing drugs

Scientists at The University of Nottingham are leading the field in developing a new detection system that could be used to test athletes for performance-enhancing drugs.

16 Feb 2005

Angiogenesis inhibitor molecules defend against the development and spread of cancer

Research led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) helps explain how a group of angiogenesis inhibitor molecules serve as an important defense mechanism against the development and spread of cancer, offering key insights into why cancerous tumors grow at different rates among different individuals.

15 Feb 2005

More dependable, less expensive tool to help detect bladder cancer earlier

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center found that a simple test that can be administered and read in the doctor's office was three times more effective than a conventional laboratory test for detecting bladder cancer.

15 Feb 2005

Discovery may have implications for the treatment of hemophilia A and B

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have made a discovery that may have implications for the treatment of liver-based genetic defects such as hemophilia A and B in humans.

15 Feb 2005

Green tea extract has potential as an anti-cancer agent

A new study on bladder cancer cells lines shows that green tea extract has potential as an anti-cancer agent, proving for the first time that it is able to target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.

15 Feb 2005

Ebola virus outbreaks linked to infected wild animal carcasses

All recent Ebola virus outbreaks in humans in forests between Gabon and the Republic of Congo were the result of handling infected wild animal carcasses, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its regional partners

14 Feb 2005

Paradox suggests reasons why COX-2 inhibitors hurt and help

Laboratory studies at Johns Hopkins have revealed that certain products of the enzymes COX-1 and COX-2 can both protect and damage the brain. The findings, published in the February 2005 issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry, offer tantalizing clues to why drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex, which block COX-2, can ease arthritis but potentially harm the heart and brain.

14 Feb 2005

Key insight into the process of normal synapse development may lead to improved treatment of conditions such as drug addiction and epilepsy

Communication in the brain travels from one nerve cell to another through critical connections called synapses. These neuron-to-neuron junctions form early in brain development, and their construction was thought to be guided by the nerve cells themselves.

13 Feb 2005

American Fertility Association alarmed by Judge's embryo ruling

The recent ruling in favor of a Chicago couple, who sued for wrongful death when their fertility clinic failed to preserve an embryo, raises great concerns for fertility patients across the United States.

13 Feb 2005

New primate-specific gene family that spans about 10% of human chromosome 2

A team of scientists led by Peer Bork, Ph.D., Senior Bioinformatics Scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, report today in the journal Genome Research that they have identified a new primate-specific gene family that spans about 10% of human chromosome 2.

13 Feb 2005

Mouse allergen is everywhere in your house and triggers asthma in children

The amount of mouse allergen found in the air in many inner-city homes could be high enough to trigger asthma symptoms in the children who live there, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

10 Feb 2005

Experimental drug Revlimid showing promise as treatment for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)

Alan List, M.D., leader of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, recently conducted a phase I/II trial of the experimental drug Revlimid showing promise as an innovative way to treat patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a form of pre-leukemia.

10 Feb 2005

Oak Ridge technology used to understand semiconductor defects helps people at risk of becoming blind

Millions of people at risk of becoming blind could one day be helped by an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology originally intended to understand semiconductor defects.

10 Feb 2005

First evidence of cardiac progenitor cells

The first evidence of cardiac progenitor cells – rare, specialized stem cells located in the newborn heart of rats, mice and humans – has been shown by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. The cells are capable of differentiation into fully mature heart tissue.

10 Feb 2005

Inserting corrective genes into the brain to fight Parkinson's disease

An international team of scientists has used gene therapy in two separate studies to renew brain cells and restore normal movements in monkeys and rats with a drug-induced form of Parkinson's disease.

8 Feb 2005

Eat carrots to fight cancer

Scientists have given us another reason to eat carrots - a compound found in the popular root vegetable has been found to have an effect on the development of cancer.

8 Feb 2005