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Earlier start of micronutrient supplementation better for pregnant women and the unborn child

When pregnant women take supplements with micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), the growth of their unborn child improves. The improvement is cumulative, so researchers from the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine report : the earlier in pregnancy the supplementation starts, the better. In developing countries, where women often have a poor diet, these supplements really make a difference.

14 Mar 2012

New research could make it easier to grow health-promoting blood oranges

For the red pigmentation to develop, blood oranges normally require a period of cold as they ripen. The only place to reliably grow them on a commercial scale is in the Sicilian area of Italy around Mount Etna. Here, the combination of sun and cold/sunny days and warm nights provides ideal growing conditions.

14 Mar 2012

Magnesium may help reduce blood pressure

Researchers from the University of Hertfordshire have found that magnesium supplements may offer small but clinically significant reductions in blood pressure. In a paper published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the researchers also discovered that the size of the effect increased in line with increased dosage.

14 Mar 2012

Red meat associated with increased risk of death, nuts become the preferred protein substitute

A major new study, "Red Meat Consumption and Mortality" concludes that red meat is associated with a thirteen percent increased risk of death and substitution of other healthy protein sources for red meat lowers mortality risk, with nuts being the top choice. Over half the nuts eaten in the US are peanuts and they have more protein than any other nut.

14 Mar 2012

New work describes communities of active bacteria harbored by honey bee colonies

A novel study of honey bee genetic diversity co-authored by an Indiana University biologist has for the first time found that greater diversity in worker bees leads to colonies with fewer pathogens and more abundant helpful bacteria like probiotic species.

13 Mar 2012

Trudeau Institute creates TICRO to expand the scope of biomedical research

The Trudeau Institute announced today that it has expanded the scope of its biomedical research by creating a contract research organization (CRO), the Trudeau Institute Contract Research Organization.

13 Mar 2012

Human diseases with Drosophila counterparts discussed at annual conference

More than two-thirds of human genes have counterparts in the well-studied fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, so although it may seem that humans don't have much in common with flies, the correspondence of our genetic instructions is astonishing. In fact, there are hundreds of inherited diseases in humans that have Drosophila counterparts.

12 Mar 2012

ACRONET joins Medidata Partner Program

As clinical trial activity in the Asia Pacific region continues to expand and contract research organizations (CRO) increasingly provide sponsors with a range of strategic services and support, ACRONET joined the Medidata Partner Program to enhance its technology offerings across the clinical development process.

12 Mar 2012

Many Americans deficient in magnesium, sulfur and sulfate

Many Americans are deficient in magnesium, sulfur and sulfate, experts say. It's a problem that causes a variety of health issues that could be prevented with small changes to diet and behavior, including frequent soaks in Epsom salt.

12 Mar 2012

Policy makers, scientists collaborate to create new science-policy research agenda

One only has to be reminded of the BSE crisis and the MMR vaccine scare to recognise the importance of having policy informed by the best available science. Now, a collaboration of over fifty academics and policy makers from around the world have come together to agree a new research agenda on the role of science in public policy.

12 Mar 2012

Researchers determine structure of concentrative nucleoside transporter

A team of researchers at Duke University has determined the structure of a key molecule that can carry chemotherapy and anti-viral drugs into cells, which could help to create more effective drugs with fewer effects to healthy tissue.

12 Mar 2012

TGen to present new research about multiple myeloma at AzMN conference

The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) will present new research about the blood-cell cancer known as multiple myeloma at a free public conference hosted by the Arizona Myeloma Network.

12 Mar 2012

Salt resistant wheat developed using genomics

Matthew Gilliham, of the University of Adelaide, said the new variety of durum wheat would be made freely available to publicly funded breeding programs overseas. Field trials in Moree and at other sites across southern Australia have shown that the new variety has a grain yield in salty soil of up to 25 per cent higher than that of the standard variety.

12 Mar 2012

LSD for alcohol addiction: Study

Hallucinogenic drug LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) could help alcoholics give up drinking, according to an analysis of studies performed in the 1960s. A study, presented in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, looked at data from six trials and more than 500 patients. It said there was a “significant beneficial effect” on alcohol abuse, which lasted several months after the drug was taken.

12 Mar 2012

Overweight, aging do not appear to impact mental well-being

Growing older and being overweight are not necessarily associated with a decrease in mental well-being, according to a cross-cultural study looking at quality of life and health status in the US and the UK.

12 Mar 2012

Tumors can be more complex than imagined earlier: Study

Researchers speculate that cancers may be more complex that they knew. And that's why a single tissue sample taken from a single tumor may not be the best way to figure out a course of treatment they claim.

11 Mar 2012

New drug approval pathway to encourage development of critically needed, lifesaving antibiotics

Congress will consider a new drug approval pathway to encourage development of critically needed, lifesaving antibiotics as part of a strategy to address the public health crisis of antibiotic resistance. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) proposed the new pathway, the "Special Population Limited Medical Use (SPLMU)" mechanism, to provide an important new approval option for companies interested in developing drugs to treat patients with serious infections where few or no treatment options exist.

10 Mar 2012

Concerns about aging in good health

Do men harbour concerns about aging in good health? Do they confide these concerns to their physicians? Are men's concerns the same as women's? The answers to these questions can be found in a large cross-sectional survey of 2325 Canadian men, aged 55 to 97 years old, led by Dr. Cara Tannenbaum, Geriatrician and the Michel Saucier Endowed Chair in Geriatric Pharmacology, Health and Aging at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM) which is affiliated with the Université de Montréal.

10 Mar 2012

Not all patients with CKD are destined for kidney failure

Not all patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are destined for kidney failure, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology.

9 Mar 2012

Cancer-based blood vessel theory questioned

Johns Hopkins scientists have published laboratory data refuting studies that suggest blood vessels that form within brain cancers are largely made up of cancer cells. The theory of cancer-based blood vessels calls into question the use and value of anticancer drugs that target these blood vessels, including bevacizumab (Avastin).

8 Mar 2012