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Living, growing artificial heart-valve replacements for children

Infants and children receiving artificial heart-valve replacements face several repeat operations as they grow, since the since the replacements become too small and must be traded for bigger ones.

13 Sep 2007

New insights into retinal growth

Peering at microscopic changes within the retina, scientists in the Department of Ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, have discovered a key mechanism driving eye health and eye disease.

12 Sep 2007

New clues to cracking brain's neural code

Decoding the complex electrical signals that brain cells use to "talk" to each other is a new and important frontier in neuroscience, one that could revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disease.

12 Sep 2007

Rochester receives $1.2 million to battle rare childhood disease

"For an orphan disease like Batten, which has such a clear-cut course of deterioration and no present cure, this grant is transformative both for these families and for us, as clinicians and researchers."

12 Sep 2007

Ultraconserved non-coding RNAs may be important in human cancer

Research here shows that an obscure form of RNA, part of the protein-making machinery in all cells, might play an important role in human cancer.

12 Sep 2007

Embryonic stem cell strategy advanced with UCSF finding

UCSF scientists are reporting what they say is a significant improvement in the technique for genetically reprogramming mouse cells to their embryonic state, a process that transforms the cells, in essence, into embryonic stem cells.

12 Sep 2007

Diesel exhaust kills throat cells

Researchers at Deakin University have found that diesel exhaust is far more damaging to our health than exhaust from biodiesel, the plant-based fuel.

12 Sep 2007

New gel to treat retinal diseases in development

New research presented at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) in Manchester shows that a new gel for under the eyelid could provide an innovative way of delivering drugs to treat age-related retinal diseases such as wet macular degeneration - potentially making some invasive eye injections a thing of the past.

11 Sep 2007

Micro-needles a safe alternative to hypodermic syringes

New research presented at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) in Manchester shows that micro-needles may be a safer and less painful method for delivering vaccines and other medicines traditionally administered using a hypodermic syringe.

11 Sep 2007

Tangerine peel extract kills certain cancer cells

Research presented at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) in Manchester, shows that a compound extracted from tangerine peel can kill certain human cancer cells.

11 Sep 2007

Women with a family history of heart disease are less likely than men to drop bad habits

Smoking, eating fattening foods and not getting enough exercise are all lifestyle habits that can lead to poor health and cardiovascular disease – more so if you have a family history.

11 Sep 2007

Sugar key to malaria parasite invasion

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute (JHMRI) have identified a sugar in mosquitoes that allows the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, to attach itself to the mosquito's gut.

11 Sep 2007

St. Jude follows outcomes of stem cell transplant survivors

Patient care at St. Jude doesn't stop when the child is cured. The end of successful therapy is the start of many years of follow-up care. This care is aimed at helping make the recovery process successful and preparing the family and hometown doctor for long-term complications that might arise from the disease or its treatment.

11 Sep 2007

Potential new drug target for preventing postmenopausal bone loss

Scientists have discovered new information about an immune pathway in mice that explains how oxidative stress that results from acute estrogen deficiency leads to the loss of bone.

11 Sep 2007

Novel mechanism discovered that balances the sizes of functional areas in the brain

In the cerebral cortex, the brain's powerful central processing unit responsible for higher functions, specialized subdivisions known as areas are laid out like a map, but little is known about the genetic forces that shape the geography of our brains.

11 Sep 2007

Tendons found to contain a small subset of previously unknown adult stem cells

Tendon, the cord-like tissue that connects muscle to bone, contains a small subset of previously unknown adult stem cells, scientists at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) part of the National Institutes of Health, and their colleagues have discovered.

11 Sep 2007