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What the brain does while idle

Indiana University neuroscientists Olaf Sporns and Christopher Honey find the 98 percent of brain activity that other researchers consider just background noise to be fascinating and important.

5 Jun 2007

Researchers track human stem cells transplanted into rat brain

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have illuminated the path taken by human neural stem cells that were transplanted into the brains of rats and mice, and found that the cells successfully navigate toward areas damaged by stroke.

5 Jun 2007

Blocking stress protein decreases Alzheimer's peptide

Scientists revealed in November 2006 that stress increases production in mice of a brain peptide critical to Alzheimer's disease.

5 Jun 2007

breakthrough in the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary haemosiderosis

Researchers at Queen Mary University London and the University of Leicester and have announced a potential breakthrough in the treatment of a rare but devastating medical condition that can affect children and young people.

5 Jun 2007

Time-of-flight positron emission tomography provides benefits for cancer patients

Moving from computer simulation to patient images, researchers are now demonstrating the benefits that time-of-flight (TOF)/PET (positron emission tomography) imaging can provide for cancer patients.

5 Jun 2007

What causes Alzheimer's disease?

Researchers tied the accumulation of the toxic brain protein beta-amyloid to Alzheimer's disease, according to a study reported at the 54th Annual Meeting of SNM, the world's largest society for molecular imaging and nuclear medicine professionals.

5 Jun 2007

How and why weight-reducing surgery sometimes cures diabetes

95% of morbidly obese people – those with a Body Mass Index of over 40 – have Type 2 diabetes, sometimes known as maturity-onset diabetes.

5 Jun 2007

Tumor cell activity may provide clues for treating breast cancer in young women

When women under 50 develop breast cancer the disease tends to be more aggressive and less responsive to treatment than when it occurs in older women.

5 Jun 2007

TB test offers patients quicker and easier diagnosis

A new test for diagnosing TB offers a quick and simple alternative to existing three-day methods, according to research published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

5 Jun 2007

New precise method for studying the DNA binding of small molecules

Northeastern University professor Mark C. Williams and colleague Ioana Vladescu have discovered a novel method for studying the DNA binding of small molecules with unprecedented accuracy.

5 Jun 2007

Link between khat use and mental illness

Researchers investigating the evidence for a potential causal link between khat use and mental illness - in the first ever systematic review of the topic - have called for improved research on the stimulant plant, and its possible association with psychiatric disorders.

5 Jun 2007

Exposure to pesticides and traumatic head injury are associated with Parkinson's disease

The work, which is published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, was carried out under the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) Geoparkinson project, which aimed to investigate how genetic and environmental factors interact to cause Parkinson's disease and related conditions.

5 Jun 2007

Key source of chronic pain appears to be an old memory trace stuck in the prefrontal cortex

Why do so many people continue to suffer from life-altering, chronic pain long after their injuries have actually healed"

5 Jun 2007

Neural basis for anxiety behaviour discovered

People who suffer from anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous situations, situations that could potentially be dangerous but not necessarily so, as threatening.

5 Jun 2007

Gene therapy delivery of nerve growth factors reverses erectile dysfunction in mice

Rats with erectile dysfunction, or ED, that were injected with a gene therapy vector containing either of two nerve growth factors were able to regain normal function after four weeks, according to a study conducted by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers.

5 Jun 2007

Stroke victims could be more vulnerable to Alzheimer's

University of Leeds scientists have shown how stroke victims could be more vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease – years or even decades after making a full recovery.

5 Jun 2007

Breakthrough in idiopathic pulmonary haemosiderosis

3 Jun 2007

Majority of people untrained in how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation

New findings show that the majority of people untrained in how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and even many trained emergency personnel, do not push with enough force to properly administer CPR.

3 Jun 2007

Scientist's discovery of role of Aquaporin in spinal injuries recognized with research funding award

Dr. Olivera Nesic-Taylor, an assistant professor in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Texas, Galveston, was presented with the Erica Nader Award for 'breakthrough research in spinal cord regeneration.'

3 Jun 2007

Research explains why those with obstructive sleep apnea are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease

Researchers have found that patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have higher levels of a type of dead cells (apoptotic cells) from the lining (endothelium) of their blood vessels circulating in their bloodstream than people who do not have OSA.

3 Jun 2007