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Protein fingerprinting made easy

Combining some traditional experimental methods of molecular biology with computational methods of artificial intelligence, a group of researchers from Ruder Boskovic Instititute and Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics from Zagreb, Croatia, demonstrated a novel approach for producing 'protein fingerprints' of diverse tissues.

13 Dec 2007

A taste for alcohol may come from the womb

Young people whose mothers drank when pregnant may be more likely to abuse alcohol because, in the womb, their developing senses came to prefer its taste and smell.

13 Dec 2007

Predicting growth hormone treatment success

Growth hormone treatments work better on some children than on others, but judging which candidates will gain those vital inches in height is no simple task.

13 Dec 2007

Anti-diabetic drug pioglitazone lowers cardiovascular risk in diabetic patients with kidney disease

A new study confirms that chronic kidney disease (CKD) increases the already-high risk of serious cardiovascular events in diabetic patients with damage to the large blood vessels and suggests that treatment with the anti-diabetic drug pioglitazone may help to lower this risk, reports the January Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

13 Dec 2007

PET/CT imaging proves golden for detecting cancer in children

PET/CT imaging exhibits significantly higher sensitivity, specificity and accuracy than conventional imaging when it comes to detecting malignant tumors in children, according to research published in the December issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

13 Dec 2007

Odyssey Thera granted U.S. patent for animal imaging

Odyssey Thera, Inc. has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted U.S. Patent No. 7,306,914, entitled "Protein-fragment Complementation Assays (PCA) in whole animals: applications to drug efficacy, ADME, cancer biology, immunology, infectious disease and gene therapy.

13 Dec 2007

Likelihood of falling pregnant steadily decreases the fatter a woman is

A new study of obesity and the probability of pregnancy has shown that a woman's chances of a spontaneous pregnancy steadily decrease the fatter she is.

13 Dec 2007

Obese adults have more hospitalizations

Obese adults are admitted to the hospital more frequently and for more days than adults who are normal weight, finds a new study that looks at how being obese leads to a need for more health care services.

13 Dec 2007

Time to remove the stigma associated with incontinence

An independent panel convened this week by the NIH found that fewer than half of individuals experiencing fecal or urinary incontinence - the inability to control bowel movements or urination, respectively - report their symptoms to healthcare providers without being prompted.

13 Dec 2007

Cocktail of blood products boosts odds of surviving trauma

Chances of surviving a car accident or other traumatic injury where large amounts of blood are lost are increasing thanks to research conducted by trauma specialists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

13 Dec 2007

New quicker technique for sequencing DNA

Using computer simulations, researchers at the University of Illinois have demonstrated a strategy for sequencing DNA by driving the molecule back and forth through a nanopore capacitor in a semiconductor chip.

13 Dec 2007

Novel way to diagnose mantle cell lymphomas

Mantle cell lymphoma is an aggressive form of blood cancer that most commonly afflicts older men.

13 Dec 2007

Most carriers of Fanconi anemia genes are not at a higher risk of cancer

For almost 50 years, Fanconi anemia has been associated with leukemia. Not just among those who have the genetic disorder but among their family members, whose genes, they were told, made them highly susceptible to a variety of malignancies.

13 Dec 2007

More regulatory DNA than previously thought

Surrounding the small islands of genes within the human genome is a vast sea of mysterious DNA. While most of this non-coding DNA is junk, some of it is used to help genes turn on and off.

13 Dec 2007

Study finds Avandia may increase risk of heart failure

A popular class of drugs for treating type 2 diabetes is under scrutiny again. A new Canadian study released by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) finds that drugs such as Avandia increase the risk of heart failure, heart attacks and death.

13 Dec 2007

Discovery of key mechanism underlying idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

A study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers may have found a key mechanism underlying idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a usually fatal lung disease for which transplantation is the only successful treatment.

13 Dec 2007

Milk and egg allergies persist well into the school years and beyond

Considered “transitional” a generation ago, milk and egg allergies now appear to be more persistent and harder to outgrow, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

13 Dec 2007

Cervical collars superior in immobilization and reduction of pressure

Ossur, an emerging leader in the non-invasive orthopaedics market following several acquisitions and a period of integration, has announced that the Journal of Trauma has published the long-awaited results of a two year cervical collar study performed by the Mayo Clinic.

13 Dec 2007

Shingles virus and vaccination

When a vaccine to prevent shingles was approved for use in 2006, the Food and Drug Administration recommended the vaccine for people age 60 and older who previously had chickenpox.

13 Dec 2007

Losses of long-established genes contribute to human evolution

While it is well understood that the evolution of new genes leads to adaptations that help species survive, gene loss may also afford a selective advantage.

13 Dec 2007