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New model for embryonic limb development

A study led by a researcher at the University of Southern California has found a new model to explain how signals between cells in the embryo control limb development.

30 Apr 2008

Improving survival rates among users of left ventricular assist devices

Despite the general success of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) used in critically ill heart failure patients, implantation of these devices often leads to increased bleeding and a need for high-volume blood transfusions during and immediately after surgery.

30 Apr 2008

New understanding of how some bacteria survive antibiotic treatment

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered how some bacteria can survive antibiotic treatment by turning on resistance mechanisms when exposed to the drugs.

30 Apr 2008

Alzheimer's and diabetes link

Diabetic individuals have a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease but the molecular connection between the two remains unexplained. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies identified the probable molecular basis for the diabetes - Alzheimer's interaction.

30 Apr 2008

Researchers create heart and blood cells from reprogrammed skin cells

Stem cell researchers at UCLA were able to grow functioning cardiac cells using mouse skin cells that had been reprogrammed into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells.

30 Apr 2008

Climate change could increase HIV infection rates world-wide

Social factors, including economic pressures caused by climate change, could lead to an increase in HIV infection rates world-wide, warns a leading researcher from the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

30 Apr 2008

Scientists discover the double life of proteins

Scientists at The Australian National University are a step closer to understanding the rare Hartnup disorder after discovering a surprising link between blood pressure regulation and nutrition that could also help to shed light on intestinal and kidney function.

30 Apr 2008

Researchers discover molecular basis of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy

A team of French and German researchers report in the May 2008 print issue of The FASEB Journal that people with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy are missing a protein called c-FLIP, which the body uses to prevent the loss of muscle tissue.

30 Apr 2008

ImmunoVaccine Technologies patents DepoVax vaccine platform

ImmunoVaccine Technologies Inc. (IVT), a vaccine development company, unveiled today its DepoVax platform, a novel depot vaccine delivery system used to increase the efficacy and strength of vaccines. IVT has filed additional patents to protect the DepoVax concept.

30 Apr 2008

Risk of Bisphenol A in plastic products, Q & A's

Bisphenol A, an estrogenlike compound in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resin, has been popping up in the news a lot lately.

30 Apr 2008

AstraZeneca submits sNDA for SYMBICORT in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

AstraZeneca today announced that it submitted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval of a new indication for SYMBICORT (budesonide/formoterol fumarate dihydrate) Inhalation Aerosol for the treatment of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). SYMBICORT is currently approved for the long-term maintenance treatment of asthma in patients 12 years and older.

30 Apr 2008

ISTA Pharmaceuticals announces new clinical findings to support Bepreve NDA

ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced positive results from the preliminary analysis of its second and final Bepreve (bepotastine ophthalmic solution) Phase III clinical study.

30 Apr 2008

Aspirin and other NSAIDs could lower the risk of breast cancer

Taking aspirin on a daily basis may lower women's risk of a particular type of breast cancer, according to results published in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research.

30 Apr 2008

Progesterone could prevent brain damage after head injury

A common component of the contraceptive pill (progesterone) could improve the neurologic outcome for patients with severe head injuries, according to a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care.

30 Apr 2008

Silent fungus metabolism awakened for source of new drugs

U.S. scientists have re-awakened 'silent' metabolic pathways in fungi to reveal a new range of natural products. The research could provide not only a source of new drugs, but a way to "listen to what fungi are saying" to organisms around them.

30 Apr 2008

Mould in the home

Surely your bathroom is fungus-free once you've wiped the mould off the tiles? Not according to a study by French scientists in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Environmental Monitoring. They report that almost one in five rooms studied with no visible mould was in fact "highly contaminated" by fungus which could aggravate conditions such as asthma.

30 Apr 2008

Can we improve people's health by changing the way we use our land?

Land to Mouth, a new report from the Rural Economy and Land Use programme (Relu) suggests that by taking a new look at land use we could also produce food that is both healthier and safer.

30 Apr 2008

FDA begins multi-year hiring initiative

Biologists, chemists, medical officers, mathematical statisticians and investigators are among the experts in demand as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration begins a multi-year hiring initiative.

30 Apr 2008

Mothers and offspring can share cells throughout life - with positive and negative effects

Cutting the umbilical cord doesn't necessarily sever the physical link between mother and child. Many cells pass back and forth between the mother and fetus during pregnancy and can be detected in the tissues and organs of both even decades later. This mixing of cells from two genetically distinct individuals is called microchimerism. The phenomenon is the focus of an increasing number of scientists who wonder what role these cells play in the body.

30 Apr 2008

First sequence-based map of large-scale structural variation across the human genome

A nationwide team of researchers, funded in part by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has produced the first sequence-based map of large-scale structural variation across the human genome. The work, published today in the journal Nature, provides a starting point to examine how such DNA variation contributes to human health and disease.

30 Apr 2008