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Clear evidence that elephantiasis can be eliminated

Clear evidence that Lymphatic Filariasis (LF, commonly known as elephantiasis) can be eliminated is reported in The Lancet. LF is one of the world's most disfiguring and disabling parasitic diseases, and the target of one of the largest global public health programs using mass drug administration (MDA).

28 Mar 2006

Benefits of less-invasive knee replacement surgery

The benefits of less-invasive knee replacement surgery may not be as dramatic as some direct-to-consumer advertising may claim, but the procedure has resulted in less scarring, diminished pain and faster recoveries for select patients.

28 Mar 2006

Mouse Brain Gene Expression Map at St. Jude - powerful new tool for studying brain development

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have given investigators around the world free access to a powerful tool for studying brain development.

28 Mar 2006

Cholesterol: the public policy implications of not doing enough

A major new report by think tank, The Stockholm Network, shows policy makers are not doing enough to tackle rising cholesterol levels.

28 Mar 2006

Few young Americans tested for common STD's

New data indicate the average age of people who are tested for chlamydia, the most reported sexually transmitted disease (STD), is 28.9 for women and 30.5 for men, yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports 79 percent of new infections annually are in people between ages 15 and 24.

28 Mar 2006

Footprints of a blood cell

Determination of blood types with a microbalance and embossed plastic surfaces.

28 Mar 2006

Horse anti-serum effectively protects H5N1 infected mice

Antibodies against the bird flu virus H5N1, derived from horses, prevent mice infected with H5N1 from dying from the virus.

28 Mar 2006

Research released this week supports the House of Commons vote to make all workplaces smoke free

A team of researchers visited 64 pubs across the north west of England. They measured air quality using a portable monitor for at least 30 minutes in an area of the pub where smoking was allowed.

From The University of Manchester 28 Mar 2006

Inducing melanoma for cancer vaccine development

Cancer vaccines are being investigated in early-phase clinical trials around the world, with many of those trials recruiting patients with melanoma.

28 Mar 2006

Novel therapy for chronic graft-versus-host disease

A study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers offers the strongest evidence yet of the effectiveness of a novel therapy for chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a potentially life-threatening complication of donor bone marrow and stem cell transplants.

28 Mar 2006

Study on fruit flies offers new approach to understand human response to viral infections

A research team led by UC Riverside scientists has shown that the common fruit fly can serve as an excellent model for studying the immunity animals are born with for fighting viral infections.

28 Mar 2006

Researchers develop new tool to find gene control regions

Researchers at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins have invented a cost-effective and highly efficient way of analyzing what many have termed "junk" DNA and identified regions critical for controlling gene function.

28 Mar 2006

Patent filed for method to prevent early labor and premature delivery of low-birth-weight babies

The discovery is an incremental step in an area of obstetrics that has seen little improvement in 20 years.

28 Mar 2006

New way of targeting proteins to exosomes - potential for melanoma, Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered how a protein called Pmel17 is sorted by pigment cells in the skin and eye to make a fiber matrix that eventually sequesters melanin, the dark pigment found in skin, hair, and eyes.

28 Mar 2006

First trial to combine a biologic agent with a conventional chemotherapy agent for the treatment of ovarian cancer

Researchers found the addition of thalidomide to topotecan for the treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer significantly increases the response to therapy and the duration of progression free survival without additional toxicity.

28 Mar 2006

New information about the molecular pathway used by ubiquitin

Because ubiquitin plays a key role in cell survival, scientists have already begun to develop drugs to target parts of the ubiquitin pathway in treating diseases such as cancer.

28 Mar 2006

Discovery of a gene that drives anthrax bacteria's toxic effects

A study in Cell reports the discovery of a gene that drives anthrax bacteria's toxic effects. The gene could offer a potential new target for countermeasures against the lethal toxin, according to the researchers.

28 Mar 2006

New therapy program for women with young children and substance abuse problems

The Mothers' and Toddlers' Program (MTP) broadens the focus of substance abuse treatment to encompass parent-child relationships. The MTP aids mothers to recognize their own, and subsequently their child's, emotional cues aiming to improve the emotional quality of the mother-child relationship and decrease the mother's preoccupation with drugs.

28 Mar 2006

Smokers assume false sense of safety from ads for low nicotine cigarettes

A study by researchers at the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that many smokers make false inferences about the safety of new low nicotine Quest cigarettes.

28 Mar 2006

Sodium hyaluronate shown to help chronic shoulder pain

After the rise in safety concerns surrounding Vioxx and other Cox-2 inhibitors, people suffering from chronic shoulder pain were left with just two therapy options at opposite extremes - take Advil, or have surgery.

28 Mar 2006