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Researchers uncover new toxic mechanism in ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease

Exactly how ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease - damages motor neurons is one of medical science's lingering mysteries. At least six mishaps within cells appear to contribute to the death of the nerves that enable muscle movement, but nothing stands out as the key problem.

6 Jan 2006

New procedure offers hope to patients at high risk for recurrent stroke

Surgeons at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are the first in the New York City metropolitan area to successfully implant into the brain arteries a new stent specifically designed to treat high-risk stroke patients who have not previously responded to medical therapy.

6 Jan 2006

Evidence that the eye has complementary brain-signaling systems at work

A new retinal photoreceptor adjusts its sensitivity in different lighting conditions, according to scientists at Brown University, where the rare eye cells were discovered.

6 Jan 2006

Self-exploding microcapsules for smart drug delivery

Belgian chemists have developed "self-exploding" microcapsules that could one day precisely release drugs and vaccines inside the human body weeks or even months after injection.

6 Jan 2006

New hope for patients with metastatic melanoma

Patients with metastatic melanoma (MM) have new hope, says a recently published study by Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. The study, which shows the combination of paclitaxel and carboplatin (PC) appears to be effective for MM when traditional treatments have failed, is in this month's issue of Cancer.

6 Jan 2006

DNA polymerase zeta gives cells with damaged DNA a new lease on life

Fortunately, our cells contain many enzymes devoted strictly to detecting and repairing any damage caused by these insults. In fact, failure of these enzymes to make needed repairs to genes can lead to the accumulation of mutations and, eventually, cell death or possibly cancer.

6 Jan 2006

New approaches to the treatment of osteoporosis

Medical researchers at the University of Bonn, working in collaboration with scientists from Israel, the USA and Britain, have identified a previously unknown regulatory mechanism in the process of bone loss. Their findings could open up new approaches to the treatment of osteoporosis.

6 Jan 2006

New technique points to safer, more efficient vaccination

Researchers have demonstrated a technique that has the potential to reduce the toxicity of vaccines and to make smaller doses more effective, according to a study published in PLoS Pathogens.

6 Jan 2006

Largest post-mortem study of SARS deaths teaches scientists about the disease

Led by John Nicholls of Hong Kong University, researchers from Hong Kong and from Toronto (two of the cities worst affected by the 2003 SARS outbreak) joined forces for a large and detailed study of the bodies of 32 patients who had died from SARS.

6 Jan 2006

Taking an alternative approach to HIV vaccination

Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine have shown that switching off a molecule that helps regulate dendritic cells, specialized white blood cells that activate the immune system, could help the host fight HIV infection.

6 Jan 2006

Ethnic minority groups must be included in European health research

Despite the knowledge that ethnicity matters in cardiovascular disease, most studies of cardiovascular disease risk have not been designed to yield results that apply to different ethnic groups, report Meghna Ranganathan and Raj Bhopal (of Edinburgh University) in a new study in the international open-access medical journal PLoS Medicine.

6 Jan 2006

Tekes takes part in an extensive stem cell project

Tekes has allocated three million euros to financing a project by the Tampere-based Regea Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the goal of which is to use stem cells in tissue-related technological applications.

6 Jan 2006

Fruit bats a reservoir for Ebola virus

IRD researchers have succeeded in the first identification of bats as a potential natural reservoir of Ebola virus. Several epidemics of haemorrhagic fever have raged in the Republic of Congo and Gabon since 2001, hitting both humans and primates simultaneously.

6 Jan 2006

New diabetes form found by Norwegian researchers

A research group in Bergen has discovered a new form of diabetes. In addition to high blood sugar levels, the disease is characterised by a decrease in pancreatic functioning and reduced fat absorption in the intestine. The discovery may have an impact on the treatment of more usual forms of diabetes.

6 Jan 2006

Alleviating psychosomatic symptoms through movement

A new group which could help individuals who have medically unexplained conditions to resolve their symptoms will take place at the University of Hertfordshire in March 2006.

6 Jan 2006

Expert slashes hospital waiting times

Day surgery waiting times at South Tyneside District Hospital in the North East of England have been slashed from nine months to three weeks as a result of a business improvement technique developed by the University of Sunderland.

6 Jan 2006

Scientists describe phenomenon in the human genome called transcription-induced chimerism

In the January issue of the journal Genome Research, two teams of scientists describe a widespread phenomenon in the human genome called transcription-induced chimerism (TIC), where two adjacent genes produce a single, fused RNA transcript.

6 Jan 2006

Scientists develop prototype drug to prevent osteoporosis based on cannabinoids produced by body

Substances produced in the body that act like those found in the cannabis plant help preserve bone density, according to researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

6 Jan 2006

Promising new therapy for ulcerative colitis

For people with the chronic disease ulcerative colitis, life can be limited to few social functions and trips away from home.

6 Jan 2006

Delivering chemotherapy directly into the abdomen boosts survival in ovarian cancer patients

A 50-year-old method for delivering chemotherapy directly into the abdomen is making a comeback as investigators have found that it increases survival - by more than a year - in some women with advanced ovarian cancer. Results from a seven-year study of more than 400 patients nationwide are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

6 Jan 2006