Medical Thought Leaders

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News Medical's "Thought Leaders" series is a selection of articles written by national and international experts and trusted advisers in health and medicine. All the articles are written by experts who have been invited as recognised leaders in their fields to provide a "state of the art" contribution.

Why do we sleep? An interview with Professor Wisden

It is true that we still do not know why we need to sleep every night. Sleep is essential for health. We have to do it every day. But nobody yet knows why. This fact amazes me.

8 Sep 2015

Antibiotic resistance awareness: an interview with Professor Colin Garner

The threat of antibiotic resistance is very real. It is estimated that 700,000 people die each from resistant infections. In Europe the figure is 25,000 deaths and a similar number in the USA.

7 Sep 2015

Huntington’s disease prevention breakthrough? An interview with Professor Lesley Jones

Huntington’s disease is an inherited disease which, whilst quite rare, is one of the more common inherited neurodegenerative diseases. About 1 in 6,000 people in the UK are at risk and what’s horrible about this disease is that if one of your parents has it, then you have a fifty-fifty chance of inheriting it.

2 Sep 2015

Diagnosing traumatic brain injury through a blood test: an interview with Dr Korley

The severity of traumatic brain injury is currently crudely classified as mild, moderate or severe. However, often patients referred to as mild have debilitating symptoms that are not “mild”. Additionally, there are patients currently classified as moderate or severe who regain their pre-injury functional status whereas others don’t.

1 Sep 2015

Understanding the causes of sudden death in epilepsy: an interview with Professor Sanjay Sisodiya

SUDEP is the sudden unexpected witnessed or unwitnessed, non-traumatic and non-drowning death in people with epilepsy, with or without evidence of a seizure. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the known context of a seizure, excluding documented status epilepticus, where people have seizure after seizure.

24 Aug 2015

Determining the dynein-dynactin complex structure: an interview with Dr Gabriel C. Lander

This is a macromolecular assembly is made up of two components, dynein and dynactin, that works to move molecular cargo (organelles, RNA, vesicles, proteins, viruses) along microtubule highways within our cells.

16 Aug 2015

DISC-1: schizophrenia's "Rosetta Stone" gene? An interview with Professor Kevin Fox

The DISC-1 gene has been studied intensively over the years because people with mutations in DISC1 have a high likelihood of mental illness. DISC-1 was known to be associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major clinical depression and autism.

10 Aug 2015

Laser eye surgery: a glimpse into the future - An interview with Professor Dan Reinstein

LASIK (Laser In Situ Keratomileusis) creates a hinged flap with a microkeratome and evaporating corneal tissue under the flap with an excimer laser. However, the concept that refractive error could be corrected by sculpting corneal stromal tissue to change corneal curvature was the brainchild of Jose Ignacio Barraquer Moner in 1948.

9 Aug 2015

BRCA gene mutations and ovarian cancer: an interview with Dr Matulonis, Harvard Medical School

The BRCA gene encodes for the BRCA proteins, BRCA1 and BRCA2. These proteins are very important in repairing DNA, which they do by correcting double-stranded breaks.

2 Aug 2015

Does dandruff cause psychological distress? An interview with Dr Anjali Mahto

Dandruff is a common chronic scalp disorder that is characterised by flaking of the skin of the scalp. As skin cells die, they are shed from the scalp surface. For some people, however, excessive flaking occurs, resulting in dandruff.

28 Jul 2015

Current and new treatments for AMD: an interview with Dr Alan Cruess, AMD Alliance International

For two decades beginning in the late 1970’s through 2001, clinicians relied upon laser photocoagulation in the treatment of wet AMD caused by choroidal neovascularization. Attempts to obliterate the neovascular lesions often led to acute central visual loss and often, even with modest success, the lesions recurred with even more vision loss.

21 Jul 2015

MPI applications: an interview with Tobias Knopp, University Hospital Hamburg

Up to now, we've seen a lot of improvements made, but now we're almost at the point of focusing on the application of MPI and proving what the real benefits of this technology are, which is very exciting...

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 12 Jul 2015

Spotting the symptoms of advanced prostate cancer: an interview with Brian Tomlinson

The main symptoms of advanced prostate cancer can include (but are not limited to) difficulty walking or climbing steps, unexplained pain, troubled sleep and taking pain relievers daily.

From CancerCare 7 Jul 2015

Transitioning Infrared Imaging into Clinical Use

The CLIRSPEC network is a UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC – EP/L012952/1) funded network in clinical infrared and Raman spectroscopy. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy can identify the hallmarks of disease and distinguish between diseased and non-diseased samples based upon inherent chemistry.

From Daylight Solutions Inc 7 Jul 2015

The future of MPI: an interview with Dr Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, University Hospital Schleswig Holsten

I’m Dr Panagiotopoulos and I am a resident at the University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein. I work in the Radiological and Nuclear Medicine Department, at the Lübeck campus.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 5 Jul 2015

Angiography and MPI: an interview with Professor Mauro Magnani University of Urbino

I am Mauro Magnani, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Urbino, Italy. My background is essentially the transition of activity from the lab to application. I am also the founder of a spin-off company called EryDel, which uses technology to load materials or drugs inside cells.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 30 Jun 2015

Preclinical Magnetic Particle Imaging: an interview with Professor Jeff Bulte, Johns Hopkins

I'm Jeff Bulte, professor of Radiology and Director of Cellular Imaging at the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. I lead a group of about 20 to 25 people who focus their research on imaging cells.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 24 Jun 2015

Supporting healthcare technology SMEs: an interview with Gary Stapleton, Chairman, Medilink UK

We operate nationwide, giving advice and support to all of our members to allow them to develop and grow their businesses. We do this by giving bespoke support in areas such as innovation - from concept to commercialisation, public relations, international trade – including access to many export markets, market research and guidance on procurement as well as many other areas.

11 Jun 2015

Brain protein key to binge drinking? An interview with Dr. Candice Contet

Alcohol binge drinking is mostly driven by positive reinforcement, a process in which a rewarding experience (e.g., the euphoria one feels when intoxicated) strengthens the behaviour leading to this experience (e.g., going to a bar).

9 Jun 2015

Understanding the antimicrobial action of borrelidin: an interview with Dr Min Guo, TSRI

Borrelidin is a naturally occurring antibiotic isolated from the Streptomyces species and initially from Streptomyces rochei in 1949. It is called Borrelidin because it was firstly discovered as having anti-Borrelia activity. Borrelia is a type of bacteria...

27 May 2015