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Expectations high for Obama's 'Major Address' to Congress on health reform

President Obama plans to address Congress on Wednesday, only a day after lawmakers return from their August break, to spell out in detail his vision for overhauling health care, The Associated Press reports. The move signals that "Democrats have all but given up hope for a bipartisan breakthrough by Senate Finance Committee negotiators," because that committee - the only one seeking across-the-aisle compromise - had been given a Sept. 15 deadline.

4 Sep 2009

Postpartum depression affects mother-infant relationship

The joys of motherhood for many women can also lead other new moms to experience postpartum depression and even worse - ideas for committing suicide.

4 Sep 2009

Systematic method for improving the stability of antibodies

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have developed a systematic method to improve the stability of antibodies. The technique could lead to better biosensors, disease therapeutics and diagnostic reagents and non-laboratory applications, including environmental remediation.

4 Sep 2009

New center to study mathematical modeling of drug resistance and internention to be established at HSPH

A new center that will focus on mathematical modeling of drug resistance, seasonal infectious diseases, and intervention allocation will be established at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).

4 Sep 2009

New treatment for vaso-occlusive crisis in sickle cell patients

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (GMI), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing a new class of glycobiology-based therapies for a broad range of indications, today announced that a pilot study of the company’s lead candidate, GMI-1070, is underway in sickle cell patients. The first patients in this pilot study were treated at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland in California.

4 Sep 2009

Brown University neuroscience professor awarded EUREKA grant

Brown University neuroscience professor Gilad Barnea will receive a nearly $1.3 million, four-year federal grant toward development of a method to selectively monitor the activation of each of the five receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain.

4 Sep 2009

Also in global health news: Africa measles eradication; water, food security in South Asia; MDR-TB in Mumbai; SADC summit; U.S. Cuba embargo

WHO Regional Director for Africa Luis Gomes Sambo said Tuesday during the 59th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, that measles could be eradicated from the continent by 2020, citing an 89 percent reduction in the number of deaths caused by measles between 2000 and 2007, Angencia AngolaPress reports.

4 Sep 2009

Communal nesting may provide evolutionary advantage for reptiles

Reptiles are not known to be the most social of creatures. But when it comes to laying eggs, female reptiles can be remarkably communal, often laying their eggs in the nests of other females. New research in the September issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology suggests that this curiously out-of-character behavior is far more common in reptiles than was previously thought.

4 Sep 2009

Vaccinating women against HPV prevents breast cancer

Vaccinating women against the human papillomavirus (HPV) may prevent some forms of breast cancer and save tens of thousands of lives each year, new Australian research suggests.

4 Sep 2009

FOXO3a protein stimulates cancer development

In a biological rendition of fiction's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, researchers from the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida and Harvard Medical School have found that a protein thought to protect against cancer development can actually spur the spread of tumors.

4 Sep 2009

NCI renews SPORE grant for the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer

National Cancer Institute (NCI) has renewed a $11.5 million Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer, which supports multidisciplinary research at Fox Chase Cancer Center and the University of Pennsylvania. First approved in 1999, this marks the third five-year term for the Fox Chase-Penn Ovarian SPORE.

4 Sep 2009

Genetic cause of progressive hearing loss discovered

A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has discovered a genetic cause of progressive hearing loss. The findings will help scientists better understand the nature of age-related decline in hearing and may lead to new therapies to prevent or treat the condition.

4 Sep 2009

Groups unite for health care reform

Lobbying on health care increases and, despite differences, drug makers and consumer groups unite to push for their version of health care reform.

4 Sep 2009

Adding screens to homes can cut malaria risk, study says

A study conducted in the Republic of The Gambia found that adding screens to the windows and doors of houses can help reduce the number of malaria-carrying mosquitoes inside and prevent anaemia in children, CBCnews.ca reports (9/2).

4 Sep 2009

Brain screening tests may do more harm than good

Researchers warn that paid-for brain scans - increasingly popular with healthy people who want to allay fears about undiagnosed brain cancer and stroke - may do more harm than good.

4 Sep 2009

Type 2 diabetic people not consuming healthy diets

People with type 2 diabetes are not consuming sufficiently healthy diets and could benefit from ongoing nutritional education and counseling, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.

4 Sep 2009

LearningRx teaches parents on how to improve their kids' attention

September is National Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Awareness Month. And, more than 60 LearningRx franchisees are showing parents how to increase the three types of attention skills.

4 Sep 2009

Two new antibodies for targeting HIV virus discovered

Researchers at and associated with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), at The Scripps Research Institute, and at the biotechnology companies Theraclone Sciences and Monogram Biosciences have discovered two powerful new antibodies to HIV that reveal what may be an Achilles heel on the virus. They published their work in Science this week.

3 Sep 2009

Y chromosome may be responsible for a range of sex disorders

The unique mechanism behind the evolutionary survival of the human Y chromosome may also be responsible for a range of sex disorders, from failed sperm production to sex reversal to Turner Syndrome.

3 Sep 2009

ROS in cells contributes to aging

With all the hype about beneficial antioxidants in everything from face cream to cereal bars, you'd think their targets---oxygen radicals---must be up to no good. It's true, the buildup of oxygen radicals and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells contributes to aging and possibly to diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's.

3 Sep 2009