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Senators Harkin, Kennedy and Specter honored as champions of health research

The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, Research!America and the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation recognized these three senators for their continued support of research for health, their leadership and shared commitment to making it a high national priority, on Tuesday evening August 4th at the Russell Senate Office Building.

6 Aug 2009

States expand kids' coverage despite widespread health care budget cuts

lthough states are facing their worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression, 14 found the dollars this year to increase health coverage for about 250,000 children," Stateline/Finance and Commerce reports.

6 Aug 2009

Botanicals do not have an effect on hot flashes or on cognitive function in menopausal women

Two studies conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern University have found that commonly used botanicals do not have an effect on hot flashes or on cognitive function in menopausal women.

6 Aug 2009

Discovery of possible mechanisms to protect against genetic alterations, diseases

Peering into the DNA of tiny yeast, researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego and the San Diego Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research have pinpointed a large number of genes that can prevent a type of genetic rearrangement that may lead to cancer and other diseases.

6 Aug 2009

Stroke doubles patients' risk of breaking a hip or femur

Stroke survivors have about twice the risk of breaking a hip or femur compared to those without stroke - and the risk is even greater for younger patients, women and those with recent strokes, Dutch researchers report in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

6 Aug 2009

Discovery of a new Alzheimer's gene

A UC Irvine study has found that a gene called TOMM40 appears twice as often in people with Alzheimer's disease than in those without it. Alzheimer's, for which there is no cure, is the leading cause of elderly dementia.

6 Aug 2009

Discovery of common trigger in cancer and normal stem cell reproduction

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered, for the first time, a common molecular pathway that is used by both normal stem cells and cancer stem cells when they reproduce themselves.

6 Aug 2009

Parties trade barbs, refine messages over health care reform town hall events

Protesters at Democratic health care reform events during the Congressional recess are sparking controversy between Democrats and Republicans who are accusing each other of wrongdoing in the protests, ABC News reports.

6 Aug 2009

Total number of uninsured difficult to predict

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6 Aug 2009

Psoriasis sufferers at risk for other medical conditions

Emerging research reveals that people with psoriasis are at risk for developing other serious medical conditions including heart disease, diabetes and obesity. According to a new study by the National Psoriasis Foundation, of 5,000 people with psoriasis, nearly two-thirds report having at least one other critical health problem.

6 Aug 2009

Percutaneous vertebroplasty exposed as ineffective

A world-first study involving Monash University and the Cabrini Research Institute in Melbourne has revealed the injection of bone cement into broken vertebrae is not an effective treatment for patients suffering painful osteoporotic fractures.

6 Aug 2009

Senators move closer to centrist health reform bill

Lawmakers working on a bipartisan health care reform bill in the Senate Wednesday signed on some centrist Democrats who believe they could support the reform and sell it to constituents back home over the recess, The New York Times reports.

6 Aug 2009

GE Global Research Biosciences technology celebrated fifth anniversary

From creating a new business in digital pathology to developing next generation diagnostic imaging agents and life sciences tools that are breaking new ground in the detection and treatment of disease, the Biosciences technology organization at GE Global Research today celebrated its fifth anniversary.

6 Aug 2009

Nanotechnology helps scientists measure the forces that hold proteins together

Rice University physicists have written the next chapter in an innovative approach for studying the forces that shape proteins -- the biochemical workhorses of all living things.

6 Aug 2009

Genetic profiling of tumors could have 'immediate impact' on treating cancer

New work by MIT cancer biologists shows that the interplay between two key genes that are often defective in tumors determines how cancer cells respond to chemotherapy.

6 Aug 2009

Comparative effectiveness studies raise questions about vertebroplasty back pain treatment

New studies on treating back pain from a fractured spine could call more attention to the type of comparative effectiveness research health policy experts and President Barack Obama have embraced in their quest to increase quality of care while lowering costs.

6 Aug 2009

HIV genome decoded

"Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have decoded the entire HIV genome, opening the door to understanding how viruses infect humans – knowledge that could lead to new antiviral drugs," the Triangle Business Journal reports. The building block of HIV is a single stranded RNA, not a double stranded DNA (Gallagher, 8/6).

6 Aug 2009

President Obama hosts Senate 'gang of six' at the White House for a health reform update

President Barack Obama's Thursday meeting with six members of the Finance Committee was just an opportunity for an update and was not a "negotiating session," the White House said, according to The Associated Press (8/6).

6 Aug 2009

Discovery of cells responsible for bladder cancer spread

Johns Hopkins scientists have tracked down a powerful set of cells in bladder tumors that seem to be primarily responsible for the cancer's growth and spread using a technique that takes advantage of similarities between tumor and organ growth. The findings, reported in the July Stem Cells, could help scientists develop new ways of finding and attacking similar cells in other types of cancer.

6 Aug 2009

Health reform still worth fighting for

The news about health care is a little confusing these days. While polls show that Americans still support the key elements of health care reform that President Obama and his allies are trying to enact, there have been numerous reports of conservative activists showing up at congressional town halls across the country, protesting those same plans with an energy not matched by the other side.

6 Aug 2009