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Study looks at physician perspectives on surrogate decision making

Family members are often called upon to make medical choices for patients who are unable to do so themselves. Researchers led by Alexia Torke, M.D., of the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, Inc., studied how physicians treating these patients interacted with surrogate decision-makers.

18 Aug 2008

Multi-agency approach needed to help street-based sex workers break the 'work-score-use' cycle

Integrated multi-agency work will be needed to address the poor physical and mental health experienced by street-based sex workers (SSWs), according to recent research including a new study by Bristol University.

18 Aug 2008

Antidepressants can affect a person's driving ability

A new study has raised serious concerns about how some people prescribed antidepressants are affected by the drugs.

18 Aug 2008

Antibodies to 1918 flu pandemic may provide means to tackle bird flu threat

Scientists in the United States have discovered that elderly survivors of the original 1918 flu pandemic, still have immunity to the virus.

18 Aug 2008

Moisturisers may increase the risk of skin cancer

In news that will make many women wonder and no doubt make some panic, scientists are now warning that the moisturisers used by millions every day may be increasing their risk of developing skin cancers.

18 Aug 2008

Young women who smoke significantly increase their risk of a stroke

New research from scientists in the U.S. has found that the risk of younger women having a stroke is double if they smoke and if they are heavy smokers they have nine times the stroke risk.

18 Aug 2008

Breakthrough drug FT-11 has the potential to end the need for dialysis in kidney disease

Australian scientists say they have developed a drug with the potential to save millions of lives from kidney disease.

18 Aug 2008

Researchers warn of heart risks from energy drinks

Recent research from both Australia and the United States has raised questions about energy drinks and says they may be harmful to some people.

17 Aug 2008

Variation in Ankyrin 3 gene shows strong association with bipolar disorder

The largest genetic analysis of its kind to date for bipolar disorder has implicated machinery involved in the balance of sodium and calcium in brain cells. Researchers supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, found an association between the disorder and variation in two genes that make components of channels that manage the flow of the elements into and out of cells, including neurons.

17 Aug 2008

Researchers create synthetic heparin

Robert Linhardt has spent years stitching together minuscule carbohydrates to build a more pure and safer alternative to the commonly used and controversial blood thinner heparin. At the national conference of the American Chemical Society on August 17, 2008, Linhardt announced that his research team may have accomplished this task by building the first fully synthetic heparin. Their creation is the largest dose of heparin ever created in the lab.

17 Aug 2008

Antidepressants may impair driving ability

People taking prescription antidepressants appear to drive worse than people who aren't taking such drugs, and depressed people on antidepressants have even more trouble concentrating and reacting behind the wheel.

17 Aug 2008

Spice-based compound to fight against cancer

Seeking to improve on nature, scientists used a spice-based compound as a starting point and developed synthetic molecules that, in lab settings, are able to kill cancer cells and stop the cells from spreading.

17 Aug 2008

Hyaluronic hydrogels provide scaffolding for growth of bone cells

Hyaluronic hydrogels developed by Carnegie Mellon University researchers may provide a suitable scaffolding to enable bone regeneration.

17 Aug 2008

Alternative vaccine strategy shows promise in prostate cancer patients

New research indicates that giving patients a continuous low dose of an immune system booster, a method known as metronomic dosing, as part of a therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine strategy is safe and produces similar immune responses and fewer side effects than the more common dosing method, which is not well tolerated by many patients. This study, led by researchers at that National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, was published in the Aug. 15, 2008, issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

17 Aug 2008

Cancer signatures uncovered

A new systematic analysis of the relationship between the neoplastic and developmental transcriptome provides an outline of trends in cancer gene expression. The research, published recently in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology, describes how cancers can be divided into three groups distinguished by disparate developmental signatures.

17 Aug 2008

By amplifying cell death signals, scientists make precancerous cells self-destruct

When a cell begins to multiply in a dangerously abnormal way, a series of death signals trigger it to self-destruct before it turns cancerous. Now, in research to appear in the August 15 issue of Genes & Development, Rockefeller University scientists have figured out a way in mice to amplify the signals that tell these precancerous cells to die. The trick: Inactivating a protein that normally helps cells to avoid self-destruction.

17 Aug 2008

Sngle-walled carbon nanotubes used as cancer drug delivery vehicles

The problem with using a shotgun to kill a housefly is that even if you get the pest, you'll likely do a lot of damage to your home in the process. Hence the value of the more surgical flyswatter.

14 Aug 2008

Psychological stress and how it might affect allergy sufferers

A new study here shows that even slight stress and anxiety can substantially worsen a person's allergic reaction to some routine allergens.

14 Aug 2008

Chronic ear infections linked to increased preference for high-fat foods

Ear infections are a painful rite of passage for many children. New research suggests the damage caused by chronic ear infections could be linked to people's preference for fatty foods, which increases their risk of being overweight as they age. Scientists from around the country presented their findings on this unexpected connection at the American Psychological Association's 116th Annual Convention here Thursday.

14 Aug 2008

New model for studying the genetics of Angelman syndrome

A model for studying the genetics of Angelman syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes mental retardation and other symptoms in one out of 15,000 births, has been developed by biologists at The University of Texas at Austin.

14 Aug 2008