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MSU students analyze bones for clues into Nubians' diets, health histories and lifestyles

In a narrow, modest laboratory in Michigan State University's Giltner Hall, students pore over African skeletons from the Middle Ages in an effort to make the bones speak. Little is known about these Nubians, meaning the information collected by graduate and undergraduate students in MSU's Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Program will help shed light on this unexplored culture.

24 Feb 2012

NHS approves new rheumatoid arthritis drug RoActemra

RoActemra, which is the first innovation in the field for ten years, is being recommended for patients who have failed on standard treatments. It is the first time RoActemra has been approved for NHS patients in England and Wales with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis who are at an early stage in the disease. The drug has been available for early use in Scotland for two years.

23 Feb 2012

Circadian rhythm can influence a heart attack

Researchers have found that a biological clock can influence a heart attack. The risk of “sudden cardiac death” peaks in the morning and rises again in the evening as shown in lab animals.

23 Feb 2012

New Fort Collins and Loveland medical offices for Kaiser Permanente Colorado

Kaiser Permanente Colorado, the state's largest non-profit health plan, has announced the locations of its new medical office buildings opening this fall in Fort Collins and Loveland.

23 Feb 2012

Supreme Court sends California Medicaid case back to Court of Appeals

The Supreme Court sent back to a lower court a case on whether Medicaid recipients and medical providers can sue California for cutting reimbursement rates in the healthcare program for low-income Americans. ... The case involved a plan by California's lawmakers in 2008 to slash Medicaid payments to doctors, hospitals and other medical providers to help reduce the state's massive budget deficit.

23 Feb 2012

High-tech human patient simulation bolsters faculty teaching capacity and enhances clinical learning

To address the faculty shortage problem, schools of nursing are reexamining how they provide clinical education to undergraduate students to find ways to use faculty resources more efficiently so they can maintain student enrollment and meet the future need for nurses.

23 Feb 2012

U-M Cardiovascular Center now offers Edwards aortic valve replacement

As the population ages, more Americans will be susceptible to aortic stenosis, but not all patients can tolerate surgery to treat it. Select U.S. hospitals are now performing minimally invasive procedures called transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, to replace a patient's diseased aortic valve without heart bypass or open heart surgery.

From Medtronic 23 Feb 2012

Scientists employ metagenomics to identify new possible antibiotics against MRSA

Scientists are reporting use of a new technology for sifting through the world's largest remaining pool of potential antibiotics to discover two new antibiotics that work against deadly resistant microbes, including the "super bugs" known as MRSA. Their report appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

23 Feb 2012

Elevated levels of two TLRs can trigger heart disease and diabetes

UC Davis scientists have uncovered a key suspect in the destructive inflammation that underlies heart disease and diabetes. The new research shows elevated levels of a receptor present on leucocytes of the innate immune response in people at risk for these chronic diseases.

23 Feb 2012

Inven2, OGT enter license agreement for 12 colorectal cancer biomarkers

Oxford Gene Technology (OGT), provider of innovative clinical genetics and diagnostic solutions to advance molecular medicine, announced today that it has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Inven2, the technology transfer office at Oslo University Hospital (OUS) and University of Oslo (UiO), for 12 highly promising colorectal cancer tissue biomarkers.

From Oxford Gene Technology 23 Feb 2012

WoW improves cognitive function among the elderly

For some older adults, the online video game World of Warcraft (WoW) may provide more than just an opportunity for escapist adventure. Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that playing WoW actually boosted cognitive functioning for older adults - particularly those adults who had scored poorly on cognitive ability tests before playing the game.

23 Feb 2012

Novel test identifies toxic foods which, when avoided, will help lose weight

Why did Oprah say, "I hope he can show me how to stop craving potato chips" during her Tony Robbins' segment this week? Does she really think that her potato chip binging and craving causes all of her weight fluctuations? Researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine may have the answer hidden in a novel laboratory test called a Bloodprint® and published this month in the Journal of Obesity and Weight Loss Therapy.

23 Feb 2012

Researchers discover how mTOR protein leads to cancer metastasis

Uncovering the network of genes regulated by a crucial molecule involved in cancer called mTOR, which controls protein production inside cells, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered how a protein "master regulator" goes awry, leading to metastasis, the fatal step of cancer.

23 Feb 2012

Laboratory Supply Company raises $16,000 to benefit Kosair Children's Hospital

Laboratory Supply Company (LABSCO), the largest privately held supplier of diagnostic instrumentation and clinical laboratory products to hospitals, physician office laboratories, reference labs and other non-acute care settings in the United States, raised more than $16,000 to benefit Kosair Children's Hospital through the Children's Hospital Foundation.

23 Feb 2012

Targeting versican protein may help stop breast cancer metastasis

Oncologists have known that in order for cancer cells to spread, they must transform themselves so they can detach from a tumor and spread to a distant organ. Now, scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College have revealed critical steps in what happens next -- how these cells reverse the process, morphing back into classical cancer that can now grow into a new tumor.

23 Feb 2012

First-ever comparative analysis of antimalarial medicines at every step of the parasite's life cycle

MMV and partners have completed the first-ever comparative analysis of all currently available and in-development antimalarials in terms of the steps they target in the parasite's lifecycle. This information provides the missing pieces of the puzzle needed to develop future medicines able to block transmission of the parasite from person to person.

23 Feb 2012

Chemists build light-controlled neural inhibitor

The notion of a pain switch is an alluring idea, but is it realistic? Well, chemists at LMU Munich, in collaboration with colleagues in Berkeley and Bordeaux, have now shown in laboratory experiments that it is possible to inhibit the activity of pain-sensitive neurons using an agent that acts as a photosensitive switch. For the LMU researchers, the method primarily represents a valuable tool for probing the neurobiology of pain.

23 Feb 2012

Dyax fourth quarter total revenues decrease to $8.5 million

Dyax Corp. today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2011.

22 Feb 2012

China's SFDA approves Dynex DS2 ELISA analyzer

Dynex Technologies announced today it has received approval from China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) to market the DS2 automated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) analyzer in China.

From Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 22 Feb 2012

First use of HeartLight Endoscopic Ablation System to treat atrial fibrillation

For the first time in a new U.S. clinical trial, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have used the HeartLight Endoscopic Ablation System (EAS) to correct abnormal electrical signals inside the heart of a patient affected by atrial fibrillation (AFib), one of the nation's most common heart ailments.

22 Feb 2012