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Gold nanofibers in engineered heart tissue can enhance electrical signalling, find researchers

Heart tissue sustains irreparable damage in the wake of a heart attack. Because cells in the heart cannot multiply and the cardiac muscle contains few stem cells, the tissue is unable to repair itself - it becomes fibrotic and cannot contract properly.

18 Jul 2013

Scientists develop histology expression predictor for most common types of lung cancer

Knowing what type of lung cancer a patient has is critical to determine which drug will work best and which therapies are safest in the era of personalized medicine. Key to making that judgment is an adequate tumor specimen for the pathologist to determine the tumor's histology, a molecular description of a tumor based on the appearance of cells under a microscope.

17 Jul 2013

Scientists discover new details of biochemical interactions necessary for cell division

Building on earlier work exploring the complex choreography by which intricate cellular proteins interact with and copy DNA prior to cell division, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have captured a key step-molecular images showing how the enzyme that unwinds the DNA double helix gets drawn to and wrapped around its target.

15 Jul 2013

Research: Sharp edged graphene sheets can easily pierce cell membranes

Researchers from Brown University have shown how tiny graphene microsheets - ultra-thin materials with a number of commercial applications - could be big trouble for human cells.

12 Jul 2013

New method to identify pathogenic strains that cause pneumonia

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and George Washington University (GWU) have developed a method to rapidly identify pathogenic species and strains causing illnesses, such as pneumonia, that could help lead to earlier detection of disease outbreaks and pinpoint effective treatments more quickly.

11 Jul 2013

NIH awards Shared Instrumentation Grant to install 3D X-ray microscope at Creighton University

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have awarded Mohammed Akhter, Ph.D., P.E., professor of medicine at Creighton University School of Medicine and director of the biomechanics laboratory at the Osteoporosis Research Center, a nearly $600,000 Shared Instrumentation Grant to install the area's first high-resolution 3D X-ray Microscope, the Xradia MicroXCT-200.

11 Jul 2013

State highlights: Docs prescribe narcotics too often, CDC chief says; Fla. hospices get close scrutiny; Calif. Medi-Cal provider rate bump delayed

The nation's top public health official on Tuesday sharply criticized the widespread treatment of aches and pains with narcotics, saying that doctors are prescribing such drugs too soon, too often and for too long -- putting patients at risk of addiction and overdose. Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that doctors are relying on these powerful drugs to treat chronic pain when physical therapy, exercise and other remedies would be safer and in many cases more effective (Girion and Glover, 7/2).

4 Jul 2013

State highlights: Dartmouth joins N.H. Medicaid managed care

New Hampshire's largest health care provider signed contracts Monday with three health care plans to join the state's managed care network for Medicaid -- a key to getting the network operating. Dartmouth-Hitchcock announced it will work with Well Sense Health Plan, Granite State Health Plan and Meridian Health Plan of New Hampshire to provide coordinated care for eligible Medicaid beneficiaries (Love, 7/1).

3 Jul 2013

Scientists find new links in gene networks that control movement

The idea that worms can be seen as waveforms allowed scientists at Rice University to find new links in gene networks that control movement.

2 Jul 2013

Test-based approach of WHO unsuitable for regions where lot of malaria occurs: Research

In view of the sharp rise in treatment costs of malaria, the World Health Organization says that there must be a hard diagnosis before the disease is treated.

29 Jun 2013

Newly developed palm-sized microarray platform could enable faster, more efficient drug discovery

A new palm-sized microarray that holds 1,200 individual cultures of fungi or bacteria could enable faster, more efficient drug discovery, according to a study published in mBio-, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

25 Jun 2013

Treating bacteria with silver compounds boosts efficacy of old antibiotics

Slipping bacteria some silver could give old antibiotics new life, scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reported June 19 in Science Translational Medicine.

20 Jun 2013

New chemical probe confirms that hydrogen sulfide is generated by body's growing cells.

A new study confirms directly what scientists previously knew only indirectly: The poisonous "rotten egg" gas hydrogen sulfide is generated by our body's growing cells.

19 Jun 2013

KSU researcher receives prestigious fellowship to research on mosquitoes, malaria

A Kansas State University research associate has received a prestigious fellowship to support his research on mosquitoes and ways to prevent the spread of malaria.

18 Jun 2013

Researchers use patient-specific stem cells to correct deficient insulin-producing cells

A team from the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center of Columbia University has generated patient-specific beta cells, or insulin-producing cells, that accurately reflect the features of maturity-onset diabetes of the young.

18 Jun 2013

Nervous system and nerve-growth factor play major role in arthritis

Arthritis is a debilitating disorder affecting one in 10 Canadians, with pain caused by inflammation and damage to joints.

14 Jun 2013

Study unravels cause of hearing loss in humans

A novel genetic mutation was first identified in 2010 as causing hearing loss in humans. Researchers have now discovered that this mutation induces malfunction of an inhibitor of an enzyme commonly found in our body that destroys proteins.

13 Jun 2013

UCLA study shows progesterone can be used as therapy for endometrial cancer

Progesterone, a female hormone that can be used as a therapy for endometrial cancer, eliminates tumor cells indirectly by binding to its receptor in stromal or connective tissue cells residing in the tumor microenvironment, according to a study from the G.O. Discovery Lab team and collaborators at UCLA.

11 Jun 2013

Researchers demonstrate how young genes acquire essential functions

Researchers from UConn and other institutions in the U.S. and abroad have shown how a relatively young gene can acquire a new function and become essential to an organism's life.

7 Jun 2013

Research demonstrates need for development of new treatments for regeneration of nerve cells

Researchers at the University of Michigan have evidence that a single gene controls both halves of nerve cells, and their research demonstrates the need to consider that design in the development of new treatments for regeneration of nerve cells.

5 Jun 2013