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Aggressive medical treatment without stenting better for high-risk stroke patients

An article appearing in the Sept. 7 New England Journal of Medicine, reporting on National Institutes of Health research on brain stents, says aggressive medical treatment without stenting is better for high-risk stroke patients.

8 Sep 2011

Scientists discover backup circuits in cetuximab-resistant cancer cells

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and colleagues overseas have discovered a pair of backup circuits in cancer cells that enable the cells to dodge the effect of a widely used cancer drug.

8 Sep 2011

Capsules: Deficit hawk or dove? Enzi's autism stance

On Kaiser Health News' news blog, Phil Galewitz examines Sen. Mike Enzi's efforts to provide federal funds for autism research, even as the Wyoming Republican calls for major budget cuts.

8 Sep 2011

Abnormal levels of lysophosphatidic acid can trigger congenital hydrocephalus

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found what may be a major cause of congenital hydrocephalus, one of the most common neurological disorders of childhood that produces mental debilitation and sometimes death in premature and newborn children.

8 Sep 2011

Pharnext puts together €2.5M to fund development of Pleodrug for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Pharnext SAS, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative treatments based on Pleotherapy for severe neurological diseases, today announced that it has put together a €2.5 million round of financing (corresponding to a pre-money company valuation of €60 million).

8 Sep 2011

Medical students may act on unconscious racial preferences

New Johns Hopkins research shows that medical students — just like the general American population — may have unconscious if not overt preferences for white people, but this innate bias does not appear to translate into different or lesser health care of other races.

8 Sep 2011

Kansas doctors to request rollback of new regulations; anti-abortion group backs Ohio amendment

Two physicians who sued over new state regulations targeting abortion providers were set to ask Kansas health officials Wednesday to scrap the requirements, which they argue are "medically unnecessary" and designed to put operations like theirs out of business. Herbert Hodes and his daughter, Traci Nauser, a fellow suburban Kansas City doctor, submitted a statement ahead of a public hearing by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

8 Sep 2011

Pall inaugurates new Singapore Life Sciences Centre of Excellence

Pall Corporation, a global leader in filtration, separation and purification, today inaugurated its Pall Life Sciences Centre of Excellence in Singapore, the latest addition to the company's global customer support network.

From Pall Corporation 8 Sep 2011

Cyclic proteins transport drugs faster

Biologists at the Technische Universität Darmstadt have discovered means for speeding the transport of the active ingredients of drugs into live cells that might allow drastically reducing drug dosages in the future.

8 Sep 2011

Inhibition of Sab protein protects liver from acetaminophen toxicity

New research from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) may help prevent damage to the liver caused by drugs like acetaminophen and other stressors.

8 Sep 2011

Judge halts implementation of La. Medicaid managed care plan

A state judge, granting the request of Aetna Inc., has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals from implementing its plan to shift more than 800,000 Medicaid recipients and their $2.2 billion in claims to private insurers.

8 Sep 2011

Exercise, intervention may help individuals with peripheral arterial disease

Peripheral arterial disease, or PAD, is a common condition affecting 12-20 percent of Americans age 65 and older that may be a signal of future heart attack and stroke-and many with the disease may be unaware they have it, says the Society of Interventional Radiology.

8 Sep 2011

Scientists invent new system that uses magnetism to purify hybrid nanoparticles

A team of Penn State University scientists has invented a new system that uses magnetism to purify hybrid nanoparticles -- structures that are composed of two or more kinds of materials in an extremely small particle that is visible only with an electron microscope.

8 Sep 2011

Mass. Eye and Ear receives NIAID grant to coordinate Harvard-wide Project on Antibiotic Resistance

The Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary has received an $11 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the largest National Institutes of Health grant in this hospital's187-year history, to coordinate the Harvard-wide Project on Antibiotic Resistance.

8 Sep 2011

Study: Protein's structural arrangement can change its signaling function

In a joint study, scientists from the California and Florida campuses of The Scripps Research Institute have shown that changes in a protein's structure can change its signaling function and they have pinpointed the precise regions where those changes take place.

8 Sep 2011

Women struggling to find truly free health care in Sierra Leone's system, Amnesty International report says

"Sierra Leone's free health care plan for pregnant women and young children is dysfunctional and hobbled by corruption and a lack of accountability," according to a report released Tuesday by Amnesty International, Agence France-Presse reports.

8 Sep 2011

Adding azithromycin to usual daily treatment for COPD reduces acute exacerbations by 27%

Richard Casaburi, Ph.D., M.D., principal investigator at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed), is co-author of a recent study that should help improve the condition for the millions of individuals who suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, better known as COPD.

8 Sep 2011

First-ever comprehensive study of species origins of nature-derived drugs

In a first-ever comprehensive study of the species origins of nature-derived drugs, it is shown that drug-producing species are concentrated and clustered in a limited number of families, refuting the conventional view that as every nature species produces biologically active molecules, one can find drugs from almost any major block of species groups if one looks for them hard enough.

8 Sep 2011

FDA to review bone drugs; CDC reports parasite may be a risk to blood supply

Two advisory panels of the Food and Drug Administration will consider on Friday whether to recommend requiring women who use popular bone drugs like Fosamax to take "drug holidays" because of rising concerns about rare side effects with long-term use, according to people involved in the review.

7 Sep 2011

Researchers rethink fenretinide for prevention of oral cancer

Scientists on the cutting edge of biomedical research know that research is a process - a combination of successes and failures that inform the next step forward. However, for some researchers at The Ohio State University progress means taking a step back. Supported by the Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), these scientists are using failed and forgotten research to uncover future treatments for major health conditions as diverse as oral cancer and stroke.

7 Sep 2011