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UCSF awarded grant of $2.7M for collaborative project aimed at reducing premature births

UC San Francisco has been awarded a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant of $2.7 million over three years for a collaborative project aimed at reducing premature births.

29 Jan 2014

VISIUS iMRI and ClearPoint guidance platform make DBS surgery an option for children with dystonia

IMRIS Inc. and MRI Interventions, Inc. today announced that Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, is the first U.S. pediatric hospital to offer asleep deep brain stimulation surgery to children suffering from dystonia by utilizing the combination of MRI Interventions' ClearPoint Neuro Intervention System and an IMRIS VISIUS Surgical Theatre for real-time intraoperative image guidance and procedure visualization.

4 Dec 2013

Researchers engineering first-ever living, three-dimensional human arrhythmic tissue

A foundational study published in top biomedical journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) this week by researchers at the University of Toronto's Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering and the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine have identified the optimal structure and cell ratio associated with heart function - and the discovery has already led the team to another research first: the engineering of the first-ever living, three-dimensional human arrhythmic tissue.

21 Nov 2013

Boston Scientific gets CE Mark approval for Vercise Deep Brain Stimulation System

The Boston Scientific Corporation Vercise Deep Brain Stimulation System has received CE Mark approval for the treatment of intractable primary and secondary dystonia, a neurological movement disorder characterized by involuntary muscle contractions.

19 Nov 2013

Mount Sinai researchers successfully test SUMO-1 gene therapy to reverse heart failure

Researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have successfully tested a powerful gene therapy, delivered directly into the heart, to reverse heart failure in large animal models.

14 Nov 2013

New headpiece can improve brain stimulation technique to treat depression

A brain stimulation technique that is used to treat tough cases of depression could be considerably improved with a new headpiece designed by University of Michigan engineers.

30 Oct 2013

Increased risk caused by smoking is completely reversed after smoking cessation

Dr Dohi said: "Smokers are twice as likely to have a heart attack as people who have never smoked. Quitting smoking is the most important thing people can do to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease. But until now, studies have not examined whether the increased risk caused by smoking is completely reversed after smoking cessation."

4 Sep 2013

Botox also treats facial nerve disorders that occur after Bell's palsy

Botox is best known as a cosmetic treatment for frown lines, but the drug also effectively treats the after effects of Bell's palsy and other serious facial nerve problems.

28 Aug 2013

Drug oxytocin may contribute to postpartum bleeding, researchers find

With the number of maternal deaths on the rise in the United States, researchers found that a drug frequently used to augment or induce labor may contribute to postpartum bleeding, a study in the September issue of Anesthesiology notes.

22 Aug 2013

New book on evolution and future of human reproduction

Human beings would probably be known as pilosals rather than mammals if Carl Linnaeus had not been a proponent of breast-feeding. For social and political reasons, the famed taxonomist labeled the class of animals to which humans belong with a reference to their practice of suckling their young rather than to their evolutionarily older characteristic of having hair.

21 Aug 2013

Augmentation during childbirth appears to be linked with increased odds of autism

An analysis of North Carolina birth and educational records suggests that induction (stimulating uterine contractions prior to the onset of spontaneous labor) and augmentation (increasing the strength, duration, or frequency of uterine contractions with spontaneous onset of labor) during childbirth appears to be associated with increased odds of autism diagnosis in childhood, according to a study by Simon G. Gregory, Ph.D., of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., and colleagues.

13 Aug 2013

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

AHCF to fund additional research into cure for Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood

Due to a generous donation of $169,000 by a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, the Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood Foundation will fund additional research through Vanderbilt University, bringing them closer to a cure for Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood.

9 Jul 2013

Experts report lasting benefits of deep brain stimulation in patients with hereditary dystonia

In what is believed to be the largest follow-up record of patients with the most common form of hereditary dystonia - a movement disorder that can cause crippling muscle contractions - experts in deep brain stimulation report good success rates and lasting benefits.

20 Jun 2013

University researchers investigate the role of corticosterone in signaling fetal distress

A University of Calgary researcher has identified how a steroid hormone may indicate infant distress during labour and delivery. The study, published by PLOS ONE this month, suggests that a full-term, healthy baby preferentially secretes a different stress hormone than its mother does. That stress hormone, corticosterone, has not been previously studied in human development.

18 Jun 2013

Study: Infants secrete different stress hormone than their mothers during labor and delivery

During labor and delivery, infants preferentially secrete a different stress hormone than their mothers do, according to a new clinical study. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco and published in the open access journal, PLoS One.

18 Jun 2013

15 minute walk after each meal appears to reduce risk of type 2 diabetes

A fifteen minute walk after each meal appears to help older people regulate blood sugar levels and could reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a new study by researchers at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS).

12 Jun 2013

Obesity and maternal overweight during pregnancy linked to highest risk of preterm deliveries

In a study that included more than 1.5 million deliveries in Sweden, maternal overweight and obesity during pregnancy were associated with increased risk for preterm delivery, with the highest risks observed for extremely preterm deliveries, according to a study in the June 12 issue of JAMA.

12 Jun 2013

Brandeis University professor receives 2013 Neuroscience Prize for pioneering contributions in neural circuits

Eve Marder, PhD, a professor of neuroscience at Brandeis University, is the recipient of the 2013 Neuroscience Prize of The Gruber Foundation. Marder is being honored with this prestigious international award for her pioneering contributions to the understanding of neural circuits, particularly how the properties and dynamics of neural circuits give rise to specific behaviors.

11 Jun 2013

Discovery raises hope for severe forms of human epilepsy

Epilepsy that does not respond to drugs can be halted in adult mice by transplanting a specific type of cell into the brain, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered, raising hope that a similar treatment might work in severe forms of human epilepsy.

5 May 2013