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Cancer Research UK creates 'crack teams' to solve cancer's greatest mysteries

World leading scientists are to be targeted by Cancer Research UK and its development and commercialisation arm Cancer Research Technology (CRT), in an effort to tackle some of cancer's most pressing scientific challenges.

28 May 2008

Scientists sequence first female DNA

Geneticists of Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) are the first to determine the DNA sequence of a woman. She is also the first European whose DNA sequence has been determined. This has been announced by the researchers this morning, during a special press conference at 'Bessensap', a yearly meeting of scientists and the press in the Netherlands.

27 May 2008

febit receives U.S. patent for microfluidic extraction method

febit today announced the receipt of US patent #7320862 on its microfluidic microarray-based method for extraction of DNA and RNA.

27 May 2008

Digital Healthcare appointed to major NHS Framework contract

NHS Connecting for Health, on behalf of the NHS, has appointed Digital Healthcare to the NHS Additional Supply Capability & Capacity (ASCC) Framework following open competition bids to provide additional capacity and capability in the supply of IT products and services to the NHS.

27 May 2008

Molecular fingerprint of cocaine addiction revealed

The first large-scale analysis of proteins in the brains of monkeys addicted to cocaine reveals new information on how long-term cocaine use changes the amount and activity of various proteins affecting brain function.

27 May 2008

New cheaper method for mapping disease genes

Scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have developed a new DNA-sequencing method that is much cheaper than those currently in use in laboratories. They hope that this new method will make it possible to map disease genes in large patient groups, which in turn can mean quicker breakthroughs for new treatments for a wide variety of diseases.

26 May 2008

Bone repair using patient's stem cells comes closer

Hitherto it has been difficult to induce adult human stem cells to produce bone, e.g. in order to repair bone tissue. Researchers at the University of Twente have shown that if the enzyme PKA is previously activated in the stem cells in the lab, following implantation this results in substantial bone formation.

26 May 2008

Monitoring blood flow helps improve prostate biopsies

Using a special ultrasound technique to spot areas of blood flow in the prostate gland may substantially reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies, according to a new study by urologists and radiologists at the Jefferson Prostate Diagnostic Center and the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson in Philadelphia.

26 May 2008

Scientists back the use of maize as an efficient 'factory' for protein-based pharmaceutical products

Scientists from the Universidad de Lleida (University of Lleida) have published a study confirming that maize seeds are an effective and sure platform within molecular agriculture to alleviate diseases. Over the next few years AIDS could be one of the first diseases to benefit from these results, although regulations for this technology are being developed at the same time as research is being undertaken.

25 May 2008

Embryonic pathway delivers stem cell traits

Studies of how cancer cells spread have led to a surprising discovery about the creation of cells with adult stem cell characteristics, offering potentially major implications for regenerative medicine and for cancer treatment.

25 May 2008

How cells size up their growth opportunities

The intricate mechanisms that switch cell growth on and off are regulated by mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) protein complexes, which sense nutrients within the cell. When amino-acids are abundant, the protein complexes promote cellular growth, and when nutrients are scarce they signal that hard times are ahead to the cell. But just how nutrients regulate mTOR signaling to control size has remained a mystery. Now, scientists in the lab of Whitehead Member David Sabatini have found the first step in the process.

25 May 2008

CBO finds health IT unlikely to generate significant savings

Health information technology by itself is unlikely to produce the significant cost savings projected by economic analysts and policymakers, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

22 May 2008

Fluorescent 'barcodes' called nanostrings could revolutionise diagnostics

A new technology with research and clinical application including the early detection of disease has been invented and developed by University of Queensland researchers.

From NanoString Technologies 22 May 2008

Research shows protecting p53 from degradation also defends metastasis-promoter

Efforts to protect the tumor-suppressor p53 could just as easily shelter a mutant version of the protein, causing cancer cells to thrive and spread rather than die, according to research by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reported in the current issue of the journal Genes and Development.

22 May 2008

Real-time observation of the DNA-repair mechanism

For the first time, researchers at Delft University of Technology have witnessed the spontaneous repair of damage to DNA molecules in real time.

22 May 2008

Rep. Ryan proposes plan to reduce entitlement spending, revise health care system

A "growing, bipartisan consensus" exists among lawmakers about the "greatest threat to our nation's long-term economic prosperity: the explosion of entitlement spending," which "Washington is not planning to address ... this week, or any time soon," effectively "shackling our future with unsustainable debt and taxes," Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), a member of the House Budget Committee, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

21 May 2008