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People with first-episode psychosis may benefit from medication treatment changes, study finds

Many patients with first-episode psychosis receive medications that do not comply with recommended guidelines for first-episode treatment, researchers have found. Current guidelines emphasize low doses of antipsychotic drugs and strategies for minimizing the side effects that might contribute to patients stopping their medication.

5 Dec 2014

Study: PET scanning strategy could help predict effectiveness of TB drugs

Sophisticated lung imaging can show whether or not a treatment drug is able to clear tuberculosis (TB) lung infection in human and macaque studies, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and their international collaborators.

5 Dec 2014

New single-cell genetic profiling techniques help uncover variation in pluripotent stem cells

Stem cells offer great potential in biomedical engineering due to their pluripotency, which is the ability to multiply indefinitely and also to differentiate and develop into any kind of the hundreds of different cells and bodily tissues. But the precise complexity of how stem cell development is regulated throughout states of cellular change has been difficult to pinpoint until now.

5 Dec 2014

Johns Hopkins to fund new center to improve health, well-being of older people

Johns Hopkins University has been awarded a five-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging to fund a center that will conduct research on the informal support resources of vulnerable older adults.David L. Roth, Ph.D., director of Hopkins’ Center on Aging and Healthand a professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, will be the principal investigator.

5 Dec 2014

Melbourne researcher wins Sornchai Looareesuwan Medal for research on malaria

Melbourne researcher Professor Alan Cowman has won the Sornchai Looareesuwan Medal 2014 for his significant contributions to understanding how the malaria parasite causes disease and for his search for potential malaria vaccines.

4 Dec 2014

Mylan gets tentative approval from FDA for two pediatric dosages of abacavir/lamivudine tablets

Mylan Inc. today announced that its subsidiary Mylan Laboratories Limited has received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its New Drug Applications (NDAs) for two dosages of abacavir/lamivudine tablets for oral suspension for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in pediatric patients.

4 Dec 2014

Oncologists examine efficacy of rose bengal against cancer

Rose Bengal has been around for decades starting as a way to dye wool. Originally used in medicine as a stain for ophthalmologists, it has a solid safety record going back to the 1930s. Recently, oncologists have examined its efficacy against cancer, specifically melanoma.

4 Dec 2014

Peterson Center on Healthcare announces three major initiatives to improve U.S. healthcare

Today, the Peterson Center on Healthcare, a new organization established by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, announced three major initiatives to advance the Center's mission to transform U.S. healthcare into a high-performance system that delivers high-quality care at a lower cost.

4 Dec 2014

New targeted therapy shows promise in patients with ALK-positive advanced NSCLC

An international study involving Manchester researchers has found that for previously untreated lung cancer patients with a particular genetic change, a new targeted therapy is better than standard chemotherapy.

4 Dec 2014

Study explores association between statin use and cataracts

Few classes of drugs have had such a transformative effect on the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as have statins, prescribed to reduce total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

4 Dec 2014

New chemical compound shows promise in restoring function lost to spinal cord injury

Case Western Reserve scientists have developed a new chemical compound that shows extraordinary promise in restoring function lost to spinal cord injury. The compound, which the researchers dubbed intracellular sigma peptide (ISP), allowed paralyzed muscles to activate in more than 80 percent of the animals tested.

4 Dec 2014

Researchers identify biochemical mechanism that could lead to 'chemo brain'

UNC School of Medicine researchers have found for the first time a biochemical mechanism that could be a cause of "chemo brain" - the neurological side effects such as memory loss, confusion, difficulty thinking, and trouble concentrating that many cancer patients experience while on chemotherapy to treat tumors in other parts of the body.

4 Dec 2014

Scientists uncover potential ammunition in fight against malaria

Scientists have released details of a raft of new chemicals with potent anti-malarial properties which could open the way to new drugs to fight the disease.

4 Dec 2014

Study reports effective treatment approach to inhibit herpes virus infection

A multi-institutional study reports an effective treatment approach to inhibit and keep latent viruses like herpes simplex from reactivating and causing disease. The work, whose lead author is the late James Hill, PhD, LSU Health New Orleans Professor and Director of Pharmacology and Infectious Disease at the LSU Eye Center, is published in the December 3, 2014, issue of Science Translational Medicine.

4 Dec 2014

BTG agrees to acquire PneumRx for $475 million

PneumRx, Inc., a leader in the field of interventional pulmonology, today announced that it has signed an agreement to be acquired by BTG Plc in a deal worth up to $475 million, based on an initial consideration of $230 million and up to $245 million in performance-related milestone payments.

4 Dec 2014

Researchers publish first comprehensive characterization of genetic diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Researchers from the African Genome Variation Project have published the first attempt to comprehensively characterise genetic diversity across Sub-Saharan Africa. The study of the world's most genetically diverse region will provide an invaluable resource for medical researchers and provides insights into population movements over thousands of years of African history.

4 Dec 2014

Researchers receive grant to examine role of proteins in dementia diseases

Researchers from Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry have received funding from Alzheimer's charity BRACE for a pilot study to investigate the role of proteins in the development of dementia diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

4 Dec 2014

Resveratrol in red wine may prevent cancer

Alcohol use is a major risk factor for head and neck cancer. But an article published in the November issue of the journal Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology shows that the chemical resveratrol found in grape skins and in red wine may prevent cancer as well.

4 Dec 2014

Tobacco smoke toxin could increase pain in people with spinal cord injury

A neurotoxin called acrolein found in tobacco smoke that is thought to increase pain in people with spinal cord injury has now been shown to accumulate in mice exposed to the equivalent of 12 cigarettes daily over a short time period.

4 Dec 2014

Researchers identify retrieval practice as useful strategy for improving memory among youth with TBI

Brain injury researchers in New Jersey have identified retrieval practice as a useful strategy for improving memory among children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

4 Dec 2014