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Improving understanding of cell behaviour in breast cancer

The invasion and spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body, known as metastasis, is a principal cause of death in patients diagnosed with breast cancer. Although patients with early stage, small, breast tumours have an excellent short term prognosis, more than 15 to 20 per cent of them will eventually develop distant metastases, and die from the disease. Vascular invasion - through lymphatic and blood vessels - is the major route for cancer spreading to regional lymph nodes and to the rest of the body.

15 Jul 2008

Diabetes could be a hidden condition for heart disease patients

Researchers at the University of Warwick have discovered diabetes could be a hidden condition for some patients with coronary heart disease.

15 Jul 2008

New technology revolutionizing drug discovery

The National Science Foundation has awarded Weill Cornell Medical College researcher Dr. Scott Blanchard its prestigious Career Award, recognizing his groundbreaking work in cell biology -- work that is poised to revolutionize research for the next generation of young scientists.

15 Jul 2008

Corneal transplant technique shows promise in children

For infants and children with blinding diseases of the cornea, a sophisticated new corneal transplantation technique offers the hope of improving vision while overcoming the technical difficulty and low success rate of traditional penetrating keratoplasty (PK) in children, according to reports in the current issue of the Journal of AAPOS (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus).

15 Jul 2008

Virus injection could offer long term relief for Parkinson's

Gene therapy could offer a new, long-lasting way to treat Parkinson's disease, research results announced Tuesday 15 July at FENS 2008 suggest. Dr Deniz Kirik of the University of Lund in Sweden has been using viruses to insert a new combination of genes into animals' brains, where they help produce the dopamine that is lacking in Parkinson's disease. The results suggest the treatment is very effective in animal models for several months, possibly years.

15 Jul 2008

An inflamed response

Paul Martin, Professor of Cell Biology in the University of Bristol Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, and Biochemistry, talked to Cherry Lewis about the discovery made in his lab that speeds up wound healing and reduces the size of the wound scar. She was interested not only in the discovery itself, but also in the processes and years of research that led up to it.

15 Jul 2008

Quick formula could forecast which cancers chemo could kill

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center have coined a simple formula that predicts how well a certain chemotherapy will work for targeting brain and other nervous system cancers. The formula, which publishes mid-July in Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, is pegged to two important proteins that compose such hard-to-kill tumors - one of which, ironically, makes them so drug-resistant in the first place.

15 Jul 2008

Chemo pill shows promise for advanced lymphoma

A new chemotherapy pill for people with stubborn lymphomas is showing promise in early clinical studies, according to scientists at the University of Rochester's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center. Doctors reported that the drug is halting disease in nearly half of the patients with two forms of lymphoma participating in early clinical trials in Rochester and across the country.

15 Jul 2008

Apert's syndrome - new discovery

In a cruel irony, testis cells carrying the mutation that causes Apert's syndrome are fitter than normal cells, even though children born from sperm derived from those cells are weakened by fused fingers, toes and skulls, a new study has found.

14 Jul 2008

Link between DNA palindromes and disease discovered

In the past 10 years, researchers in genome stability have observed that many kinds of cancers are associated with areas where human chromosomes break. More recently, scientists have discovered that slow or altered replication causes chromosomal breaking. But why does DNA replication stall?

14 Jul 2008

Researchers step closer to delivering cancer-killing drugs to pediatric brain tumors

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Karen L. Wooley, Ph.D., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, is a step closer to delivering cancer-killing drugs to pediatric brain tumors, similar to the tumor that Senator Ted Kennedy is suffering from.

14 Jul 2008

FA imaging, invented at U-M, measures metabolic stress in retina - serves as early warning of diabetes

A new vision screening device, already shown to give an early warning of eye disease, could give doctors and patients a head start on treating diabetes and its vision complications, a new study shows.

14 Jul 2008

Heart death risk cut by early warning drugs tests

The likelihood of people dying because their medication has a side effect that affects the electrical activity of the heart is being reduced - thanks to a better understanding of why this happens and the development of tests to predict it.

From The University of Manchester 14 Jul 2008

Does sleep help us change or clarify our mind?

When we have to make a difficult decision, or work through an idea, it's often best to 'sleep on it' and come back to it fresh the next day. Swiss scientists have discovered that sleep can have lasting consequences on brain function by stimulating new brain connections that strengthen the learning processes and directly influence our actions.

14 Jul 2008

Researchers locate and image prostate cancer as it spreads to lymph nodes

Using an engineered common cold virus, UCLA researchers delivered a genetic payload to prostate cancer cells that allowed them, using Positron Emission Tomography (PET), to locate the diseased cells as they spread to the lymph nodes, the first place prostate cancer goes before invading other organs.

13 Jul 2008

Discover of key patterns in gene packaging

Although every cell of our bodies contains the same genetic instructions, specific genes typically act only in specific cells at particular times. Other genes are "silenced" in a variety of ways. One mode of gene silencing depends upon the way DNA, the genetic material, is packed in the nucleus of cells.

13 Jul 2008

Compound honokiol, from Magnolias blocks, elusive pathway for cancer growth

A natural compound from magnolia cones blocks a pathway for cancer growth that was previously considered "undruggable," researchers have found.

13 Jul 2008

Researches identify herpesvirus proteins that target key cellular processes

A study published July 11th in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens suggests that herpesviruses use multiple strategies to manipulate important components of the host cell nuclear environment during infection.

13 Jul 2008

Scientists reveal key elements in Malaria parasite's "sticky sack" adhesion strategy

Malaria is one of the most devastating diseases afflicting humanity. It infects and debilitates about 600 million people and kills up to three million people every year, mainly in the wet tropical regions of the world. Children and pregnant women are at particularly high risk.

13 Jul 2008

Pandemic mutations in bird flu revealed

Scientists have discovered how bird flu adapts in patients, offering a new way to monitor the disease and prevent a pandemic, according to research published in the August issue of the Journal of General Virology.

13 Jul 2008