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Study points to one cause of higher rates of transplanted kidney rejection in blacks

A Johns Hopkins research team reports it may have an explanation for at least some of the higher organ rejection rates seen among black - as compared to white - kidney transplant recipients.

31 Aug 2008

Blood vessel cells are instructed to form tube-like structures

How do blood vessel cells understand that they should organise themselves in tubes and not in layers? A research group from Uppsala University shows for the first time that a special type of "instructor" molecule is needed to accomplish this. These findings, published in the scientific journal Blood, might be an important step towards using stem cells to build new organs.

31 Aug 2008

Urologist is first in the world to use robot-assisted surgery to repair rare defect

A urologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is the first in the world to repair a rare type of hernia using robot-assisted, minimally invasive surgery. The surgery required only an 18-hour hospital stay; typically, the repair involves major surgery and three to five days of hospital care.

31 Aug 2008

Researchers devise means to create blood by discovering earliest form of human blood stem cells

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered the earliest form of human blood stem cells and deciphered the mechanism by which these embryonic stem cells replicate and grow. They also found a surprising biological marker that pinpoints these stem cells, which serve as the progenitors for red blood cells and lymphocytes.

28 Aug 2008

New cutting edge laser technology provides view into body's chemical messenger system

Researchers at The University of Nottingham have developed a unique technology that will allow scientists to look at microscopic activity within the body's chemical messenger system for the very first time, live as it happens.

28 Aug 2008

FDA grants IND for Davanat to treat breast cancer patient

Pro-Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for use of Davanat in combination with 5-FU to treat a breast cancer patient at the Brown Cancer Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Davanat also is being administered in Phase II clinical trials for first-line treatment of colorectal and biliary cancer patients.

28 Aug 2008

Takeda and Affymax provide update for Hematide in chemotherapy-induced anemia

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Affymax, Inc. today announced their agreement to suspend co-development of Hematide to treat chemotherapy-induced anemia and to focus all development efforts for Hematide on the treatment of chronic kidney disease related anemia.

28 Aug 2008

Low levels of 'brain derived neurotrophic factor' may lead to obesity

A brain chemical that plays a role in long term memory also appears to be involved in regulating how much people eat and their likelihood of becoming obese, according to a National Institutes of Health study of a rare genetic condition.

28 Aug 2008

Magnesium sulfate decreases preterm infants' risk for cerebral palsy

Preterm infants born to mothers receiving intravenous magnesium sulfate - a common treatment to delay labor - are less likely to develop cerebral palsy than are preterm infants whose mothers do not receive it, report researchers in a large National Institutes of Health research network.

28 Aug 2008

Thiazolidinediones - diabetes drugs carry significant cardiovascular risks

A class of oral drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes may significantly increase the risk of serious cardiovascular events, according to an editorial published online in Heart Wednesday by two Wake Forest University School of Medicine faculty members.

28 Aug 2008

New role for Natural Killer cells

Scientists at the University of York have discovered a new role for a population of white blood cells, which may lead to improved treatments for chronic infections and cancer.

28 Aug 2008

Transformation of ordinary cells into insulin-makers improves symptoms of diabetes

Scientists in the U.S. have successfully transformed ordinary cells into insulin-producing cells in a living mouse and thereby improved the symptoms of diabetes.

28 Aug 2008

Brain growth and development in very premature or low-weight infants

Brain development in infants who are born very prematurely is still incomplete. Factors that cause premature birth may have an impact on the development of the premature infant's brain both during pregnancy and later on after birth. A project conducted as part of the Academy of Finland Research Programme on Neuroscience (NEURO) is concerned to study brain growth and development invery premature or low-weight infants.

27 Aug 2008

Berries show to have a genome-wide effect on the expression of genes involved in cancer development

New research strongly suggests that a mix of preventative agents, such as those found in concentrated black raspberries, may more effectively inhibit cancer development than single agents aimed at shutting down a particular gene.

27 Aug 2008

Gleevec receives FDA priority review for gastrointestinal stromal tumors after surgery

Novartis has announced that Gleevec (imatinib mesylate) tablets, (known as Glivec (imatinib) outside the US, Canada and Israel), has been granted priority review status by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the first therapy to be reviewed for use after surgery in kit-positive gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST).

27 Aug 2008

FDA clears non-invasive test to help manage heart transplant patients

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced it has cleared for marketing a non-invasive test that uses molecular expression techniques to assist doctors in managing heart transplant patients post-surgery for potential organ rejection.

27 Aug 2008

Young type-2 diabetic men suffer low testosterone levels

Young men with type 2 diabetes have significantly low levels of testosterone, endocrinologists at the University at Buffalo have found -- a condition that could have a critical effect on their quality of life and on their ability to father children.

27 Aug 2008

Chronic stress alters our genetic immune response

Most people would agree that stress increases your risk for illness and this is particularly true for severe long-term stresses, such as caring for a family member with a chronic medical illness. However, we still have a relatively limited understanding of exactly how stress contributes to the risk for illness. In the August 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry, researchers shed new light on one link between stress and illness by describing a mechanism through which stress alters immune function.

27 Aug 2008

Alabama board approves plan to charge state employees for obesity, health problems

The Alabama State Employees' Insurance Board last week approved a plan that will require state employees who are obese or have health problems to make progress to address those issues or pay a monthly charge for health insurance, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

26 Aug 2008

High cholesterol levels drop naturally in children on high-fat antiseizure diet

Elevated cholesterol levels return to normal or near normal levels over time in four out of 10 children with uncontrollable epilepsy treated with the high-fat ketogenic diet, according to results of a Johns Hopkins Children's Center study reported in the Journal of Child Neurology.

26 Aug 2008

Blood News and Research

Study points to one cause of higher rates of transplanted kidney rejection in blacks

Blood vessel cells are instructed to form tube-like structures

Urologist is first in the world to use robot-assisted surgery to repair rare defect

Researchers devise means to create blood by discovering earliest form of human blood stem cells

New cutting edge laser technology provides view into body's chemical messenger system

FDA grants IND for Davanat to treat breast cancer patient

Takeda and Affymax provide update for Hematide in chemotherapy-induced anemia

Low levels of 'brain derived neurotrophic factor' may lead to obesity

Magnesium sulfate decreases preterm infants' risk for cerebral palsy

Thiazolidinediones - diabetes drugs carry significant cardiovascular risks

New role for Natural Killer cells

Transformation of ordinary cells into insulin-makers improves symptoms of diabetes

Brain growth and development in very premature or low-weight infants

Berries show to have a genome-wide effect on the expression of genes involved in cancer development

Gleevec receives FDA priority review for gastrointestinal stromal tumors after surgery

FDA clears non-invasive test to help manage heart transplant patients

Young type-2 diabetic men suffer low testosterone levels

Chronic stress alters our genetic immune response

Alabama board approves plan to charge state employees for obesity, health problems

High cholesterol levels drop naturally in children on high-fat antiseizure diet

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

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