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Chronic nerve pain: researchers identify which sensory nerve cells are responsible

New research, led by academics at the University of Bristol and published in the journal Pain, has identified the subtypes of sensory nerve cells that are likely to contribute to long-term nerve pain from partial nerve injury. It is hoped this will aid in development of more effective pain killers.

13 Aug 2012

Review explores whether HPV vaccination of young men is warranted and cost effective

Vaccination against human papilloma virus (HPV) is recommended for young women to protect them from HPV infection and cervical cancer. Male HPV immunization is increasingly a topic of debate in the medical community. A timely review of the literature published in Viral Immunology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, explores whether HPV vaccination of young men is warranted and cost effective.

8 Aug 2012

Mapping rhomboid enzymes could eventually lead to drugs to treat malaria

Johns Hopkins scientists have decoded for the first time the "stability blueprint" of an enzyme that resides in a cell's membrane, mapping which parts of the enzyme are important for its shape and function.

31 Jul 2012

Parkinson’s disease treatment: an interview with Ted Dawson

Parkinson’s disease is a disorder which usually affects people in their 60’s and older. It is caused by the loss of dopamine neurons in the brain leading to rigidity, slowness of movement, tremor, problems with balance and so forth.

31 Jul 2012

Antioxidants and pancreatic cancer risk: an interview with Dr Andrew Hart

The antioxidants that we mainly looked at were selenium, vitamin C and vitamin E. They are chemicals which inactivate pro-oxidants or free radicals. Smoking and normal metabolism can lead to the production of free radicals.

30 Jul 2012

Vanderbilt researchers receives new $2.1M grant to develop microbrain bioreactor

Take a millionth of a human brain and squeeze it into a special chamber the size of a mustard seed. Link it to a second chamber filled with cerebral spinal fluid and thread both of them with artificial blood vessels in order to create a microenvironment that makes the neurons and other brain cells behave as if they were in a living brain. Then surround the chambers with a battery of sensors that monitor how the cells respond when exposed to minute quantities of dietary toxins, disease organisms or new drugs under development.

25 Jul 2012

Protein associated with Huntington’s and other neurodegenerative diseases has several brain-specific forms

A protein essential for metabolism and recently associated with neurodegenerative diseases also occurs in several brain-specific forms. This discovery emerged in the course of a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the findings of which have now been published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics.

23 Jul 2012

Egg allergy treatment for children: an interview with Dr Robert Wood

The tendency to get allergies is a fairly general one, which is mostly inherited – it tends to run in families. There are several foods that are most common for children to become allergic to: milk, egg and peanuts in most countries are the most common food allergies.

23 Jul 2012

Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology receives Gates Foundation grant

Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology is pleased to announce that it has received a fourth grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to promote discoveries that will solve urgent global health problems via support of infectious disease conferences in the "Keystone Symposia Global Health Series."

20 Jul 2012

Heart-protective protein finally found

It is a cellular component so scarce, some scientists even doubted its existence, and many others gave up searching for its molecular structure. Now a team led by researchers at Johns Hopkins has defined the protein structural composition of mitoKATP, a potassium channel in the mitochondria of the heart and other organs that is known to protect against tissue damage due to a heart attack or stroke.

18 Jul 2012

Promising path to Parkinson’s disease treatment

Using adult stem cells, Johns Hopkins researchers and a consortium of colleagues nationwide say they have generated the type of human neuron specifically damaged by Parkinson’s disease (PD) and used various drugs to stop the damage.

17 Jul 2012

Osteoporosis and sarcopenia: researchers at UMKC receive $8.3 million to study relationship

The University of Missouri-Kansas City has received a five-year, $8.3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study the relationship between osteoporosis (loss of bone density) and sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) as people age.

16 Jul 2012

Oligodendroglia cells: An interview with Jeffrey Rothstein

There are three principle cells in the brain: neurons and two types of glial cells. One type is called an astrocyte. These were well known to inactivate neurotransmitters like glutamate, and provide metabolic support to neurons.

11 Jul 2012

Research into “insulating” brain cells could help to cure neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS

Johns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered that the central nervous system's oligodendroglia cells, long believed to simply insulate nerves as they "fire" signals, are unexpectedly also vital to the survival of neurons. Damage to these insulators appears to contribute to brain injury in neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease for the Yankee baseball great who died from the disease.

11 Jul 2012

Next generation predictive 3D cell toxicity assays to be developed by Medicyte GmbH and Reinnervate Ltd

Two market leading companies in the field of cell based assays and predictive toxicology today announced a new product collaboration. Medicyte (inventors of the upcyte® technology) and Reinnervate (market leaders in the growing field of 3D cell culture) said they will work together to combine their upcyte® and Alvetex®Scaffold technologies to bring next generation cell bases assays to the biopharma and academic research markets.

9 Jul 2012

Toxins and cell death: Interview with Professor Denise Montell

There are multiple kinds of cell death. Cells can undergo programmed cell death, which is a series of events that undergoes a predictable order at certain times during development.

6 Jul 2012

Acute pancreatitis: An interview with Viktor Oskarsson

Acute pancreatitis is an inflammatory disease of the pancreas. The most common symptom is acute abdominal pain, which is often accompanied with nausea and vomiting.

4 Jul 2012

Cells close to death from toxin exposure can survive when toxins are removed

The vast majority of cells that appear to be on a one-way track to death after exposure to toxins can bounce back completely after those toxins are removed, Johns Hopkins scientists report in a new study. The finding, published in the June 15 issue of Molecular Biology of the Cell, is not only a testament to the indomitable cellular spirit, but could also offer some practical insight on how to save dying tissues after heart attacks or strokes as well as prevent cancer in cells transiently exposed to toxins.

3 Jul 2012

Osteoarthritis susceptibility: eight potential genes discovered

The largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) of osteoarthritis to date, published Online First in The Lancet, has uncovered eight new genetic variants or loci that appear to increase susceptibility to the most common form of arthritis, which affects about 40% of the world population older than 70 years. These findings bring the total number of osteoarthritis susceptibility genes isolated in European populations to 11.

3 Jul 2012

HIV therapy: Interview with Joël Crouzet, CEO of InnaVirVax

HIV therapy has traditionally been associated with antiretrovirals, which considerably reduce the amount of virus present in the blood to nearly undetectable levels.

29 Jun 2012