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Researchers to explore genome of disease-fighting fungus

A team of Texas Agricultural Experiment Station scientists will soon begin genome sequencing a disease-fighting fungus used to protect crops, which has implications for both agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry.

15 May 2005

New predictor for blood transplant success

The success of blood stem cell transplants used to treat diseases such as leukemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and aplastic anemia may soon become more predictable, thanks to a discovery made by researchers at the University of British Columbia.

11 May 2005

Reconstruction of the lower jaw with a fibula autotrasplant

The University Hospital of the University of Navarra has carried out a complicated surgical operation on a child who had a particularly large benign tumour located in the mandibular region. The procedure involved the extraction of the lower jaw and its substitution by a bone transplant from the fibula of the patient.

10 May 2005

Australian-designed heart pump gives new hope to heart patients

A 56-year-old New Zealand man, a heart failure patient, is recovering in hospital after world-first surgery to implant an Australian-designed device which helps the heart pump blood.

9 May 2005

Pharmacogenomics used to treat inherited kidney disorder of children

Mayo Clinic researchers have used pharmacogenomics to develop a test and treatment for an inherited kidney disorder that can cause organ failure in children and young adults.

4 May 2005

New laser-surgery technique to perform cornea-transplant surgery

A UC Irvine ophthalmologist and his team have invented a new laser-surgery technique to perform cornea-transplant surgery that can replace the use of traditional handheld surgical blades and potentially improve recovery time for patients.

3 May 2005

Scientists dramatically slow organ transplant rejection

That's the promising implication of an animal study carried out by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the University of Florida (UF) published in today's (May 2) issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

3 May 2005

Small number of genes can predict response to chronic hepatitis C therapy

For the first time, physicians at University Health Network and University of Toronto have identified a small subset of genes that can predict whether a patient with chronic Hepatitis C will be able to respond to current treatments.

2 May 2005

New treatment uses stem cells to restore eyesight

The Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, has been trialling the treatment and has already helped 40 people see again. The hospital has been developing the surgery over the past five years and uses stem cells taken from the patient or a donor to redevelop the cornea, the transparent film at the front of the eye which lets in light.

1 May 2005

P12 protein influences key cell-signaling pathway

New research shows that a protein produced by a cancer-causing virus influences a key signaling pathway in the immune cells that the virus infects. This stimulates the cells to divide, helping the virus spread through the body.

26 Apr 2005

Patient with rare liver condition second ever to survive liver transplant after pregnancy

For Billi Tierney, 30, National Donate Life Month in April has a profound meaning. The first-time mother of Sycamore, Ill., was awaiting anxiously the arrival of her first baby. But she never thought that complications from her pregnancy were going to lead to a week in coma and the urgent need for a liver transplant. Tierney suffered from acute liver fatty of pregnancy, a rare, but serious condition of pregnancy in which there is an excessive accumulation of fat in the liver or liver cells.

23 Apr 2005

Scientists have, for the first time, induced a state of reversible metabolic hibernation in mice

Scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have, for the first time, induced a state of reversible metabolic hibernation in mice. This achievement, the first demonstration of "hibernation on demand" in a mammal, ultimately could lead to new ways to treat cancer and prevent injury and death from insufficient blood supply to organs and tissues.

23 Apr 2005

High levels of immunosuppressant may lead to tumor recurrence

A new study on the incidence of liver cancer after transplant found that high levels of the immunosuppressant cyclosporine favored tumor recurrence and identified blood levels of the drug that should not be exceeded. Lower levels of cyclosporine levels did not affect rejection rates.

22 Apr 2005

Rare surgery performed to remove pancreas, prevent diabetes and ease pain of chronic pancreatitis

In a 12-hour, dual-stage surgery known to be performed at only two other centers in the U.S., doctors at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) on Tuesday returned a patient's own insulin-producing cells to him after surgically removing his pancreas to eliminate constant, severe pain from chronic pancreatitis.

22 Apr 2005

Mice put into "suspended animation" in U.S.

Researchers from the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle have placed mice in a state of near suspended animation, raising the possibility that in future hibernation could be induced in humans.

22 Apr 2005

FDA expert panel to review Abiomed's artificial heart

Abiomed, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will convene an expert panel of cardiovascular surgeons and cardiologists to review the groundbreaking technologies and clinical trial data behind the AbioCor artificial heart.

20 Apr 2005

Number and quality of kidney transplants much greater if national matching program adopted

A collaboration between Johns Hopkins and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists has mathematically demonstrated that a national matching program for kidney paired donation, also called paired kidney exchange, would ensure the best possible kidney for the greatest number of recipients who have incompatible donors.

19 Apr 2005

World's first recipient of insulin-producing cells from a living donor

A 27-year-old diabetic woman has become the world's first recipient of insulin-producing cells from a living donor.

19 Apr 2005

Japanese researchers reverse diabetes

Japanese researchers have successfully reversed a woman’s diabetes by transplanting insulinmaking cells (islets) from a living donor’s pancreas into her, reporting their results in a research letter published online today by The Lancet. This is the first successful operation of its kind using the islets from a living donor.

19 Apr 2005

New heart valve ring helps congestive heart failure patients regain lost heart function

A new heart valve ring appears to help congestive heart failure patients regain lost heart function, reversing the disease's effects on heart structure in two ways and easing their disabling symptoms, researchers reported here today at the 85th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.

13 Apr 2005