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Valley Hospital, Holy Name Medical Center collaborate to defeat C. difficile

The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ, and Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, NJ, are collaborating to defeat a common foe: a dangerous drug-resistant bacterium called Clostridium difficile, or C. difficile.

9 Mar 2016

Study highlights new approach to produce coral snake antivenom from synthetically designed DNA

Coral snake venom carries significant neurotoxicity and human injuries can be severe or even lethal. Despite this, antivenom treatments are scarce due to challenges collecting adequate amounts of venom needed to produce anti-elapidic serum. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases highlights exciting new research from the Butantan Institute in Brazil using synthetically designed DNA to produce coral-snake antivenom.

4 Mar 2016

Botulinum toxin A injections combat neuropathic pain

Botulinum toxin A injections have a sustained beneficial effect in patients with neuropathic pain, shows a randomised trial.

3 Mar 2016

New Botox-like treatment can help runners, cyclists with knee pain

A painful knee condition that affects more than one in eight active people has been treated effectively with a botulinum toxin injection and physiotherapy.

24 Feb 2016

UF study shows effective way to control damaging health impacts of mosquito-borne diseases

A common toxin used to kill yellow fever mosquito larvae - the most prevalent transmitter of dengue, chikungunya and zika viruses - is highly effective. While there are some fitness advantages to surviving adults, this is still an effective way to control the damaging health impacts of these mosquito-borne diseases, a new University of Florida study shows.

15 Feb 2016

HIV protein alters activity of networked neurons

Nearly half of HIV infected patients suffer from impaired neurocognitive function. The HIV protein transactivator of transcription (Tat) is an important contributor to HIV neuropathogenesis because it is a potent neurotoxin that continues to be produced despite treatment with antiretroviral therapy.

31 Jan 2016

Dysport phase III study results in children with cerebral palsy with lower limb spasticity published in Pediatrics

Ipsen today announced that the scientific journal Pediatrics published the detailed results of the phase III randomized study showing both the efficacy and the safety of Dysport in the treatment of dynamic equinus foot deformity, a condition associated with cerebral palsy in children.

28 Jan 2016

Chronic exposure to environmental toxin may up risk of neurodegenerative illness

A new study published today in the science journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B indicates that chronic exposure to an environmental toxin may increase risk of neurodegenerative illness. Conducted by scientists at the Institute for EthnoMedicine, a non-profit medical research organization, and the University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank, the study provides a foundation for future research in Alzheimer's disease, ALS and Parkinson's disease.

25 Jan 2016

Biomedical innovation in the UK: an interview with Zahid Latif

The biomedical research base is one of the UK's strengths; over 1500 companies in the Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology area are established in the UK employing over 70,000.

22 Jan 2016

Discoveries could lead to development of novel therapies to prevent C. diff infection

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have obtained the crystal structure of a toxin from the bacterium Clostridium difficile ("C. diff") -- the leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea in the United States.

12 Jan 2016

Study may hold new revelations about how stress during pregnancy affects mothers and offspring

The sequencing of the first genome involving a cockroach species may one day serve as a model system comparable to how research on mice can apply to humans. In this case, the model could hold new revelations about how stress during pregnancy could affect both the mother and her offspring.

6 Jan 2016

Simple technique can prolong life of HA dermal fillers

Hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers are a popular treatment for facial lines and wrinkles, but early degradation of fillers may limit how long their effects last. Experimental evidence supports a simple technique for prolonging the effects of HA dermal fillers: using them together with botulinum toxin, reports a paper in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

31 Dec 2015

Researchers identify transporters responsible for arsenic accumulation in plant seeds

Researchers from FIU's Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine Barry P. Rosen and Jian Chen, both from the Department of Cellular Biology and Pharmacology, are part of an international team that has identified how arsenic gets into the seeds of plants such as rice. T

23 Dec 2015

New article explores harmful algal blooms and their impact on public health, environment

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) occur naturally, but their outbreaks are influenced by climate change and droughts, nutrient enrichment and manmade factors, such as contaminants from sewage and stormwater discharge, natural resource extraction or agricultural runoff, to name a few.

23 Dec 2015

Scientists decipher details of cloaking proteins that protect the toxin that causes botulism

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at Stony Brook University and the Institute of Advanced Sciences in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, have discovered new details about how "cloaking" proteins protect the toxin that causes botulism, a fatal disease caused most commonly by consuming improperly canned foods.

7 Dec 2015

Columbia University data scientists create world's first catalog of therapeutic venom

What doesn't kill you could cure you. A growing interest in the therapeutic value of animal venom has led a pair of Columbia University data scientists to create the first catalog of known animal toxins and their physiological effects on humans.

26 Nov 2015

Scientists create detailed image of deadly toxin linked to bacterial pneumonia, meningitis, septicaemia

Scientists from the University of Leicester have for the first time created a detailed image of a toxin - called pneumolysin - associated with deadly infections such as bacterial pneumonia, meningitis and septicaemia.

25 Nov 2015

Oxford University researchers unlock the secret behind bacterial sex

Migration between different communities of bacteria is the key to the type of gene transfer that can lead to the spread of traits such as antibiotic resistance, according to researchers at Oxford University.

23 Nov 2015

Research may offer new treatments for patients suffering from severe diarrhea

Everyone has suffered from it. It's ranged from mild to severe. It's a condition that's most-often described in a whisper.

11 Nov 2015

Phage shows strong anti-microbial activity against C. sakazakii bacterium

A phage showed strong anti-microbial activity against a type of food-borne bacterium that often kills infants after infecting them via infant formula. Phages are viruses that infect only bacteria. The research is published Oct. 23 online in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

24 Oct 2015