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Information on early brain development and the importance of sleep during early life to be presented

Marcos Frank, PhD, associate professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will present information on early brain development and the importance of sleep during early life when the brain is rapidly maturing and highly changeable.

22 Feb 2010

Early Cochlear implantation removes word-learning skill defects in deaf children

Learning words may be facilitated by early exposure to auditory input, according to research presented by the Indiana University School of Medicine at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting in San Diego, Feb. 18-22.

22 Feb 2010

Children born through assisted reproduction at greater risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes related defects

More than three million children have been born as a result of assisted reproductive technologies since the birth of the first "test tube baby" in 1978. While the majority of these children are healthy and normal, as a group they are at greater risk of certain kinds of birth defects and being low birth weight, which is associated with obesity, hypertension and type 2 diabetes later in life.

22 Feb 2010

WCMC-Q students receive new round of UREP funds totaling $280,000

Twenty-eight WCMC-Q students have received grants totaling $280,000 in the latest, seventh, round of funding from the Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) to conduct advanced research projects with faculty members.

22 Feb 2010

Scientists develop new mathematical model to understand CML better

Doctors can now understand better chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), including how it responds to therapy, thanks to a new mathematical model for the disease, developed by scientists in Portugal, Belgium and the United States. The work, to be published in the June edition of the journal Haematologica, also reveals that current therapies - which are not believed to cure CML - with the right protocol can actually get rid of the disease, and provides guidelines on how to do that.

21 Feb 2010

Study reveals underrepresentation of women in cardiovascular clinical trials

Women are substantially underrepresented in clinical trials used to formulate women's guidelines and are affected more than men by low social support after a heart attack, according to two studies in the women-themed issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a journal of the American Heart Association.

20 Feb 2010

Study: Physicians attribute 26% of overall healthcare costs to the practice of defensive medicine

Physicians attribute 26 percent of overall healthcare costs to the practice of defensive medicine according to a study released today by Gallup and Jackson Healthcare.

20 Feb 2010

El Tejano Magazine article: Medical innovation and research help many Americans live longer, healthier

An article that recently appeared in El Tejano Magazine highlighted the fact that many Americans are living longer, healthier and more productive lives because of medical innovation and research.

20 Feb 2010

CIGNA approved as recognized provider of continuing dental education courses

The American Dental Association’s Continuing Education Recognition Program has approved CIGNA as a recognized provider of continuing dental education courses. The program, which evaluates and recognizes organizations that provide continuing dental education, helps ADA members and the dental community select quality courses that promote continuous improvement.

20 Feb 2010

Research Roundup: Financing boomers' care; California's budget cuts; Racial disparities in surgical outcomes

Health Affairs: Chronic Conditions Account For Rise In Medicare Spending From 1987 To 2006 - "Medicare beneficiaries' medical needs, and where beneficiaries undergo treatment, have changed dramatically over the past two decades." For example, the authors write, "heart disease ranked first among the top-ten conditions in terms of attributable share of growth from 1987 to 1997, accounting for nearly 14 percent of the increase in Medicare spending."

20 Feb 2010

Enzyme can allow nerve cells in brain to grow and form complex networks: Study

Brain researcher Hiroshi Kawabe has discovered the workings of a process that had been completely overlooked until now, and that allows nerve cells in the brain to grow and form complex networks. The study shows that an enzyme which usually controls the destruction of protein components has an unexpected function in nerve cells: it controls the structure of the cytoskeleton and thus ensures that nerve cells can form the tree-like extensions that are necessary for signal transmission in the brain.

20 Feb 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

The Infectious Diseases Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog examines U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Eric Goosby's recent address to the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) where he reemphasized the Obama administration's commitment to "'maintaining, extending and increasing' the U.S. response to global AIDS." Goosby reflected on the lessons drawn from PEPFAR to date and presented components of the 5-year PEPFAR strategy, the blog notes.

20 Feb 2010

Health worker training program cuts stillbirths by 30% in 6 developing countries, study says

The rate of stillbirths was cut by more than 30 percent after health workers in rural parts of six developing countries were trained "in how to help a newborn start breathing and to keep it warm and clean," according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Reuters reports. The trainees - who included midwives, nurses, traditional birth attendants and physicians - were given "hand-held pumps and masks to fill babies' lungs with air if they were not breathing at birth, clean-delivery kits to prevent infection and scales to measure their weight," the news service writes.

20 Feb 2010

Loyola University Medical Center ranked among top hospitals in research competition for pathologists

Loyola University Medical Center ranked among the top hospitals in the world in a recent research competition for pathologists in training.

20 Feb 2010

UCSF professor receives 2010 AADR Distinguished Scientist Award

The American Association for Dental Research (AADR) has announced that John Greenspan, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), is the recipient of the 2010 AADR Distinguished Scientist Award. This award will be presented to Greenspan at the 39th AADR Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Washington, DC, March 3, 2010.

20 Feb 2010

Emory School of Medicine to enroll nearly 1,140 people for Phase III clinical trial of progesterone for TBI

Researchers at 17 medical centers across the country soon will begin using the hormone progesterone to treat patients who experience traumatic brain injury (TBI). The treatment is part of a randomized, double-blind Phase III clinical trial that will enroll approximately 1,140 people over a three- to six-year period beginning in March, 2010. The trial is funded by a grant to Emory University from the National Institutes of Health.

20 Feb 2010

US scientists develop new technique to track the progression of cancer

US scientists have developed a new technique that allows them to track the progression of a person's cancer by uncovering changes in their tumour's genetic material.

19 Feb 2010

Researchers identify specific metabolic profiles that predict risk of heart attack and death

Tiny bits of molecular "trash" found in circulating blood appear to be good predictors of cardiovascular disease and untimely death, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

19 Feb 2010

Merz Pharma Group to acquire BioForm Medical

Merz Pharma Group announced today that the subsequent offering period of the tender offer by Merz GmbH & Co. KGaA (“Merz”) and its acquisition subsidiary to purchase all of the outstanding shares of common stock of BioForm Medical, Inc. at a price of $5.45 per share, net to the seller in cash (without interest thereon and less any required withholding tax) expired as scheduled at 12:00 midnight, Eastern Standard Time, on February 18, 2010.

19 Feb 2010

Low levels of cooking fumes in UK kitchens unlikely to affect people's risk of cancer

Cancer Research UK says that the low levels of cooking fumes found in UK kitchens are unlikely to affect people's risk of cancer, after a study suggested that frying on a gas hob may emit more cancer-causing chemicals than an electric hob.

19 Feb 2010

Medicine News and Research

Information on early brain development and the importance of sleep during early life to be presented

Early Cochlear implantation removes word-learning skill defects in deaf children

Children born through assisted reproduction at greater risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes related defects

WCMC-Q students receive new round of UREP funds totaling $280,000

Scientists develop new mathematical model to understand CML better

Study reveals underrepresentation of women in cardiovascular clinical trials

Study: Physicians attribute 26% of overall healthcare costs to the practice of defensive medicine

El Tejano Magazine article: Medical innovation and research help many Americans live longer, healthier

CIGNA approved as recognized provider of continuing dental education courses

Research Roundup: Financing boomers' care; California's budget cuts; Racial disparities in surgical outcomes

Enzyme can allow nerve cells in brain to grow and form complex networks: Study

Recent releases in Global Health

Health worker training program cuts stillbirths by 30% in 6 developing countries, study says

Loyola University Medical Center ranked among top hospitals in research competition for pathologists

UCSF professor receives 2010 AADR Distinguished Scientist Award

Emory School of Medicine to enroll nearly 1,140 people for Phase III clinical trial of progesterone for TBI

US scientists develop new technique to track the progression of cancer

Researchers identify specific metabolic profiles that predict risk of heart attack and death

Merz Pharma Group to acquire BioForm Medical

Low levels of cooking fumes in UK kitchens unlikely to affect people's risk of cancer

Industry Focus eBook - Cell & Gene Therapy (1st Edition) eBook

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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