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Scientists find connection between nerve cells and immune system

A direct connection exists between the brain and the immune system – at least in mice. Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig conducted a comprehensive study of mice intestine and the surrounding blood and lymph vessels using special microscopy and marking techniques.

11 Feb 2007

Scientists discover master switches for adult blood stem cells

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have found a set of "master switches" that keep adult blood-forming stem cells in their primitive state.

8 Feb 2007

Fighting influenza with 40,000 blood samples

Four million people die every year from respiratory diseases such as viral influenza. For elderly people in particular, an infection can be dangerous. What is more, the flu vaccine is not as effective with this risk group as it is with younger people.

7 Feb 2007

Research helps explain origin of self-reactive B cells

Doctors have long wondered why, in some people, the immune system turns against parts of the body it is designed to protect, leading to autoimmune disease.

7 Feb 2007

13 new AIDS vaccine clinical trials initiated in 2006

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative's (IAVI) January 2007 Annual Issue of VAX, an editorially independent bulletin on AIDS vaccine research published by IAVI, reports that 13 new preventive AIDS vaccine trials were initiated in eight countries around the world in 2006.

6 Feb 2007

New type of nanoparticle created by spray pyrolysis

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have created a new type of nanoparticle that could be used in tests for medical diagnostics, environmental pollution, and contamination of food products.

5 Feb 2007

Peptide vaccine fights off breast tumors with help of bacteria-mimicking agents

With the help of immune system-stimulating molecules that mimic bacterial components, researchers have used a type of cancer vaccine to both delay and prevent breast tumors in mice.

1 Feb 2007

Novel approach to synthesizing nanowires

A novel approach to synthesizing nanowires (NWs) allows their direct integration with microelectronic systems for the first time, as well as their ability to act as highly sensitive biomolecule detectors that could revolutionize biological diagnostic applications, according to a report in Nature.

31 Jan 2007

Cruelty-free ELISA for human insulin

In the January issue of Clinical Biochemistry, scientists and physicians with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) outline the method used to develop a cruelty-free ELISA for human insulin that uses monoclonal antibodies produced by cells cultured in an animal-serum-free medium.

30 Jan 2007

A prediction rule for disease outcome in patients with recent-onset undifferentiated arthritis

Marked by chronic inflammation of the joints and tissue, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a painful and potentially disabling autoimmune disease.

30 Jan 2007

Human immune system has not adapted to changes in the environment

It seems that the current "allergy epidemic" is due not so much to an increase in allergenic risk factors as to the disappearance of factors protecting people against allergies.

25 Jan 2007

FDA urged to review policy that bans MSM from donating blood

The American Red Cross and other organizations that collect donated blood are urging FDA to review a policy in effect since the early 1980s that prohibits men who have sex with men -- regardless of sexual activity, safer-sex practices or HIV status -- from donating blood, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

23 Jan 2007

Fibrinogen molecule structure acts as a molecular spring

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences have shown that a well-known protein structure acts as a molecular spring, explaining one way that clots may stretch and bend under such physical stresses as blood flow.

14 Jan 2007

New approach offers hope for an effective herpes vaccine

A researcher at Montana State University has called for an innovative, new approach in developing a vaccine against genital herpes.

10 Jan 2007

WHO tackles rabies, snake bites and scorpion stings

Although more than 12 million people each year are bitten by dogs or snakes, or stung by scorpions, the world's capacity to treat them is inadequate.

9 Jan 2007

Modified skin cells that may help protect cultured skin substitutes from infection

Cincinnati burn researchers have created genetically modified skin cells that, when added to cultured skin substitutes, may help fight off potentially lethal infections in patients with severe burns.

9 Jan 2007

Scientists visualize influenza virus particles

Scientists at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), and colleagues at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville have succeeded in imaging, in unprecedented detail, the virus that causes influenza.

2 Jan 2007

Aptamer-capped nanocrystal quantum dots

Quantum dots, used increasingly as bright fluorescent markers in basic research and diagnostic assays, must be coated, or capped, with one of a wide variety of organic molecules in order to stabilize these nanocrystals and prevent them from aggregating when added to water.

18 Dec 2006

Biofunctional organic nanocrystals for quantitative detection of pathogen deoxyribonucleic acid

Waiting a day or more to get lab results back from the doctor's office soon could become a thing of a past.

4 Dec 2006

High throughput quantification of protein expression of cancer antigens in tissue microarray using quantum dot nanocrystals

In attempt to identify biological markers, or biomarkers, that can signal the presence of cancer and help oncologists determine the best course of therapy when cancer is present, teams of investigators are scouring stored tissue samples obtained from thousands of cancer patients.

4 Dec 2006