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Study looks at Atorvastatin and cholesterol

Scientists report in the October issue of the Journal of Lipid Research new details about how a drug used against heart disease helps to unclog blood vessels from an excess of cholesterol and fats.

18 Sep 2007

Solid state NMR spectroscopy reveals the workings of 'Mother Nature's Blowtorch'

Using atom-level imaging techniques, University of Michigan researchers have revealed important structural details of an enzyme system known as "Mother Nature's blowtorch" for its role in helping the body efficiently break down many drugs and toxins.

17 Sep 2007

DNA as a picoforce standard

DNA, the biomolecule that provides the blueprint for life, has a lesser-known identity as a stretchy polymer.

17 Sep 2007

Zebrafish shed light on human mitochondrial diseases

Zebrafish can now be used to study COX deficiencies in humans, a discovery that gives scientists an unprecedented window to view the earliest stages of mitochondrial impairments that lead to potentially fatal metabolic disorders, according to researchers at the University of Oregon.

13 Sep 2007

Phase 3 study on novel oral direct thrombin inhibitor

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced that the September 15 issue of The Lancet will publish results from the RE-NOVATE study, which investigated dabigatran etexilate as a potential therapy for patients undergoing total hip replacement surgery.

13 Sep 2007

Breast cancer drug tamoxifen helps treat symptoms of bipolar disease

Government researchers in the United States have found that the breast cancer drug tamoxifen helped treat the manic symptoms of bipolar disease.

13 Sep 2007

Tamoxifen for bipolar disorder

The medication tamoxifen, best known as a treatment for breast cancer, dramatically reduces symptoms of the manic phase of bipolar disorder more quickly than many standard medications for the mental illness, a new study shows.

13 Sep 2007

Rochester receives $1.2 million to battle rare childhood disease

"For an orphan disease like Batten, which has such a clear-cut course of deterioration and no present cure, this grant is transformative both for these families and for us, as clinicians and researchers."

12 Sep 2007

Tangerine peel extract kills certain cancer cells

Research presented at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) in Manchester, shows that a compound extracted from tangerine peel can kill certain human cancer cells.

11 Sep 2007

Sugar key to malaria parasite invasion

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute (JHMRI) have identified a sugar in mosquitoes that allows the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, to attach itself to the mosquito's gut.

11 Sep 2007

Scientists identify process that causes blood vessels to constrict during and after a heart attack

They've also demonstrated that delivering a vital molecule that is depleted during this process directly to those blood vessels can reverse damage and help restore blood flow.

11 Sep 2007

Mutations in the insulin gene can cause permanent neonatal diabetes

Mutations in the insulin gene can cause permanent neonatal diabetes, an unusual form of diabetes that affects very young children and results in lifelong dependence on insulin injections, report researchers from the University of Chicago and Peninsula University (Exeter, UK) in Sept. 18, 2007, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published early online.

11 Sep 2007

Novel enzyme may offer huge range of potential therapeutic agents

By guiding an enzyme down a new evolutionary pathway, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has created a new form of an enzyme capable of producing a range of potential new therapeutic agents with anticancer and antibiotic properties.

10 Sep 2007

Congestive heart failure is rare among leukemia patients who take imatinib

Congestive heart failure rarely occurs among leukemia patients who take imatinib, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center found after an exhaustive review of the detailed medical histories of 1,276 patients who enrolled in clinical trials for the drug.

10 Sep 2007

A molecular probe that may one day light up tumors while surgery is in progress

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a molecular probe that sets aglow tumor cells within living animals. Their goal is to use the probe to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other diseases.

10 Sep 2007

Research highlights importance of starch in human beginnings

To think that world domination could have begun in the cheeks. That's one interpretation of a discovery, published online September 9 in Nature Genetics, which indicates that humans carry extra copies of the salivary amylase gene.

10 Sep 2007

New method to create natural drug products

Until now, only the intricate machinery inside cells could take a mix of enzyme ingredients, blend them together and deliver a natural product with an elaborate chemical structure such as penicillin.

5 Sep 2007

Nanotechnology helps identify molecular signature common to Lou Gehrig's disease

A nanotechnology developed by a University at Buffalo professor has enabled researchers to identify a molecular signature common to both familial and sporadic cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease.

5 Sep 2007

New way to burn off calories

A new study in the September issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press, points to a new method for burning off all those irresistible extra calories—by turning on an energy-draining, but otherwise futile, cycle of protein synthesis and breakdown.

5 Sep 2007