Toxins News and Research

RSS

Antibiotic resistance awareness: an interview with Professor Colin Garner

The threat of antibiotic resistance is very real. It is estimated that 700,000 people die each from resistant infections. In Europe the figure is 25,000 deaths and a similar number in the USA.

7 Sep 2015

Researchers one step closer to developing synthetic and cheaper antivenoms

Researchers involved in an international collaboration across six institutions, including the University of Copenhagen and the National Aquarium of Denmark (Den Blå Planet), have successfully identified the exact composition of sea snake venom, which makes the future development of synthetic antivenoms more realistic.

4 Sep 2015

Simple checklist to help parents determine their children’s school environment

Grassroots Environmental Education, a science-based environmental health non-profit organization based in New York, has issued a simple three-point checklist for parents of school-age children to help them determine if their child's school environment is as healthy as it can be.

4 Sep 2015

Study: High school athletes use smokeless tobacco at a higher rate compared to non-athletes

High school athletes who play on sports teams smoke tobacco products at a lower rate than non-athletes, but use smokeless tobacco at a higher rate, according to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in today's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

3 Sep 2015

New UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center launched to protect communities from unhealthy exposures

A cross-disciplinary center focused on identifying connections between environmental toxins and disease has been established at UC Davis Health System with the ultimate goal of developing preventions and policies that protect communities from unhealthy exposures.

1 Sep 2015

FDA warns several tobacco manufacturers for marketing their products with health-related claims

The Food and Drug Administration today has taken a critically important action to protect the American public from tobacco industry deception by warning several manufacturers – most prominently Reynolds American's subsidiary, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, and its Natural American Spirit cigarette brand – that they are violating the law by marketing their products with health-related claims, including "additive-free" and "natural." If these products continue to make these claims, the FDA can and should order them removed from the market.

28 Aug 2015

Research: Mechanisms behind bacterial warfare could be harnessed to target pathogenic bacteria

Two UC Santa Barbara graduate students have demonstrated how certain microbes exploit proteins in nearby bacteria to deliver toxins and kill them.

28 Aug 2015

Breakthrough approach saves patient's eyes and life from flesh-eating disease

The National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation today announced that a patient's eyes—and life—were saved by doctors at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, TN, working with NNFF, NovaBay Pharmaceuticals and Dr. John Crew, director of the Advanced Wound Care Center at Seton Medical Center in Daly City, CA.

27 Aug 2015

Researchers to design, test sensors to protect firefighters from respiratory damage and illnesses

During the next three years, researchers at Case Western Reserve University will team with NASA Glenn Research Center and firefighters nationally, from Cleveland to Oregon, to design and test sensors aimed at protecting firefighters from respiratory damage and illnesses.

27 Aug 2015

Elite CBD Remedy Tincture now available through Mary's Nutritionals

Elite Botanicals, the leading cultivator of CBD-rich hemp in Colorado, today announced that it's Elite CBD Remedy Tincture is now available through medical and recreational dispensaries in Colorado, as well as online through Mary's Nutritionals.

26 Aug 2015

European chestnut leaves contain ingredients with power to disarm deadly staph bacteria

Leaves of the European chestnut tree contain ingredients with the power to disarm dangerous staph bacteria without boosting its drug resistance, scientists have found.

24 Aug 2015

Wyss Institute scientists develop improved blood-cleansing therapeutic device to treat sepsis

Last year, a Wyss Institute team of scientists described the development of a new device to treat sepsis that works by mimicking our spleen. It cleanses pathogens and toxins from blood circulating through a dialysis-like circuit. Now, the Wyss Institute team has developed an improved device that synergizes with conventional antibiotic therapies and that has been streamlined to better position it for near-term translation to the clinic.

21 Aug 2015

Scientists create membrane capable of detecting organisms that trigger diarrhea, intestinal problems

A group of scientists from the Institute of Ecology and the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Mexico, created a membrane capable of simultaneously detecting numerous organisms in the water or food that cause diarrhea and intestinal problems. This health problem annually kills 760 000 children under the age of five, according to the World Health Organization.

20 Aug 2015

MU researcher proposes method to identify human vulnerabilities

Historically, males have been considered the vulnerable sex, sometimes called "male vulnerability." Charles Darwin noted that boys are more likely to die in infancy than girls and have a higher risk of premature death throughout their lifetimes. Now, a researcher at the University of Missouri suggests that research in "male vulnerability" should be expanded to include "female vulnerability."

18 Aug 2015

Researchers reveal how toxins turn healthy proteins into poison to disrupt immune response

Researchers who have revealed a highly efficient way that bacteria use toxins to interrupt the immune response say that until now, the trickery of these toxins has been underappreciated in science.

11 Aug 2015

ONR holds workshop to discuss impact of sleep deprivation on warfighters

Americans are famously hard chargers who usually don't get enough shut-eye. That's particularly true in military ranks, where operational tempo is fast paced and mission completion paramount. Sleep can become a casualty, and fatigue too often a reality.

11 Aug 2015

HHMI scientists identify stem cells that give rise to functional liver cells

Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists have identified stem cells in the liver that give rise to functional liver cells. The work solves a long-standing mystery about the origin of new cells in the liver, which must constantly be replenished as cells die off, even in a healthy organ.

6 Aug 2015

New biosensors detect efficient microbial workers that produce chemical, pharmaceutical commodities

Super productive factories of the future could employ fleets of genetically engineered bacterial cells, such as common E. coli, to produce valuable chemical commodities in an environmentally friendly way.

5 Aug 2015

IU scientists find evidence that invisible war between microorganisms may affect human health

Health experts have warned for years that the overuse of antibiotics is creating "superbugs" able to resist drugs treating infection.

31 Jul 2015

Researchers demonstrate direct connection between NOX proteins and liver fibrosis

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have demonstrated a direct connection between two signaling proteins and liver fibrosis, a scarring process underlying chronic liver disease, the 12th leading cause of death in the United States.

30 Jul 2015