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Bloomberg and Gates to tackle tobacco use globally

Michael Bloomberg and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a truly historic commitment of $500 million to the global fight against tobacco use, focused on helping governments in developing countries implement proven policies and programs to reduce tobacco use.

23 Jul 2008

Luna awarded NIH grant for fullerene-based nanomedicines as allergy treatments

Luna Innovations Incorporated has announced the award of a $1.6 million Research Project Grant (R01) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the use of fullerene-based nanomedicines as a pathway to treat allergies and other inflammatory diseases.

22 Jul 2008

Gastroesophageal reflux disease and asthma

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center appear to have solved at least a piece of a puzzle that has mystified physicians for years: why so many patients with asthma also suffer from GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease.

21 Jul 2008

Gene expression test could help determine who needs more aggressive treatment

Researchers from four leading cancer centers have confirmed that an analysis involving a panel of genes can be used to predict which lung cancer patients will have the worst survival. The finding could one day lead to a test that would help determine who needs more aggressive treatment.

21 Jul 2008

Access to rheumatoid arthritis drugs 'curbed' for sufferers in the UK

Sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis in Britain have been warned that their access to a particularly effective class of drug will in future be limited.

20 Jul 2008

Researchers find better way to distinguish melanoma from some benign moles

University of Rochester Medical Center researchers found a new protein produced excessively in malignant melanoma, a discovery that is particularly relevant as skin cancer rates climb dramatically among young women.

17 Jul 2008

Superbug breakthrough

The week the government's chief medical officer for England, Sir Liam Donaldson, has announced that the NHS aims to create immunisation against two of the most common superbugs, MRSA and Clostridium difficile, within the next decade. But a research team led by University of Sunderland scientists has made a major breakthrough in the fight against a deadly hospital infection which kills tens of thousands of people every year, and it will be available within the next year.

17 Jul 2008

Low-sodium advice for asthmatics should be taken with a pinch of salt

Following a low-sodium diet does not appear to have any appreciable impact on asthma control, according to new research.

15 Jul 2008

Researchers step closer to delivering cancer-killing drugs to pediatric brain tumors

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Karen L. Wooley, Ph.D., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, is a step closer to delivering cancer-killing drugs to pediatric brain tumors, similar to the tumor that Senator Ted Kennedy is suffering from.

14 Jul 2008

Nuclear stress test detects problems in left ventricle

A less invasive test commonly used to diagnose coronary disease also may be used to detect one of the leading causes of heart failure, say researchers at the Medical College of Georgia.

14 Jul 2008

Colorectal cancer screening rates still too low

Although colorectal cancer screening tests are proven to reduce colorectal cancer mortality, only about half of U.S. men and women 50 and older receive the recommended tests, according to a report in the July 2008 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

14 Jul 2008

Discover of key patterns in gene packaging

Although every cell of our bodies contains the same genetic instructions, specific genes typically act only in specific cells at particular times. Other genes are "silenced" in a variety of ways. One mode of gene silencing depends upon the way DNA, the genetic material, is packed in the nucleus of cells.

13 Jul 2008

Compound honokiol, from Magnolias blocks, elusive pathway for cancer growth

A natural compound from magnolia cones blocks a pathway for cancer growth that was previously considered "undruggable," researchers have found.

13 Jul 2008

Common genetic variations increase risk of life-long nicotine addiction for young smokers

Common genetic variations affecting nicotine receptors in the nervous system can significantly increase the chance that European Americans who begin smoking by age 17 will struggle with life-long nicotine addiction. Published July 11 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, this research - led by scientists at the University of Utah together with colleagues from the University of Wisconsin - highlights the importance of preventing early exposure to tobacco through public health policies.

13 Jul 2008

Potential new way to prevent graft-versus-host disease

A new University of Michigan study in mice suggests that a drug recently approved to fight cancer tumors is also able to reduce the effects of graft-versus-host disease, a common and sometimes fatal complication for people who have had bone marrow transplants.

10 Jul 2008

46 percent of Americans show biologic exposure to the deadly toxins found in cigarettes

A new report issued today by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) exemplifies the need for nonsmoking Americans to be better protected against exposure to secondhand smoke. The report finds that 46 percent of Americans show biologic exposure to the deadly toxins found in cigarettes. Even more startling are the millions of children this statistic includes.

10 Jul 2008

Teen movie makers help create cutting edge anti-smoking films

Three hard hitting films - designed by teenagers for teenagers - were launched today after a national competition helped uncover the next generation of British film makers.

10 Jul 2008

Nanomaterials key to new strategies for blocking metastasis

A new treatment strategy using targeted nanoparticles to block metastasis with anti-cancer drugs leads to good results using significantly lower doses of toxic chemotherapy, with less collateral damage to surrounding tissue, according to a collaborative team of researchers at the Center of Nanotechnology for Treatment, Understanding, and Monitoring of Cancer at the University of California, San Diego. In designing this system, the investigators, led by David Cheresh, Ph.D., have identified what may become a generic method for using nanotechnology to target metastasis.

9 Jul 2008

Circulating tumor cells can reveal genetic signature of dangerous lung cancers

Using a miniature laboratory-on-a-chip device, a team of investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital, led by Daniel Haber, M.D., Ph.D., and Mehmet Toner, Ph.D., both members of the MIT-Harvard Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNE), has developed a method that detects and analyzes the genetic signature of rare tumor cells in the bloodstream.

9 Jul 2008

Nanocantilevers image nanoparticles in cells

Borrowing from a Nobel Prize-winning technique credited with starting the nanotechnology revolution, a team of researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Northwestern University's Nanomaterials for Cancer Diagnostics and Therapeutics has developed a method for imaging nanoparticles inside of cells.

9 Jul 2008