Toxins News and Research

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Summer safety tips to keep kids safe

Summer fun is in full swing, which coincides with an increase in bumps, bruises, scrapes and possibly worse. To keep kids safe, prevention and first-aid should be at the forefront of parents' minds this summer according to Dr. Karen Judy, Loyola University Health System pediatric safety expert and professor of pediatrics at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

23 Jun 2011

Unraveling molecular dysfunction due to environmental toxin exposure

In a new article published in the journal Molecular Neurodegeneration, researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine take some of the first steps toward unraveling the molecular dysfunction that occurs when proteins are exposed to environmental toxins. Their discovery helps further explain recent NIH findings that demonstrate the link between Parkinson's disease and two particular pesticides - rotenone and paraquat.

23 Jun 2011

Frequent nighttime home dialysis more effective for patients with kidney failure

Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have found more evidence of the benefits of home dialysis for patients with kidney failure.

22 Jun 2011

Neogen announces acquisition of VeroMara

Neogen Corporation announced today that it has acquired the assets of the VeroMara seafood testing laboratory from its parent company, GlycoMar Ltd.

20 Jun 2011

Scientists uncover how immune system responds to invading anthrax bacteria

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences have uncovered how the body's immune system launches its survival response to the notorious and deadly bacterium anthrax.

17 Jun 2011

IITA launches initiative to prevent aflatoxin contamination in African crops

African agricultural research groups led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and partners have launched a project seeking to provide farmers with a natural, safe, and cost-effective solution to prevent contamination of maize and peanut by a deadly cancer-causing poison, aflatoxin, in a bid to improve the health and income of families in Nigeria and Kenya.

17 Jun 2011

Food coloring additives do not cause ADHD in children

When University of Maryland psychologist Andrea Chronis-Tuscano testified before a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hearing last March, it changed her mind about possible risks of artificial food coloring for children, and drove her to look more closely at the products in her own pantry that she feeds her kids.

15 Jun 2011

Researchers discover genetic factor that can regulate obesity-induced inflammation

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have discovered a genetic factor that can regulate obesity-induced inflammation that contributes to chronic health problems.

14 Jun 2011

Scientists identify six influenza A viruses similar to 2009 pandemic strain

Scientists using new mathematical and computational techniques have identified six influenza A viruses that have particularly close genetic relationships to the H1N1 "swine" flu virus that swept through the United States beginning in the spring of 2009. That virus eventually killed almost 18,000 people worldwide.

14 Jun 2011

Only 35% of anaesthesiologists carry out cardiac output monitoring during high-risk surgery

Only 35% of anaesthesiologists are carrying out a simple procedure during high-risk surgery that can make a significant impact on how well patients recover from their operations, according to new research presented today at the European Anaesthesiology Congress in Amsterdam.

13 Jun 2011

NIH awards $1.9M grant to Scripps Research scientist for malaria study

A scientist from The Scripps Research Institute has won a four-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to better understand the parasite that causes malaria, laying the groundwork to develop better drugs to combat the widespread and deadly disease.

10 Jun 2011

Guardian Air REME+ system helps reduce germs, allergens and airborne toxins

Hospitals, nursery schools, and other high-traffic indoor spaces have been acting as quiet proving grounds for an advanced new form of air purification. These are normally the kinds of places where germs, allergens and airborne toxins flourish. That's soon going to be a thing of the past.

7 Jun 2011

New E. coli outbreak alarms Europe

An Escherichia coli (E. coli) outbreak of disease in Germany has left 22 people dead and it is alarming populations across Europe.

5 Jun 2011

U of Alberta researchers win Canadian Society of Chemistry award

A one-of-a-kind Canadian research group, based in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, has now won every award handed out by the Canadian Society of Chemistry for analytical and environmental chemistry.

4 Jun 2011

Geophagy protects stomach against toxins, parasites and pathogens

Most of us never considered eating the mud pies we made as kids, but for many people all over the world, dining on dirt is nothing out of the ordinary. Now an extensive meta-analysis forthcoming in the June issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology helps explain why.

3 Jun 2011

Scientists develop carbohydrate-based vaccine against C. difficile infection

There is now a promising vaccine candidate for combating the pathogen which causes one of the most common and dangerous hospital infections. An international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam has developed a vaccine based on a carbohydrate against the Clostridium difficile bacterium, which is known to cause serious gastrointestinal diseases mainly in hospitals.

31 May 2011

'Spongy' silicon biosensor shows promise for medical, security applications

Vanderbilt University engineers have created a "spongy" silicon biosensor that shows promise not only for medical diagnostics, but also for the detection of dangerous toxins and other tiny molecules in the environment.

27 May 2011

Monitoring adherence to mandatory hand-washing protocols can help stop outbreaks of C. diff bacteria

Just like intelligence agents watching for the real terrorists threatening to attack, monitoring healthcare worker adherence to mandatory hand-washing protocols via hand-washing squads in hospitals can go a long way to stop outbreaks of the opportunistic C. diff bacteria, says Irena Kenneley, an infection prevention and control expert and assistant professor of nursing from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

20 May 2011

Pioneer of ‘organ-on-a-chip’ technology to speak at Imperial College London

The potential of microscopic organ-on-a-chip devices that mimic the way real organs work, so that scientists and engineers can model the effects of therapies more accurately, will be discussed by a pioneer in bioengineering at Imperial College London this week.

17 May 2011

Over-activation of single gene promotes leukemia, but its loss causes liver cancer

An international team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and the Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital in China, say a human gene implicated in the development of leukemia also acts to prevent cancer of the liver.

17 May 2011