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New miniature sensors for analysing DNA

The sensors have the same size and thickness as a fingernail and reduce the time needed to identify DNA chains to several minutes or a few hours, depending on each chain.

3 Apr 2005

Fish is brain food

Researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) found that a diet high in docosahexenoic acid, or DHA--an omega-3 fatty acid found in relatively high concentrations in cold-water fish--dramatically slowed the progression of Alzheimer's disease in mice.

28 Mar 2005

Evidence SARS virus may spread through the air

Two new studies present evidence that the virus causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) may spread through the air, not just through direct contact with contaminated water droplets as previous research had shown.

23 Mar 2005

Antibodies from tobacco plants protect against anthrax

Scientists have produced, in tobacco plants, human antibodies that could be used to treat anthrax exposure. They reported their findings at the 2005 American Society for Microbiology Biodefense Research Meeting.

23 Mar 2005

MicroJet injector for painless injections

Parents know all too well the pain experienced by their children - and themselves - when the time comes for immunizations at the doctor's office.

21 Mar 2005

Drug-resistant bacteria on uncooked poultry products varies by commercial brand

The presence of drug-resistant, pathogenic bacteria on uncooked poultry products varies by commercial brand and is likely related to antibiotic use in production, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

16 Mar 2005

Stem research made safer

A team at Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, looking for ways to make safer stem cells for use in medical therapies, say they have grown human cells without the use of contaminating animal cells.

8 Mar 2005

New system for growing human embryonic stem cells could make therapies utilising the cells safer for patients

A new system for growing human embryonic stem cells could make therapies utilising the cells safer for patients, concludes a study published online by The Lancet (Tuesday, March 8, 2005).

8 Mar 2005

System for producing embryonic stem cells which markedly reduces the risk of contamination with pathogens

A.C.T. Holdings and Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACT) reported the first derivation of human embryonic stem cells in completely feeder-layer-free and serum-free conditions.

8 Mar 2005

Chips may cause cancer

Acrylamide, a contaminant shown to cause cancer in animals forms in the high-temperature frying, roasting or baking of foods like potato chips and crisps, coffee, and pastries, sweet biscuits, breads, rolls and toast, and may be a public health concern, according to two UN agencies.

5 Mar 2005

Two FSA's, one mad one happy with Premier Foods

Two weeks after the worst food scare since BSE, it appears Premier Foods will not be penalized by the the Food Standards Agency (FSA). However Britain's other FSA might not agree.

1 Mar 2005

Update on Sudan I contamination

The Food Standards Agency has released an update on food products contaminated with the illegal dye Sudan I.

22 Feb 2005

Global warming will bring climate-related health crises

As a result, governments and health officials need to begin to think about how to respond to an anticipated increase in the number and scope of climate-related health crises, ranging from killer heat waves and famine, to floods and waves of infectious diseases.

20 Feb 2005

Screening for toxoplasmosis for all pregnant women and newborns is necessary

Physicians found that signs, symptoms and identifiable risk factors are absent in more than half of the mothers of infants with congenital toxoplasmosis in a national study of children with this disease.

9 Feb 2005

Migration and Aids: social control, a brake on the spread of HIV in Senegal?

Ever since Aids appeared, migration has been thought to be a driving force behind the epidemic. The disease is often represented either as an “imported pathology”, migrants being the disease (or at least risk), carriers or as a “pathology of adaptation”.

25 Jan 2005

Anti-bacterial additive triclocarban widespread In U.S. waterways

Many rivers and streams in the United States are believed to contain a toxic antimicrobial chemical whose environmental fate was never thoroughly scrutinized despite large scale production and usage for almost half a century, according to an analysis conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

24 Jan 2005

Safety established for Vaxin's first flu vaccine in clinical trial

Vaxin Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company, has demonstrated, in a Phase I human clinical study, that the company's recombinant influenza vaccine provides a potential alternative to traditional flu vaccines.

12 Jan 2005

Isolating intensive-care patients infected with MRSA does not reduce cross-infection

Results of a UK study published online suggest that the widely practised approach of isolating intensive-care patients infected with MRSA does not reduce cross-infection. Authors of the study caution that this finding should not be extended to general hospital wards, and needs further confirmation from larger studies.

7 Jan 2005

PAHO urges donors to wait for assessment of Asian tragedy's needs

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is urging all citizens, organizations and governments wishing to help the tsunami victims in southern and Southeast Asia to wait for an assessment of what's needed before sending anything.

28 Dec 2004

UN Population Fund warns women, girls especially vulnerable

In the aftermath of devastating tsunamis that struck several South and South-East Asian countries on Sunday, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is calling on governments, sister United Nations agencies and other humanitarian partners to ensure that the special needs of women and girls are factored into all short- and medium-term relief planning.

28 Dec 2004