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NIST's new reference can aid in Huntington's disease diagnosis

A new Standard Reference Material from the National Institute of Standards and Technology will help clinical genetics labs accurately diagnose Huntington's disease, an inherited degenerative brain disorder that usually begins between ages 35 and 50 and progressively leads to physical impairment, dementia and death.

15 Apr 2011

NRC, NCKU partner to develop cancer diagnostic and treatment technologies

A Taiwanese research team led by Prof. Dar-Bin Shieh of Institute of Oral Medicine in Medical College at National Cheng Kung University has partnered with a research group led by Dr. Dennis Whitefield from National Research Council of Canada to develop innovative cancer diagnostic and treatment technologies.

15 Apr 2011

Trial of non-invasive prenatal test to determine Down syndrome successful

At the moment, the only reliable way of diagnosing chromosomal irregularities during pregnancy is to use invasive prenatal methods. This causes miscarriage in about one per cent of these risky surgical procedures.

14 Apr 2011

Pig stem cell transplants key to future research into retina treatment

A team of American and Chinese scientists studying the role of stem cells in repairing damaged retina tissue have found that pigs represent an effective proxy species to research treatments for humans. The study, published in STEM CELLS, demonstrates how cells can be isolated and transplanted between pigs, overcoming a key barrier to the research.

13 Apr 2011

NIAID finding to accelerate Chlamydia infection study

WHAT: In a new study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, scientists describe successfully mutating specific genes of Chlamydia bacteria, which cause the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States as well as a type of blindness common in developing nations.

12 Apr 2011

Breast cancer patients can benefit from new nanobodies

A new discovery published online in The FASEB Journal promises to help physicians identify patients most likely to benefit from breast cancer drug therapies. If the compound, called "Nanobody," proves effective in clinical trials, it would represent a significant advance for breast cancer drug therapy because some drugs are effective only in some people.

12 Apr 2011

Study provides new insights into tuberculosis behavior

Patience may be a virtue in a person, but in an infectious disease, it is insidious. Witness tuberculosis, which can lie dormant in a human host for decades before bursting forth into infection. TB's stealthy nature has made it difficult to decipher how it spreads, seriously hampering efforts to control it. The World Health Organization estimates that a third of the people on Earth are infected.

12 Apr 2011

Sea squirt study unravels complex mechanisms underlying heart defects

Each year in the U.S., approximately 40,000 babies are born with a heart defect. Without the proper diagnosis and treatment, many of these babies would die before their first birthday, according to Dr. Scott Klewer, a cardiologist at the UA's College of Medicine.

12 Apr 2011

Insight into neurodegenerative diseases

For years, researchers in genome stability have observed that several neurodegenerative diseases-including Huntington's disease-are associated with cell-killing proteins that are created during expansion of a CAG/CTG trinucleotide repeat.

12 Apr 2011

Israeli scientists identify genetic cause of hereditary spastic paraparesis

In a research collaboration blind to affairs of politics, ethnicity, and religion, an international team led by Israeli scientists has identified the genetic cause of a neurological disorder afflicting members of a Palestinian family.

12 Apr 2011

Study to discover mysterious biological cause of Gulf War Illness

For nearly two decades following the 1991 Gulf War, doctors noticed a trend in many of veterans of that conflict: an unexplainable cluster of symptoms including but not limited to chronic fatigue, memory loss, and depression. It wasn't until 2008 that a scientific panel from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs concluded that a third of American troops who served in the Gulf War were suffering from combinations of these symptoms, now recognized collectively as Gulf War Illness (GWI).

12 Apr 2011

Scientists develop new method to detect virus presence in cells

Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory Center for Bio-Molecular Science and Engineering have developed a method to detect the presence of viruses in cells and to study their growth.

12 Apr 2011

Researchers discover new cancer stem cells in breast tissue

Whitehead Institute researchers have discovered that a differentiated cell type found in breast tissue can spontaneously convert to a stem-cell-like state, the first time such behavior has been observed in mammalian cells.

12 Apr 2011

Scientists develop new approach to accelerate evolution of biomolecules in lab

Scientists at Harvard University have harnessed the prowess of fast-replicating bacterial viruses, also known as phages, to accelerate the evolution of biomolecules in the laboratory.

11 Apr 2011

Research on rare cancers

A cancer diagnosis can be a life-changing event. Many questions arise, with one of the first being, "Where should I be treated?" Patients diagnosed with rare cancers may have difficulty finding a physician knowledgeable in treating their type of cancer.

11 Apr 2011

Scientists to discuss innovative technologies at UMDNJ Symposium

Advances in technology have accelerated the effectiveness of scientific and medical research, producing rapid advances that were unthinkable even a decade ago. At its Third Annual Inter-School Technology Symposium, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey will bring together scientists from throughout the University who are at the forefront of this revolution.

11 Apr 2011

Immunization does not increase emergency room visit in children with inherited disorders

Children with inborn errors of metabolism received vaccines on the same immunization schedule as did healthy infants, according to Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center scientists who examined the Kaiser Permanente Northern California population. In addition, immunization was not associated with significant increases in emergency room visits or hospitalizations during the month following vaccination, according to Nicola Klein, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center.

11 Apr 2011