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New system may help restore vision in eye diseases

Using tiny solar-panel-like cells surgically placed underneath the retina, scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have devised a system that may someday restore sight to people who have lost vision because of certain types of degenerative eye diseases.

14 May 2012

Grade 12 researcher wins top honors at 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada

An Ontario girl, 16, who invented a disease-fighting, anti-aging compound using nano-particles from trees, won top national honours today in the 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada.

9 May 2012

Eye color linked to high-risk for skin conditions

Eye color may be an indicator of whether a person is high-risk for certain serious skin conditions. A study, led by the University of Colorado School of Medicine, shows people with blue eyes are less likely to have vitiligo.

7 May 2012

Blond gene among Solomon islanders baffles researchers

It is known that skin and hair color is mostly inherited from parents but whole populations have evolved to share certain traits. It is also known that people who live closer to the equator have darker skin and hair colour to protect against the Sun. The exception is found in the Solomon Islands, an archipelago east of Papua New Guinea which has the highest proportion of natural blonds outside of Europe despite being just south of the equator.

3 May 2012

Competition to celebrate art in medicine

It turns out beauty really is skin deep. A hair follicle or skin specimen that doesn't look like much of anything to the naked eye can become a complex, colorful work of art under a microscope. Mayo Clinic dermatologists struck by the beauty they see in the cellular have started a competition to celebrate art in medicine. The winning entries appear in the May issue of the Journal of Cutaneous Pathology.

3 May 2012

Vanity and fashion trends affect women's health

Fashion trends and concerns about appearance could be having a detrimental effect on the health and fitness of our nation's women according to a new survey commissioned by Cancer Research UK's Race for Life, in partnership with Tesco.

2 May 2012

Non-toxic green tea shampoo to treat dandruff

Dandruff sufferers now have a non-toxic product to treat the condition, says a researcher at Georgia Health Sciences University.

2 May 2012

Scientists are working out how sequencing the human genome can help treat disease

Though the human genome has been sequenced, scientists are still trying to figure out how the accomplishment can help people, for example, how it can be used to treat disease. As University of Massachusetts Amherst geneticist Jacob Mayfield notes, "It was easy to think of the human genome as the big prize, but what we realize now is, it's just a foot in the door."

2 May 2012

U of U develops small implantable middle-ear microphone

Cochlear implants have restored basic hearing to some 220,000 deaf people, yet a microphone and related electronics must be worn outside the head, raising reliability issues, preventing patients from swimming and creating social stigma.

30 Apr 2012

Mirror-microRNAs control multiple aspects of brain function

Our genes control many aspects of who we are - from the colour of our hair to our vulnerability to certain diseases - but how are the genes, and consequently the proteins they make themselves controlled? Researchers have discovered a new group of molecules which control some of the fundamental processes behind memory function and may hold the key to developing new therapies for treating neurodegenerative diseases.

30 Apr 2012

Study highlights role of cellular forces in progression of cardiovascular disease

Clogging of pipes leading to the heart is the planet's number one killer. Surgeons can act as medical plumbers to repair some blockages, but we don't fully understand how this living organ deteriorates or repairs itself over time.

27 Apr 2012

Longer looks: Why we still have faith in physicians

This patient is no fool, and she does't award trust liberally. … Yet, somehow, (Mary) Morse-Dwelley never lost faith in Pellegrini. She'd hear the click of her doctor's shoes in the hallway, see her blond hair and funky glasses, and feel confident that she was in good hands. This, too, represents a broad trend: As we have become better-informed patients, we have grown more cynical about a health care system that is ever more corporate and reliant on technology.

27 Apr 2012

GSK receives FDA approval for Votrient to treat advanced soft tissue sarcoma

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Votrient (pazopanib) to treat patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma who have previously received chemotherapy. Soft tissue sarcoma is a cancer that begins in the muscle, fat, fibrous tissue, and other tissues.

27 Apr 2012

Louisiana Tech professor receives NSF CAREER grant

Dr. Niel Crews, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Louisiana Tech University and a member of Tech's Institute for Micromanufacturing, has been awarded an Early Career Development grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his proposal, "Thermal Gradient Microflow Calorimetry using Anisotropic Temperature Sensors."

25 Apr 2012

Cancer therapy with common cold virus

Common viruses have become the latest weapon against cancer. There is the case of the eight-year-old African boy diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma at a Ugandan health clinic. He was exposed to the measles virus and in the next few weeks his tumour regressed completely and he entered remission. But only relatively recently have scientists clinically examined the interaction between viruses and cancers in the growing area of oncolytic virotherapy.

24 Apr 2012

FDA issues draft guidelines on approval process for use of nanoparticles in food and cosmetics

The United States Food and Drugs Administraton (FDA) has proposed that food companies that want to use tiny engineered particles called nanoparticles in their packaging may have to provide extra testing data to show the products are safe.

23 Apr 2012

Intrinsically disordered protein responsible for inactivating BK channel

Tiny pores, or channels, embedded in cell membranes are critical to the healthy functioning of cells. Charged atoms, or ions, move through these channels to generate the electrical signals that allow cells to communicate with one another.

23 Apr 2012

Scientists grow hair on bald mice

Japanese researchers have successfully regrown hair on a bald mouse. This could mean hair related solutions for many men and women with baldness in future.

22 Apr 2012

Study pinpoints mechanism by which spindle checkpoint proteins bind chromosomes

The development of more effective cancer drugs could be a step nearer thanks to the discovery, by scientists at Warwick Medical School, of how an inbuilt 'security check' operates to guarantee cells divide with the correct number of chromosomes.

21 Apr 2012

CPMC surgeons successfully reattach forehead and scalp of a 22-year-old Stockton woman

Surgeons at the renowned Buncke Clinic at California Pacific Medical Center, part of the Sutter Health network, have successfully reattached the forehead and scalp of a 22-year-old Stockton woman whose hair was caught in machinery at her workplace. This type of surgery is extremely rare, and has been successfully performed only a handful of times world-wide.

20 Apr 2012