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Parachute device improves outcomes in patients with ischemic heart failure

A novel non-invasive device which separates healthy and damaged heart muscle and restores ventricle function improves 3 year outcomes in patients with ischemic heart failure, according to research presented at the ESC Congress 2012.

26 Aug 2012

Study addresses important early risk factors of cardiovascular health in adolescents

Early exposure to tobacco smoke is associated with various adverse health outcomes in children and adolescents, including low birth weight and impaired lung growth and function.

26 Aug 2012

Personalized colon cancer therapy based on genetics of specific cancer

University of Minnesota Medical School and Masonic Cancer Center researchers have partnered with geneticists from Genentech, Inc., to discover how some proteins may cause the development of some forms of colon cancers.

24 Aug 2012

MRC awards grant to design new drug for treatment of chronic pain

Scientists at the University of Liverpool and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital have been awarded -1.4 million to design a new drug for the treatment of chronic pain.

24 Aug 2012

Understanding photoreceptor proteins could lead to cancer drug therapy

How does a plant know when to sprout a leaf, fold its petals or bloom? Why do humans experience jet lag after a trip abroad?

24 Aug 2012

Seattle Genetics commences everolimus-SGN-75 combination phase Ib clinical trial for advanced RCC

Seattle Genetics, Inc. today announced the initiation of a phase Ib clinical trial evaluating SGN-75 in combination with everolimus (Afinitor) for patients with advanced metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

24 Aug 2012

Lilly’s solanezumab Phase 3 trials on AD do not meet primary endpoints

Eli Lilly and Company today announced that the primary endpoints, both cognitive and functional, were not met in either of the two Phase 3, double-blind, placebo-controlled solanezumab EXPEDITION trials in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.

24 Aug 2012

Quantitative look at the whole experience of patients with pancreatic cancer

Every year, nearly 45,000 Americans are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The odds against those stricken by the disease are truly dismal; pancreatic cancer almost always kills within two years after diagnosis, no matter how it is treated. Even aggressive intervention with chemotherapy, radiation or surgery rarely yields more than an extra month to a year of survival, depending on the stage of the disease.

24 Aug 2012

Diabetes journal reports results from novel experimental therapy

Results from a novel experimental therapy for Type 1 diabetes that boosts parts of the healthy immune system are reported today in the scientific journal Diabetes.

24 Aug 2012

McGill University experts to present at World Cancer Congress

The following list includes some of the McGill University experts who will be attending or presenting at the World Cancer Congress (WCC), the largest gathering of international leaders in the field of cancer, taking place in Montreal from August 27 to 30, 2012.

24 Aug 2012

ALDH enzyme marks melanoma stem cells

Cancer stem cells are defined by three abilities: differentiation, self-renewal and their ability to seed a tumor. These stem cells resist chemotherapy and many researchers posit their role in relapse. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Stem Cells, shows that melanoma cells with these abilities are marked by the enzyme ALDH, and imagines new therapies to target high-ALDH cells, potentially weeding the body of these most dangerous cancer creators.

24 Aug 2012

Abnormalities in mitochondrial length promote development of neurodegenerative diseases

Goldilocks was on to something when she preferred everything "just right." Harvard Medical School researchers have found that when it comes to the length of mitochondria, the power-producing organelles, applying the fairy tale's mantra is crucial to the health of a cell. More specifically, abnormalities in mitochondrial length promote the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

24 Aug 2012

Confocal light sheet microscopy yields high-resolution views of brain’s neural pathways

Shortly after the Hubble Space Telescope went into orbit in 1990 it was discovered that the craft had blurred vision. Fortunately, Space Shuttle astronauts were able to remedy the problem a few years later with supplemental optics. Now, a team of Italian researchers has performed a similar sight-correcting feat for a microscope imaging technique designed to explore a universe seemingly as vast as Hubble's but at the opposite end of the size spectrum—the neural pathways of the brain.

24 Aug 2012

Cocoa and blood pressure: an interview with Dr Karin Ried

The compounds in cocoa responsible for blood pressure reduction are called flavanols or polyphenols. Flavanols are also found in green tea, dark berries or red wine.

24 Aug 2012

Parental methylated histones not transferred to daughter DNA

It's widely accepted that molecular mechanisms mediating epigenetics include DNA methylation and histone modifications, but a team from Thomas Jefferson University has evidence to the contrary regarding the role of histone modifications.

24 Aug 2012

Certain human diseases may have evolutionary epigenetic origins

Ninety-six percent of a chimpanzee's genome is the same as a human's. It's the other 4 percent, and the vast differences, that pique the interest of Georgia Tech's Soojin Yi. For instance, why do humans have a high risk of cancer, even though chimps rarely develop the disease? In research published in September's American Journal of Human Genetics, Yi looked at brain samples of each species. She found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, may contribute to phenotypic changes.

24 Aug 2012

Study shows how astrocytes control new neuron generation in the brain

Researchers from the Laboratory of astrocyte biology and CNS regeneration headed by Prof. Milos Pekny just published a research article in a prestigious journal Stem Cells on the molecular mechanism that controls generation of new neurons in the brain.

24 Aug 2012

Scientists develop reliable method to convert adult blood cells into iPSCs

Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a reliable method to turn the clock back on blood cells, restoring them to a primitive stem cell state from which they can then develop into any other type of cell in the body.

24 Aug 2012

Changes in DNA methylation might be linked to evolution of humans' vulnerability to diseases

Chimpanzees rarely get cancer, or a variety of other diseases that commonly arise in humans, but their genomic DNA sequence is nearly identical to ours. So, what's their secret? Researchers reporting in the September issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, a Cell Press journal, have found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, might play a role.

24 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Cantaloupes and food safety; Diversity in health incentives

People don't ordinarily think of cantaloupes as killers, but over the last two summers 32 Americans have died after eating contaminated pieces of the popular fruit. ... Government is hyper-vigilant about terror attacks and problem airliners, which is good, but not so much about food - at least if you judge by the time it's taking the Obama administration to release new rules intended to prevent exactly the sort of food-borne outbreaks cantaloupes have caused.

24 Aug 2012