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New insights into prion propagation

Prions - infectious, oddly-folded proteins that are the main suspects in fatal neurodegenerative diseases such as Cruetzfeldt-Jakob and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or "mad cow" - remain mostly a mystery to scientists.

9 Jul 2007

Researchers discover why some mosquitoes are resistant to malaria

A team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers has discovered why some mosquitoes are resistant to malaria, a finding that may one day help fight a disease that afflicts and kills millions of people.

9 Jul 2007

New insight into neural stem cells

Scientists have discovered that adult neural stem cells, which exist in the brain throughout life, are not a single, homogeneous group.

9 Jul 2007

Researchers pinpoint brain region responsible for pain's ability to affect cognitive processing

Anybody who's tried to concentrate on work while suffering a headache knows that pain compellingly commands attention,which is how evolution helped ensure survival in a painful world.

9 Jul 2007

Hospital operators may fail to steer people with stroke symptoms to call 9-1-1

Nearly a quarter of hospital or ,healthline, operators mistakenly routed a caller describing classic stroke symptoms to primary care doctors rather than to 9-1-1, according to a research project published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

9 Jul 2007

Scientists discover protein instrumental to brain development and repair

Scientists at Children's National Medical Center have demonstrated conclusively that a specific protein and its signaling activity are instrumental in myelination and remyelination, processes essential to the creation and repair of the brain's white matter.

9 Jul 2007

Chemical in brain acts like a fuel gauge

The concept that a drop in blood sugar triggers a craving for food is best understood just before lunchtime. But exactly how the process unfolds has proven difficult to explain, even on a full stomach.

9 Jul 2007

New minimally invasive method of treating cancer

A team of biomedical engineers at Virginia Tech and the University of California at Berkeley has developed a new minimally invasive method of treating cancer, and they anticipate clinical trials on individuals with prostate cancer will begin soon.

9 Jul 2007

Genome detectives reveal gene suspect for bowel cancer

Scientists in Britain have identified a gene they say increases the risk of bowel cancer by 20%.

8 Jul 2007

Chronic fatigue: clues in the blood

Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) believe that blood may hold vital insights into what is happening in the brain of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

8 Jul 2007

Cancer risk in HIV, transplant patients

HIV/AIDS and kidney transplant patients are at much greater risk of contracting 20 different types of cancer than the general population, according to a land mark paper in The Lancet.

8 Jul 2007

Gene found that protects from serious kidney disease

A combination of mice and patient studies sheds light on cause and possible new therapies of kidney diseases.

8 Jul 2007

Discovery of new gene with links to childhood asthma

New treatments for childhood asthma could be in the pipeline following the discovery of a gene associated with the condition.

5 Jul 2007

New working principle in cancer treatment

Due to defects in chromosomal distribution, a majority of tumor cells would not be able to survive were it not for a trick that cancer cells have developed to avoid this chaos in the genetic material.

5 Jul 2007

Breakthrough new asthma gene found

In a large-scale study conducted with 2,643 children, international researchers with the participation of the Department of Experimental Pneumology of Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB), Germany (Prof. Dr. Albrecht Bufe), have discovered a gene variant that contributes significantly to the risk of childhood asthma.

5 Jul 2007

Global control of micronutrient deficiencies

Malnutrition is still the most serious threat to the health of the world population and the most important cause of infant mortality in the world. About one third of the population in developing countries is faced with micronutrient deficiencies, such as vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

5 Jul 2007

Repeated sleep loss affects ability to compensate for lost sleep

We've all experienced that occasional all-too-short night of sleep -- staying out too late at a party on a weeknight, studying into the wee hours for a morning exam or being kept up during the night with a sick child.

4 Jul 2007

Myeloperoxidase offers clues to heart attack in seemingly healthy people

We've all wondered how a seemingly healthy person can actually be at high risk for heart disease or a heart attack.

4 Jul 2007

High cholesterol makes people more prone to tick disease human granulocytic anaplasmosis

People who have high cholesterol levels may be much more susceptible to a particular disease transmitted by the bites of ticks, a new study in mice suggests.

4 Jul 2007

Stem cell procedure successfully treats amyloidosis patients

Researchers from the Stem Cell Transplant Program and the Amyloid Treatment and Research Program at Boston University Medical Center (BUMC) have found that tandem cycles of high-dose chemotherapy and blood stem cell transplantation can help treat patients with immunoglobulin-light chain (AL) Amyloidosis who did not respond to initial treatment with this method.

4 Jul 2007