Cystic Fibrosis News and Research

Latest Cystic Fibrosis News and Research

Why different tissues in the human body vary in their susceptibility to "amyloid" diseases

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute are reporting the results of a recent study that addresses why different tissues in the human body vary in their susceptibility to "amyloid" diseases, which include Alzheimer's disease and a cluster of ailments called the familial amyloidoses.

7 Apr 2005

Novel strategy to create a genetic vaccine against P. aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bacterium that can cause respiratory tract infections, which can be life threatening in patients who have cystic fibrosis. It is therefore important to develop a vaccine against this pathogen.

3 Apr 2005

Mountaineering doctors hike medicine to new heights with Xtreme Everest

Doctors working at the edge of extreme are set to climb the world’s tallest mountain to look death in the face – and take its pulse. The medical research team will make the first ever measurements of blood oxygen in the ‘death zone’, at altitudes above 8,000 metres where the human body has struggled - and frequently failed - to survive.

16 Mar 2005

Medical tests in the privacy of your own home

A San Francisco-based testing company is currently offering genetic testing, for a predisposition to cystic fibrosis, blood clotting, iron overload and a heightened risk for lung and liver diseases; prices ranging from $199 to $380.

7 Mar 2005

U.S. cancer researchers launch first American-Israeli cancer conference

Leading cancer researchers from Baltimore, Miami and New Jersey have organized the first Joint American-Israeli Conference on Cancer. The meeting, scheduled for March 16 through 18 in Jerusalem, seeks to foster collaboration among physicians and scientists in the two countries.

1 Mar 2005

Beginning of new wave - first generation to turn 18 since technology and treatments have allowed them to survive to adulthood

More than half a million children with special health-care needs will turn 18 this year, the first generation to reach adulthood since sweeping medical advances ensured an unprecedented number would survive congenital conditions that until recently would have killed them.

27 Feb 2005

Safer approach to treating children with cystic fibrosis

Treating chest infections in young cystic fibrosis patients with an antibiotic once instead of three times daily is as effective and less toxic, conclude the results of a randomised trial published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

10 Feb 2005

Potential treatments for neurofibromatosis

Scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine are closing in on potential treatments for neurofibromatosis, a genetic disease that afflicts 100,000 Americans with nerve tissue tumors, some of which become cancerous.

3 Feb 2005

Patient safety measures work at children’s hospitals

In recent years, children's hospitals have joined in the national push to improve patient safety and avoid preventable problems. But it has been hard to measure progress, because of uncertainty about whether standard patient safety measurement tools apply to their patients, who are younger, smaller and on average sicker than those at other hospitals.

4 Jan 2005

£2.5 million to support further research into gene therapy for cystic fibrosis

The funding commitment was made in the Genetics White Paper, 'Our Inheritance, Our Future: Realising the potential of genetics in the NHS' and will help to ensure that those with cystic fibrosis benefit as soon as possible from the latest advances in genetic knowledge and technologies.

4 Jan 2005

Australia leads the way in new screening technology for babies

Australia is one of the first countries in the world to implement new screening technology across all States that will help detect an increased number of diseases in newborns.

21 Dec 2004

Trimming fat overcomes one of the major obstacles to drug design

Biochemists at Ohio State University and their colleagues have overcome one of the major obstacles to drug design, by trimming some of the fat from a molecular sponge that scientists use to study proteins.

8 Dec 2004

Research shows that even bacteria don't put their eggs in one basket

Diversification helps reduce overall risk by putting your eggs in more than one basket and is a strategy that strengthens groups of all kinds -- from forests challenged with environmental stress to stock market portfolios in uncertain times. Findings from University of Iowa researchers show that even bacteria have learned this important lesson.

16 Nov 2004

Discovery of new compounds that may treat mucus build-up associated with cystic fibrosis

Preliminary studies show these compounds improve the flow of mucus through the respiratory tract, allowing airways to clear more quickly and efficiently.

14 Nov 2004

Treatment to control gastroesophageal reflux disease in children found to be ineffective

According to a study published in the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, more than 60 percent of the children who received surgical fundoplication to control gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) had recurring symptoms of the disease months following surgery.

4 Nov 2004

Genetic evidence to support an inherited tendency to retain salt

Researchers at the University of Chicago have found genetic evidence to support the sodium-retention hypothesis, a controversial 30-year-old theory that the high rate of hypertension in certain ethnic groups is caused, in part, by an inherited tendency to retain salt.

29 Oct 2004

Innovative help for parents of autistic children

In 1997, the Pennsylvania Department of Education held a focus group of parents with autistic children throughout the state to learn more about their needs. George Shadie of Luzerne County was one of those parents.

11 Oct 2004

A new study shows that sick children can go home from the hospital more quickly

A new study shows that sick children can go home from the hospital more quickly, less expensively and with less chance of a repeat visit if children's hospitals use a unique source of national data to check their performance against other children's hospitals and show them where they can improve.

5 Oct 2004

New gene therapy technique may help treat Alzheimer's disease

Investigators at Rush University Medical Center have successfully initiated a new technique that uses gene therapy to deliver nerve growth factor into regions of the brain where neurons are degenerating, in order to prevent cell death and reverse cell atrophy, two hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

21 Sep 2004

Pioneering work with human embryonic stem cells could speed up development of new treatments for Parkinson’s and diabetes

Pioneering work with human embryonic stem (hES) cells could speed up the development of new treatments for a range of degenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and diabetes according to Dr Stephen Minger of King’s College London, speaking today at the BA Festival of Science.

8 Sep 2004