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Young stem/progenitor cells improve health and life of progeria mice

Mice bred to age too quickly seemed to have sipped from the fountain of youth after scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine injected them with stem cell-like progenitor cells derived from the muscle of young, healthy animals.

4 Jan 2012

Foreign aid to MICs needs 'more sophisticated approach' instead of cuts

"[T]he E.U., the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the World Bank's International Development Association ... want to save money during a fiscal crunch by cutting off aid to middle-income countries (MIC)," Andy Sumner and Amanda Glassman of the Center for Global Development write in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

4 Jan 2012

Researchers discover a way to make cigarette smoking less toxic

From a health care perspective, the best cigarette is no cigarette, but for the millions of people who try to quit smoking every year, researchers from Cornell University may have found a way to make cigarette smoking less toxic.

4 Jan 2012

WHO issues warning about risks of research on human engineered bird flu

"The World Health Organization issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled," Reuters reports.

4 Jan 2012

ASE/EAE issue recommendations on image acquisition using 3DE

For the first time, a joint committee of the European Association for Echocardiography and the American Society of Echocardiography have issued recommendations on image acquisition using three-dimensional echocardiography.

4 Jan 2012

Moving forward: The Medicare debate in 2012

Baby boomers take note: Medicare as your parents have known it is headed for big changes no matter who wins the White House in 2012. You may not like it, but you might have to accept it. Dial down the partisan rhetoric and surprising similarities emerge from competing policy prescriptions by President Barack Obama and leading Republicans such as Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

4 Jan 2012

Antigen Express to move AE37 cancer vaccine into larger clinical trials

Generex Biotechnology Corporation today provided an update to the clinical development & regulatory strategy for its cancer vaccine, AE37.

4 Jan 2012

Big picture: ACO progress report; Evaluating new laws based on job creation

Modern Healthcare takes a look at the 32 medical groups that were named late last year to be the accountable care organization "pioneers" and how their planning is taking shape. Meanwhile, The New York Times examines how job creation has become the buzz word for lobbyists.

4 Jan 2012

BioTime to market muscle progenitor cell lines bearing hereditary diseases

BioTime, Inc. today announced that it has elected to market progenitors of muscle stem cells bearing hereditary diseases. BioTime will produce the products from five human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines from Reproductive Genetics Institute (RGI) of Chicago, Illinois.

4 Jan 2012

India's successful polio vaccination campaign could bring first disease-free year

"In India, a mass vaccination campaign involving more than a million volunteers reduced cases nationally by 94 percent between 2009 and 2010, from 741 to 42, and down to the single case last year," the Guardian reports, adding, "If in India as a whole there are no more confirmed cases before 13 January, the country will have completed its first year without a new victim.

4 Jan 2012

Bedside clinical tools can detect acute spatial neglect after stroke

Researchers at Kessler Foundation and Seton Hall University report findings in the early diagnosis of acute spatial neglect, a hidden disability that is a common complication of stroke. In the weeks after stroke, 30-50% of stroke survivors cannot reliably report or respond to external events that take place in the space opposite the side of their brain injury.

4 Jan 2012

State Department fact sheets examine cholera, food security, health progress in Haiti

The State Department has released a series of fact sheets examining the U.S. government's two-year progress in Haiti. One fact sheet examines government efforts to "lessen the severity of the cholera outbreak" in Haiti.

4 Jan 2012

Alteration in ISG15 pathway triggers breast cancer metastasis

Research led by Shyamal Desai, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has discovered a key change in the body's defense system that increases the potential for breast cancer to spread to other parts of the body.

4 Jan 2012

Medicaid news: Texas to limit dual eligible reimbursements, Wis. to lift cap on long-term care

It may soon become harder for the neediest Texans to receive medical treatment. That's because statewide regulations scheduled to go into effect Sunday would limit reimbursements paid to medical providers for patients covered by both Medicare and Medicaid. The change would impact approximately 333,000 patients, mostly elderly, low-income residents, but also younger patients who are disabled. Slashing the Medicaid co-pay was part of the plan approved by state lawmakers earlier this year to help balance the state's budget.

4 Jan 2012

Researchers show how modern science can unlock mysteries of the past

Two teams of Michigan State University researchers - one working at a medieval burial site in Albania, the other at a DNA lab in East Lansing - have shown how modern science can unlock the mysteries of the past.

4 Jan 2012

J&J will not join Medicines Patent Pool; Company's pharma head says mechanism could 'cause disaster'

Pharmaceutical company "Johnson & Johnson has rejected calls to offer patent rights on its HIV medicines to generic drug companies through a" Medicines Patent Pool, created to promote low-cost antiretroviral drugs in low-income countries and the development of new drug combinations and formulations, the Financial Times reports.

4 Jan 2012

Quantitative CT can offer valuable prognostic information for COPD patients

National Jewish Health researchers and their colleagues in the COPDGene research consortium report that a computerized form of radiology, known as quantitative CT, can offer valuable prognostic information for patients and doctors beyond the standard breathing tests most commonly used to evaluate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

4 Jan 2012