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Feeling the budget squeeze, some states reduce kids' access to care

According to the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, a majority of state-level changes to Medicaid this year reduced benefits or reimbursement rates for children's services.

12 Aug 2011

New technique can help develop HIV vaccines

Researchers have traced in detail how certain powerful HIV neutralizing antibodies evolve, a finding that generates vital clues to guide the design of a preventive HIV vaccine, according to a study appearing in Science Express this week.

12 Aug 2011

Feed the future helping countries develop agricultural sectors

"Spearheaded by USAID, President Obama's food security initiative - Feed the Future - is helping countries develop their own agricultural sectors so they can feed themselves," USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah writes in a post on the agency's "IMPACTblog."

12 Aug 2011

Study tracks development of chimp brain and makes comparison to humans

In both chimpanzees and humans, portions of the brain that are critical for complex cognitive functions, including decision-making, self-awareness and creativity, are immature at birth. But there are important differences, too. Baby chimpanzees don't show the same dramatic increase in the volume of prefrontal white matter in the brain that human infants do.

12 Aug 2011

What will the panelists bring to the 'super committee' negotiations?

News outlets report on the personalities and records of the people who have been named to the deficit panel, and attempt to handicap how their politics could play into the deficit-reduction dynamics.

12 Aug 2011

Second annual CNS Summit to shape the future of drug development

Segal Institute for Clinical Research, a consortium of CNS and women's health research sites, is preparing to again be actively involved in CNS Summit this coming fall.

12 Aug 2011

NPR examines how religious beliefs influence family planning in Pakistan

NPR's "All Things Considered" on Wednesday examined how Islam influences health and family planning decisions in Pakistan, one of Asia's fastest-growing populations.

12 Aug 2011

Allergy & Asthma Specialists, P.C. adopts Aerocrine's FENO technology

Aerocrine AB today announced that Allergy & Asthma Specialists, P.C. has adopted Aerocrine's FENO technology for airway inflammation measurement as part of its clinical standardization on a system-wide basis.

12 Aug 2011

Alternatives needed to inaccurate blood tests used to diagnose active TB

A guest post in PLoS Medicine's "Speaking of Medicine" blog, written by tuberculosis (TB) researchers Madhukar Pai of McGill University, David Dowdy of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Karen Steingart of the University of Washington School of Public Health, examines the medical, public health and economic consequences of the widespread use of inaccurate antibody-based serological diagnostic tests for active TB.

12 Aug 2011

Researchers to develop new prostate cancer therapy

Prostate cancer that has become resistant to hormone treatment and that does not respond to radiation or chemotherapy requires new methods of treatment. By attacking stem cell-like cells in prostate cancer, researchers at Lund University are working on a project to develop a new treatment option.

12 Aug 2011

Ecological research on disease prevention and human biome

Public awareness about the role and interaction of microbes is essential for promoting human and environmental health, say scientists presenting research at the Ecological Society of America's (ESA) 96th Annual Meeting from August 7-12, 2011.

12 Aug 2011

PBS NewsHour examines use of Twitter to track disease spread

PBS NewsHour's blog "The Rundown" examines "a recent slate of independent studies" that assert "Twitter can accurately track the spread of a virus or disease - and do it much faster than traditional surveillance methods."

12 Aug 2011

Research team reports first genetic sequencing of urothelial carcinoma

In an article published online this week in Nature Genetics, a University of Colorado Cancer Center team in partnership with universities in China and Denmark reports the first genetic sequencing of urothelial (transitional) carcinoma, the most prevalent type of bladder cancer.

12 Aug 2011

Rising food prices in East Africa exacerbating food shortages, famine, FAO says

"The prices of grain and milk in the drought-hit Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have risen to record highs, exacerbating hardship for the estimated 12.4 million people in the region who are facing severe food shortages and famine in some parts of Somalia," according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's August food price monitor, the U.N. News Centre reports.

12 Aug 2011

Researchers describe novel skin-mounted electronics in Science journal

Engineers have developed a device platform that combines electronic components for sensing, medical diagnostics, communications and human-machine interfaces, all on an ultrathin skin-like patch that mounts directly onto the skin with the ease, flexibility and comfort of a temporary tattoo.

12 Aug 2011

U.S Global Malaria Coordinator discusses U.S. investment in global fight against malaria

In a Malaria Policy Center "Malaria Watch TV" video post, U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer "speaks with the Malaria Policy Center about the status of the malaria fight and how the U.S. is leading the way against this preventable and treatable disease," the organization writes.

12 Aug 2011

Insight into how molecular motor proteins save energy

The transport system inside living cells is a well-oiled machine with tiny protein motors hauling chromosomes, neurotransmitters and other vital cargo around the cell. These molecular motors are responsible for a variety of critical transport jobs, but they are not always on the go. They can put themselves into "energy save mode" to conserve cellular fuel and, as a consequence, control what gets moved around the cell, and when.

12 Aug 2011

ICRC campaign addresses humanitarian issue of health care security in conflict situations

"This week the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) launches a global campaign - 'It's a matter of life and death' - which aims to improve security and delivery of effective and impartial health care in situations of armed conflict and other contexts of widespread violence," Vivienne Nathanson, director of professional activities at the British Medical Association, writes in a BMJ editorial.

12 Aug 2011

CPAP withdrawal leads to return of obstructive sleep apnea

The benefits of continuous positive airway pressure machines (CPAP) for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are quickly reversed when the therapy is withdrawn, according to Swiss research.

12 Aug 2011

G-CSF therapy does not induce chromosomal instability in healthy stem cell donors

According to a study published in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), researchers have reported that administration of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), a drug that releases stem cells from the bone marrow into the blood, is unlikely to put healthy stem cell donors at risk for later development of abnormalities involving loss or gains of chromosomes that have been linked to hematologic disorders such as myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia.

12 Aug 2011