Medical Thought Leaders

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News Medical's "Thought Leaders" series is a selection of articles written by national and international experts and trusted advisers in health and medicine. All the articles are written by experts who have been invited as recognised leaders in their fields to provide a "state of the art" contribution.

Charles Bonnet syndrome: an interview with Dr. Dominic ffytche

Charles Bonnet syndrome is the name we give to the visual hallucinations associated with eye disease. There are lots of different causes of visual hallucinations. Many different medical problems and medications can cause them, but, when the cause is eye disease, it's referred to as Charles Bonnet Syndrome after Charles Bonnet, who was a natural philosopher in the 18th century.

2 Nov 2015

Liposomal sizing and the Coulter principle: an interview with Professor Melvin E. Klegerman

For about the last 25 years, the cardiology group here have been developing a platform technology for both the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis.

From Beckman Coulter Life Sciences - Particle Counting and Characterization 28 Oct 2015

Cancer diagnosis improvements in England: an interview with Lucy Elliss-Brookes

The ‘two week wait’ referral was brought into England in 2000. If a patient goes to see their GP and they meet specific criteria that cause the GP to think they might have cancer, then they should be referred to see a specialist within two weeks.

28 Oct 2015

Melatonin and the circadian rhythm: an interview with Professor Kennaway, University of Adelaide

The production of melatonin is controlled by a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and its timing fine-tuned by our exposure to light during the morning.

20 Oct 2015

How important is a mother’s diet before pregnancy? An interview with Dr Matt Silver

In humans, much is already known about the impact of maternal undernutrition during pregnancy, and its impact on growth, development and disease throughout the life course. However, until recently little was known about the effects of the nutritional environment around the time of conception.

14 Oct 2015

Jumping genes: a marker for early cancer diagnosis? An interview with Dr Kazazian

In the genome of every human being, there are about 80-100 active LINE-1s that are capable of mobilizing by a copy and paste mechanism to a new location in the genome.

6 Oct 2015

Unlocking the genes behind antibiotic resistance: an interview with Professor Romesberg

Bacteria are very, very diverse. This is why their susceptibility to different antibiotics can be very different. It also makes the tools they have to evolve resistance in many cases different.

30 Sep 2015

Brain health: how can you reduce cognitive decline? An interview with Heather Snyder, Ph.D.

Reader’s Digest and the Alzheimer’s Association partnered to survey approximately 1,600 people in May 2015 about their brain health and their knowledge of how lifestyle habits affect cognitive decline and dementia.

22 Sep 2015

Pipetting Solutions for Sample Screening

Our research focuses on interleukin 1 and the inflammasome and their role in innate immunity and inflammation.

From INTEGRA Biosciences 16 Sep 2015

Using whole genomes data to improve bowel cancer diagnosis: an interview with Professor Ian Tomlinson

The project aims to sequence the specified 100,000 genomes from two types of patients: first, those who may have rare inherited diseases caused by unknown or unidentified genes; and second, people with one of several types of cancer, including colorectal cancer.

9 Sep 2015

Why do we sleep? An interview with Professor Wisden

It is true that we still do not know why we need to sleep every night. Sleep is essential for health. We have to do it every day. But nobody yet knows why. This fact amazes me.

8 Sep 2015

Antibiotic resistance awareness: an interview with Professor Colin Garner

The threat of antibiotic resistance is very real. It is estimated that 700,000 people die each from resistant infections. In Europe the figure is 25,000 deaths and a similar number in the USA.

7 Sep 2015

Huntington’s disease prevention breakthrough? An interview with Professor Lesley Jones

Huntington’s disease is an inherited disease which, whilst quite rare, is one of the more common inherited neurodegenerative diseases. About 1 in 6,000 people in the UK are at risk and what’s horrible about this disease is that if one of your parents has it, then you have a fifty-fifty chance of inheriting it.

2 Sep 2015

Diagnosing traumatic brain injury through a blood test: an interview with Dr Korley

The severity of traumatic brain injury is currently crudely classified as mild, moderate or severe. However, often patients referred to as mild have debilitating symptoms that are not “mild”. Additionally, there are patients currently classified as moderate or severe who regain their pre-injury functional status whereas others don’t.

1 Sep 2015

Understanding the causes of sudden death in epilepsy: an interview with Professor Sanjay Sisodiya

SUDEP is the sudden unexpected witnessed or unwitnessed, non-traumatic and non-drowning death in people with epilepsy, with or without evidence of a seizure. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the known context of a seizure, excluding documented status epilepticus, where people have seizure after seizure.

24 Aug 2015

Determining the dynein-dynactin complex structure: an interview with Dr Gabriel C. Lander

This is a macromolecular assembly is made up of two components, dynein and dynactin, that works to move molecular cargo (organelles, RNA, vesicles, proteins, viruses) along microtubule highways within our cells.

16 Aug 2015

DISC-1: schizophrenia's "Rosetta Stone" gene? An interview with Professor Kevin Fox

The DISC-1 gene has been studied intensively over the years because people with mutations in DISC1 have a high likelihood of mental illness. DISC-1 was known to be associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major clinical depression and autism.

10 Aug 2015

Laser eye surgery: a glimpse into the future - An interview with Professor Dan Reinstein

LASIK (Laser In Situ Keratomileusis) creates a hinged flap with a microkeratome and evaporating corneal tissue under the flap with an excimer laser. However, the concept that refractive error could be corrected by sculpting corneal stromal tissue to change corneal curvature was the brainchild of Jose Ignacio Barraquer Moner in 1948.

9 Aug 2015

BRCA gene mutations and ovarian cancer: an interview with Dr Matulonis, Harvard Medical School

The BRCA gene encodes for the BRCA proteins, BRCA1 and BRCA2. These proteins are very important in repairing DNA, which they do by correcting double-stranded breaks.

2 Aug 2015

Does dandruff cause psychological distress? An interview with Dr Anjali Mahto

Dandruff is a common chronic scalp disorder that is characterised by flaking of the skin of the scalp. As skin cells die, they are shed from the scalp surface. For some people, however, excessive flaking occurs, resulting in dandruff.

28 Jul 2015