New research shows that it is undamaged nerve fibres that cause ongoing spontaneous pain, not those that are injured.
These unexpected findings, by Dr Laiche Djouhri, Professor Sally Lawson and colleagues from the University of Bristol, UK, are reported in the Journal of Neuroscience today [25 January, 2006].
Previous research into ongoing chronic pain has tended to focus on the damaged nerve fibres after injury or disease and overlooked the intact fibres. This new unders
A new technique based on the same technology used to detect chemical warfare agents and explosives is being employed by scientists at The University of Manchester to treat hospital patients with lung disease.
Dr Paul Thomas and a team of researchers are using a sensor, commonly used to detect explosives at airports, to develop a new way of diagnosing lung disease.
The microDMx sensor, developed by Sionex Corporation, is being used to develop a new technique which is
Subtropical diseases lay waste to millions of people each year. In the quest to find a cure scientists are using Grid computing, the major driving force for new approaches towards collaborative large-scale science, to discover new drugs and better understand the diseases.
Last year there were about 350-500 million infections and approximately 1.3 million deaths due to malaria, mainly in the tropics. Malaria is spread by female mosquitoes, which carry protozoan parasites called Pla
An international team of scientists and technical staff under the leadership of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research has successfully completed the deep ice coring at the Alfred Wegener Institute’s Kohnen Station in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Reaching a depth of 2774 metres, first on-site examinations of the ice core indicate that the ice cored at the deepest 200 metres is very old.
The investigations, carried out as part of the EPICA program (European
Genetic study shows humans have pushed orangutans to the brink of extinction
A new study published in the open-access journal PLoS Biology shows strong genetic evidence of a catastrophic collapse in orangutan populations living in the fragmented forests of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah, Malaysia. Benoit Goossens, Lounès Chikhi, Michael Bruford, and their colleagues report that the collapse occurred within the past hundred years, and most likely within the past decad
Health economics study questions recent policy on screening of US blood donations for West Nile Virus
A recent mandate to screen blood donations in all US states for West Nile virus (WNV) makes little sense from a public health point of view, say researchers from Columbia University and Harvard School of Public Health.
And while this is not yet the time of year to worry about mosquitoes, it seems a good time to take a look at the current policy on screening blood produ
New Zealand ranks first in the world in environmental performance, according to the Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) produced by a team of environmental experts at the environment school at Yale University and the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
The 2006 EPI, to be released Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum on January 26, ranks Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom two to five respectively. The top-ranked countries all commi
Using recent Cassini, Huygens and Earth-based observations, scientists have been able to create a computer model which explains the formation of several types of ethane and methane clouds on Titan.
Clouds have been observed recently on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, through the thick haze, using near-infrared spectroscopy and images of the south pole and temperate regions near 40° South. Recent observations from Earth-based telescopes and the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft are no
Metal atom dictates the structure: new concept for the construction of enzyme inhibitors
Complex natural products usually adopt precisely defined spatial structures that are of critical importance to their biological function. A substrate must fit precisely into the “pocket” of an enzyme in order to be converted. The same is true of drugs meant to influence the function of enzymes. The biggest challenge in this is to develop effective methods for the synthesis of agents with tai
In an Australian-first, a UNSW researcher based at the Diabetes Transplant Unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital has produced a human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line without the use of any animal products. The breakthrough eliminates the risk of animal-to-human contamination in potential stem cell therapy treatments.
In another first, the Prince of Wales Hospital is the first public institution in the country to extract stem cells from human embryos produced using IVF in inferti
About one in a hundred patients with apparently incurable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) survive five or more years after being given relatively small doses of radiation therapy (RT) meant to ease symptoms, according to a new study. Published in the March 1, 2006 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study says a new subset of patients with NSCLC appears to have disease that is curable with minimal therapy, and may explain occasional cures attributed t
For the first time, scientists have identified a significant increase in the incidence rate of melanoma–an invasive form of an already deadly skin cancer–among California Hispanics. A new study published in the March 1, 2006 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, finds in contrast to non-Hispanic Caucasians, increases in melanoma in Hispanics have been confined to thicker lesions, which have a poorer prognosis.
While melanoma accounts for a minor
The first genome-wide screen for protein complexes is completed
Today researchers in Germany announce they have finished the first complete analysis of the “molecular machines” in one of biology’s most important model organisms: S. cerevisiae (baker’s yeast). The study from the biotechnology company Cellzome, in collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), appears in this week’s online edition of Nature.
“To carry out their tasks,
U-M researchers report dramatic benefits from a single amino acid substitution in troponin I cardiac muscle protein
It’s just one little amino acid, but it makes all the difference in protecting the heart from the harmful effects of heart attack and cardiac failure. Researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School suggest this amino acid, called histidine, could be the key to a new therapy for cardiovascular disease.
In a study to be published Jan. 22 in
Investigators at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and the biotechnology firm GlycoFi, Inc., report a breakthrough in using yeast to produce antibodies with human sugar structures.
Antibodies are proteins with sugars attached to them, and they are emerging as a major class of drugs in the treatment of cancer. In the global effort to increase the potency of antibodies, the interdisciplinary work by the Dartmouth/GlycoFi team,
Adult stem cells may be free of the ethical concerns that hamper embryonic stem cell research, but they still pose formidable scientific challenges. Chief among these is the doggedness with which adult stem cells differentiate into mature tissue the moment they’re isolated from the body. This makes it nearly impossible for researchers to multiply them in the laboratory. And because adult stem cells are so rare, that makes it difficult to use them for treating disease.
Now
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