An international team led by a dermatologist at The University of Manchester has found that treatment with the emerging drug infliximab, marketed as Remicade, can quickly and significantly improve psoriasis symptoms.
A Global Press Briefing & Lunch will be held on Friday, 14 October from 11:30 – 13:00 in London. See details under “Notes for Edotors”.
The European Infliximab for Psoriasis Efficacy and Safety Study (EXPRESS) was a placebo-controlled trial on 378 patients wi
A powerful new platform that delivers high computing power and high channel capacity could help meet consumer demand for multimedia content via PCs, interactive TV and mobile phones.
The FULL SPEED project that developed this platform created an innovative solution based on USB high-speed communication techniques. This smartcard connectivity uses the high-throughput channel USB 2.0.
FULL SPEED’s capability permits the direct embedding of critical applications in smartc
The EU is launching a new research project to develop cost-effective and environmentally friendly methods to mass produce ethanol as fuel for motor vehicles. The commitment is a major step toward the goal of an EU directive of replacing fossil fuels in the transport system by 5.75 percent by 2010. The initiative for the project comes from Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden and the French research institute Institut Français du Petrol.
The project, funded with €12.8 million,
Academics who have developed a tool to help vulnerable people to manage their medicines have received an award from the NHS.
Dr Karen Rosenbloom from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Hertfordshire and Ruth Goldstein from the Midlands have won first prize in the regional Health and Social Care Awards awarded by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. Their research now goes forward to the national awards final which will take place on 13 December.
A few years ago the study of the effects of atmospheric deposition on forest ecosystems reached beyond the scientific sphere and the term “acid rain” was coined. This problem, which ignores frontiers, happens because, due to the burning of fossil fuels, the amount of sulphur and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere is greater than that derived from natural processes.
Oxides, in the presence of water vapour and under the oxido-reduction conditions present in the atmosphere, produce
Observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 made by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft after the Deep Impact collision suggest that comets are ‘icy dirtballs’, rather than ‘dirty snowballs’ as previously believed.
Comets spend most of their lifetime in a low-temperature environment far from the Sun. Their relatively unchanged composition carries important information about the origin of the Solar System.
On 4 July this year, the NASA Deep Impact mission sent an ‘impactor’ probe to hit the
Preparations for ESA’s Venus Express mission passed a new milestone when the spacecraft was attached to its Fregat upper-stage rocket. The mission is now only two weeks away from launch on 26 October.
The composite unit of the launch vehicle adapter (LVA) and the Venus Express spacecraft, together called the ’stack’, has been mechanically mated with the Fregat upper-stage rocket.
The activity was classified as ’hazardous’ since both the space
Duke engineers have added a new construction tool to their bio-nanofabrication toolbox. Using an enzyme called TdTase, engineers can vertically extend short DNA chains attached to nanometer-sized gold plates. This advance adds new capability to the field of bio-nanomanufacturing.
“The process works like stacking Legos to make a tower and is an important step toward creating functional nanostructures out of biological materials,” said Ashutosh Chilkoti, associate professor of biom
Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, Reef Check and World Conservation Union to examine damage to tsunami-affected coral reefs; mission set to start next week
Three leading marine conservation organizations will complete an extensive survey next week along the west coast of Aceh Province, Indonesia, to determine the impact of last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami on the region’s coral reefs.
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, Reef
Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have identified an elusive protein that performs a necessary step in the production of human chromosomes.
The new study appears in the most recent issue (Oct. 7) of the journal Cell.
The study found that a protein called CPSF73 acts like scissors to cut strands of histone messenger RNA (mRNA) in the cell nucleus. This cutting action produces the mRNA needed to create histone proteins that com
Study in Oct. 1 ’Development’ shows when, where Alzheimer’s, some cancers and genetic ills begin
Biologists at Florida State University have uncovered the pivotal role of a gene called “Cut” that acts as a sort of middleman in cell-to-cell communication.
A DNA-binding protein, Cut interprets and transcribes the developmental signals sent through the “Notch” gene, which regulates a layer of epithelial cells as they replicate and divide. But when Cut garbles
Tribological properties of magnesium matrix composite alloys dispersed with Mg2Si particles
The use of magnesium alloys in engineering applications is becoming increasingly important as a relatively low density allows savings in energy consumption and therefore reduction in air pollution.
An associated reduction in inertia also makes these alloys potential candidates for friction components. Magnesium alloys, however, have low wear resistance and low hardness and sticking o
Surface alignment of liquid crystal multilayers evaporated on a photoaligned polyimide film observed by surface profiler
In order to successfully fabricate a commercial Liquid Crystal Display, uniform orientation of the liquid crystal (LC) molecules is required. Traditionally this molecular alignment of liquid crystal is achieved by physically or chemically treating the surface. A simple method used to achieve preferred orientation is rubbing but this may produce dust, static chargi
Artificial microgravity causes suppression of 99 key immune genes, leading to T-cell suppression
Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center have identified a set of key immune-response genes that do not turn on in a weightless environment. The discovery is another clue in the effort to solve an almost 40-year-old mystery: why the human immune system does not function well in the weightlessness of space.
The researchers, led by SFVAMC biochemist and former astronau
Research by an EU-supported international team of scientists has shown that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)[1] – synthetic organic chemicals found widely in the environment and absorbed in the diet – may damage sperm.
But, lead author Dr Marcello Spanò, of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA), stressed that the study had found no dramatic effects on human fertility and had not revealed any serious public health threat. However, the
Researchers at New York University School of Medicine and Wayne State University have found a molecule that reveals the early stages of pleural mesothelioma, a chest cancer caused by asbestos. The finding opens the way to a blood test for the disease, according to a new study published in the Oct. 13 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
An estimated 7.5 million workers in the United States have been exposed to asbestos and, according to government statistics, it remains a hazard
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