Discovery reveals how stem cells can be used to help repair acute spinal cord damage
A treatment derived from human embryonic stem cells improves mobility in rats with spinal cord injuries, providing the first physical evidence that the therapeutic use of these cells can help restore motor skills lost from acute spinal cord tissue damage.
Hans Keirstead and his colleagues in the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at UC Irvine have found that a human embryonic stem cell-derive
80 percent of US adults would pay $3 to $6 more a month to have health plans cover newly recommended adult and child vaccines
How much is it worth to you and your family to have a health insurance plan that covers the latest innovations in adult and childhood vaccines for certain types of cancer or even influenza and pneumonia? A new national web-based study from the University of Michigan Health System found that about 80 percent of adults would be willing to pay an additional $
Monkeys that learn to use their brain signals to control a robotic arm are not just learning to manipulate an external device, Duke University Medical Center neurobiologists have found. Rather, their brain structures are adapting to treat the arm as if it were their own appendage.
The finding has profound implications both for understanding the extraordinary adaptability of the primate brain and for the potential clinical success of brain-operated devices to give the handicapped
Technique could revolutionize nanoelectronics manufacturing
Carnegie Mellon University scientists have harnessed an experimental technology to produce polymer films with long-range-ordered nanostructure and easily convert them into highly ordered “nanocarbon arrays.” Called zone casting, this technology could revolutionize the way industrial nanoelectronic components are made. The research findings are in press with the Journal of the American Chemical Society. “We’ve found t
As science gets wiser, so do the bugs. The rates of drug-resistant bacteria infecting patients in the community and in the hospital have been increasing steadily in recent years, according to two new studies in the June 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.
Drug resistance in microorganisms has become a problem due in part to inappropriate prescribing and overuse of antibiotics. These drug-resistant “superbugs” can infect people and cause health probl
While some psychologists still argue that people perform better when they do something because they want to – rather than for some kind of reward, such as money — Steven Reiss suggests we shouldn’t even make that distinction.
Reiss, a professor of psychology at Ohio State University , argues that a diverse range of human motivations can’t be forced into these categories of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Psycholgists say intrinsic motivations are those that ar
Binding gold nanoparticles to a specific antibody for cancer cells could make cancer detection much easier, suggests research at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). The report is published online as an ASAP article in the journal Nano Letters.
“Gold nanoparticles are very good at scattering and absorbing light,” said Mostafa El-Sayed, director of the Laser Dyanamics Laboratory and chemistry professor at Georgia Tech. “W
Where fat comes from determines whether the body can metabolize it effectively. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that the “old” fat stored in the body’s peripheral tissues — that is, around the belly, thighs or bottom — can’t be burned efficiently unless “new” fat is eaten in the diet or made in the liver.
The research team developed genetically engineered mice missing an important fat synthesizing enzyme in the liver. As
Scientists at the University of Liverpool are embarking on a research cruise to help them understand recent major changes in the temperature of the Atlantic.
Researchers at the University’s Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences have been examining why ocean temperatures are rising within the tropics and mid-latitudes of the North Atlantic, but at the same time are decreasing at the ocean’s high latitudes.
The research team, which also includes scientists from the N
Medical researchers are using satellites to track massive dust storms blowing across Africa’s Sahel belt. The aim is to learn more about lethal meningitis epidemics that often follow in the dust’s wake.
“Meningitis outbreaks take place after a period without rain, low humidity and lots of dust in the air,” explained Isabelle Jeanne of the Niger-based Centre de Recherche Médicale et Sanitaire (CERMES), associated with the international network des Instituts Pasteur and a
World Health Organisation personnel combating an Angolan outbreak of the lethal Marburg virus used high-resolution satellite-based urban maps provided through a pair of ESA-led activities.
The Marburg virus causes Ebola-like internal bleeding in humans, with an incubation period of between five and nine days. A Marburg outbreak was detected in Angola’s Luanda city at the start of April. It has since taken the lives of more than 255 victims, many of them children under five.
An important new study has been launched by the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Women’s Hospital (LWH), to test a new treatment for ‘retained placenta’- a condition where the placenta does not come out naturally after childbirth.
The RELEASE study is being organised by Dr Andrew Weeks and Professor Zarko Alfirevic from the University’s Department of Reproductive and Developmental Medicine in collaboration with Professor Florence Mirembe from Makerere University in Uganda
The European Union, with the aim of conserving resources, protecting the environment and overseeing the health and welfare of their citizens, has been opting for some years now for sustainable development as one of its top priorities. The reduction of energy consumption has been identified as one of the aspects that can contribute most in this respect. This is why the EU has financed the Vacuum Insulating Panels (VIP) project, one in which GAIKER has participated in and the object of which is t
The impact that the nature and condition of the UK’s roads have on the country’s businesses is getting worse, a monthly internet survey has revealed.
Nearly 59 per cent of firms quizzed by the UK Business Barometer, run by The University of Nottingham Institute of Enterprise and Innovation, said they felt that the effect that the state of the nation’s road has on their operations is either getting worse or much worse. Less than five per cent of panellists in the UKBB said they bel
Engineers in Nottingham are developing ultra-clean coal that could make power generation 50% more efficient and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a third. A team at The University of Nottingham is one of only two in the world working on ground-breaking techniques to purify one of the world’s main energy sources.
They have been awarded £120,000 to help them develop the ultra-clean fuel for the power stations of the future. Dr Karen Steel, of the School of Chemical, Environmental and
Scientists at the University of Dundee have identified a way of inactivating a naturally occurring human protein, a development which could offer new routes to developing cancer prevention treatments.
Professor John Hayes and Dr Lesley McLellan in the Biomedical Research Centre at the University, along with Dr Chris Lindsay, have found that the protein, called Keap1, is a target for a new class of cancer prevention treatments.
The researchers say the findings simplify t
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