Novel calcium block attacks cause, rather than symptoms, of idiopathic pulmonary hypertension (IPAH), also called primary pulmonary hypertension
Cholesterol-lowering agents, such as the widely-prescribed statin drugs, and cholesterol-blocking agents may prove to be “novel therapeutic agents to modify cellular calcium that contributes to the development of pulmonary hypertension,” according Hemal H. Patel who lead a multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Californ
Provides unique drug targets to prevent spread
Tufts University researchers have identified several proteins on the surface of cancer cells that contribute to the cells’ ability to metastasize. When the researchers destroyed these particular proteins, the cancerous cells show a significant decrease in their ability to invade healthy cells – a finding that provides a new target for badly needed drugs. Although most cancer deaths occur from metastasis, not from the original canc
Researchers at the University of Southampton are looking for people to take part in a major new study into organ donation. The national study will look at the decision-making and experiences of bereaved people who after the death of a family member chose not to donate organs or tissues of the deceased relative for transplant operations.
Little is known about how families who do not donate experience the donation process. This means that issues such as how families deal with th
An EU computer science project hopes to make the uncertainty attached to the pervasive computing future a lot more secure through establishing trust.
Using the cost-benefit function at the heart of risk analysis, the IST programme-funded SECURE project developed software to integrate the very subjective, human concept of trust into computers, PDAs, mobile ’phones and other network devices.
Pervasive computing is a steadily emerging reality. Mobile phones and PDAs ar
Ebola virus infection in humans provokes a violent haemorrhagic fever. It usually flares up as intense epidemics. These kill 80 % of the people infected. Seven such outbreaks have hit Gabon and the Republic of Congo since 1994, leading to 445 cases resulting in 361 deaths. Ebola virus thus constitutes a grave public health problem in these countries. No medicine or vaccine is currently available, only prevention and rapid control of epidemics by isolation of disease victims can limit its spread
“Our plan is to have ‘the’ operating system for buildings.” So says Richard Green, CEO of the newly-established Cambridge (UK) start-up Ubisense, about his company’s revolutionary new technology for locating staff within the workspace environment.
Green is one of the five entrepreneurs who founded the company in May 2002, and who have since seen their company more than double in size and rapidly establish a client-base in Europe, the US and the Far East. “Basically, Ubisense make
New study shows combination of radiotherapy and hormone therapy extends life expectancy.
Men with prostate cancer treated with the combined therapies had a significantly higher chance of living for more than 10 years than those on radiotherapy alone. This was one of the main results published today in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics (IJROBP) by the independent Radiation Oncology Group (RTOG).
Goserelin belongs to a class of drugs
A team of researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has developed new miniature sensors for analysing DNA. The sensors have the same size and thickness as a fingernail and reduce the time needed to identify DNA chains to several minutes or a few hours, depending on each chain. These sensors can be applied to many different tasks, ranging from paternity tests and identifying people to detecting genetically modified food, identifying bacterial strains in foodborne illnesses and testing g
Surgical treatment of severe obesity provides long-term wait loss and better quality of life compared with conventional treatment in primary health care. This is shown in a ten-year follow-up of the psychosocial component of the Swedish Obese Subjects project, SOS, at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg.
Thus far the follow-up comprises 1 276 subjects with severe obesity. Of these, 655 had been treated surgically and 621 had undergone treatment in primary care, fo
A UK-led team of astronomers has discovered a completely new type of star cluster around a neighbouring galaxy.
The new-found clusters contain hundreds of thousands of stars, a similar number to the so-called “globular” star clusters which have long been familiar to astronomers.
What distinguishes them from the globular clusters is that they are much larger – several hundred light years across – and hundreds of times less dense. The distances between the stars are, there
Several companies are extracting black gold – petroleum – from the North Sea. But scientists are questioning this activity and asking if this activity has environmental consequences. By law, these companies are obliged to carry out annual analyses.
At the request of the companies, a number of researchers at the Science Faculty of the University of the Basque Country have analysed what type of contaminants are released as a result of extraction of crude oil in the North Sea a
A University of Liverpool scientist has discovered how the food poisoning bug E.Coli 0157 became deadly to humans.
Twenty-three years ago a harmless gut bacterium called E. coli developed the ability to kill people through food poisoning, bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure. Normally E. coli bacteria live in the intestine and don’t pose any danger, but some varieties can cause fatal food poisoning. The most serious in the UK is E. coli O157, which is carried by livestock (mainl
CSIRO is working on new methods of detecting a frog fungus which has killed frogs in the United States, Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.
A workshop on new methods of detecting and controlling the spread of one of the world’s most deadly frog diseases – chytridiomycosis – will be held from 4-7 April at CSIRO Livestock Industries’ Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, Victoria.
CSIRO Livestock Industries’ Dr Alex Hyat
Genetically engineered mice will help U-M scientists decipher signals that trigger gastric cancer in humans
When it comes to gastric cancer, too little stomach acid can be just as dangerous as too much, according to scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School. Both extremes create inflammatory changes in the stomach lining and a condition called chronic atrophic gastritis, which over time often leads to cancer.
In research published in the March 31 issue of
Harbor Branch Biomedical Expedition to include first submersible exploration of remote Cay Sal Bank
On Monday, the Harbor Branch drug discovery group will begin a 2-week expedition to explore the Straits of Florida in search of organisms that produce chemicals with the potential to cure diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. The work will include the first submersible exploration of the remote Cay Sal Bank, which encompasses a number of small, uninhabited islands 30 mile
A new study in mice suggests that, in certain cases, stress may enhance the body’s ability to fight the flu.
Short bouts of intense social stress improved the ability in the mice to recover from the flu. The stress apparently did so by substantially boosting the production of specialized immune cells that fought the virus.
“Stressed mice had a stronger immune response and were able to fight off the infection faster,” said Jacqueline Wiesehan, a study co-author and a
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