Use of a novel gene-based therapy before breast cancer surgery reduced tumor size by nearly 80 percent on average, researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium meeting.
The therapy, known as Advexin, also showed evidence that the p53 protein it was delivering was actually being replaced in the targeted tumors, and that the treatment produced beneficial and possibly sustained local immune responses
Service Will Allow Patients Direct Access to Latest Research
Scientific publishers and the nation’s leading voluntary health organizations have announced a groundbreaking initiative to help patients and caregivers close a critical information gap.
Scheduled to launch as a pilot project in Spring 2005, patientINFORM (www.patientinform.org) is a free, online service dedicated to disseminating original medical research directly to consumers. A collaborative effort of leadin
Scientists at the University of Sheffield have played a major role in sequencing the chicken genome, published in Nature and Genome Research on Thursday 9 December. The chicken is the first farm animal to be successfully sequenced, as well as being the first bird.
The Sheffield team were responsible for determining the sequences of messenger RNAs, which have allowed an international team of scientists to analyse the chicken genome sequence and identify most chicken genes.
Exposure to fine particles and pollutants that accumulate in cars driving at varying speeds in road traffic enhances the likelihood of thrombosis, inflammation and alters the regularity of the heart rhythm. A study published today in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology raises concerns about cardiovascular risks for vehicle drivers.
Michael Riediker, from The Institute of Occupational Health Sciences in Switzerland, collaborated with colleagues from a number of institut
US fertility experts today (Thursday 9 December) warned teenage boys and young men to consider limiting the time that they use laptop computers positioned on their laps, as long-term use may affect their fertility.
The increasing popularity of laptop computers (LC), coupled with existing evidence that elevated scrotal temperature can result in sperm damage, prompted researchers from the State University of New York at Stony Brook to undertake the first study into the effect of heat
The overall performance of the gene signature to be used in the first large-scale trial to study the role of such tumor signatures in breast cancer is encouraging and gives the green light to start the trial proper, Dr. Martine Piccart, head of the medical oncology department at the Institut Jules Bordet in Brussels, Belgium, told the San Antonio Breast Cancer conference today (Wednesday 8 December 2004).
Dr Piccart heads the TRANSBIG consortium, which intends to use the 70-ge
The draft sequence of the wild chicken, Gallus gallus, will be published in the Dec 9th issue of Nature (cover story). The analysis of this genome is not about getting bigger eggs and tastier chicken – it’s giving scientists surprising insights into the human genome. Researchers can use these new data as a tool to identify similar sequences in humans – regions previously thought to be ‘junk’ DNA in the human. These sequences must have an important role if they have been conserved over the 310
In the week that the UK is expected to admit it risks missing its targets on greenhouse gas emissions, two British universities can reveal they have formed a strategic partnership with one of the world’s biggest banks to help launch a new wave of environmental research.
HSBC, which this week announced it would go ’carbon neutral’, is putting £650,000 into a three year collaboration with Newcastle University and the University of East Anglia to support a new type of
When Bart Watson leaves home to go on a business trip, his personal communication services will accompany him. The e-mails he studied on his PC at home will also be available on the terminal in his car, where they are read to him by his handheld device while he drives. This seamless handover from broadband internet connection at home to DVB-T connection in the car is one of the research results by EU project DAIDALOS, which will be demonstrated at a public workshop in Stuttgart on 14 December
As members of an international research consortium, a group of GSF scientists led Randolph B Caldwell and Jean-Marie Buerstedde contributed to the annotation of the complete chicken genome. This first genome sequence of a bird is not only of great importance for research projects with chickens, but it will also lead to a better understanding of the previously decoded human genome.
Originally, the GSF research project aimed at identifying active genes in a particularly interestin
The University of Manchester has launched the largest engineering school in the UK.
The School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering (MACE) was officially launched at a special event headlined by keynote speaker Richard Noble, holder of the world land speed record, and attended by industry leaders from Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems and Pilkington.
With over 1200 students and 250 staff, MACE is not only the largest Engineering school in the UK (in terms of student numb
The circuit will improve the computational accuracy and efficiency of quantum computers operating at extremely low temperatures.
Quantum computers require an ambient temperature of approximately -273 degrees centigrade to function properly. The Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) is to build a control circuit for such a superconducting computer that will function at very low temperatures. Future quantum computers will be able to crack IT encryption codes and perform searche
The world’s first molecular map for wild strawberry (Fragaria) constructed using transferable DNA markers has been produced by scientists at East Malling Research (EMR) in association with collaborators at the University of Reading.
This work is a breakthrough in strawberry genetic research and has already been adopted as the reference map by strawberry research groups in Spain, France and the USA. It offers the potential for further international collaboration, leading towards t
Endoscopy can be a deeply uncomfortable experience. Improving matters, BIOLOCH researchers are attempting to apply the motion techniques used by lower animal forms to endoscopy technology to develop a prototype capable of ‘pulling’ itself into a patient’s internals, rather than being pushed as it is now.
Having a tube pushed inside you, no matter how small or how sensitively applied, is not a procedure anyone would want to repeat. Plus there is always the risk of tearing de
Research shows existing diabetes drugs may kill multiple myeloma
In laboratory tests on multiple myeloma cells, University of Rochester researchers found that this type of cancer expresses a protein that makes it an easy target for an existing class of diabetes drugs. After more investigation, they hope the discovery will lead to a new, targeted therapy for myeloma patients. “To our knowledge, this is the first time anyone has shown that multiple myeloma cells are sensitive to th
University of Rochester scientists studying a vital protein called Serum Response Factor (SRF) in mice have learned new and unexpected facts about SRF’s role in early cardiovascular development, and how a defect in this gene may be an underlying cause in human miscarriages.
The research is reported in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. At this point it is unclear whether subtle defects in SRF might also be linked to adult cardiovascular diseas
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