The discovery by a Leeds University scientist of a new blindness gene could help to save the sight of thousands of sufferers of retinal disease which affects premature babies as well as people over 60.
By improving our understanding of vascular development, the breakthrough could also shed light on other diseases including tumour formation and arthritis. Carmel Toomes, member of the Leeds vision research group, said the work could lead to early diagnosis of diseases affecting the
A patient at Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust has become the first in the UK to receive an artificial heart pump inserted without the need for surgery. Doctors at Hammersmith Hospital successfully placed the world’s smallest heart support system, a 4mm-wide device, into the patient’s heart, by inserting it into an artery in the groin and passing it up into the heart. The pump, implanted on Thursday (November 28) and removed a day later, assisted the patient’s heart in the crucial few hours aft
Some allergic conditions could increase your risk of suffering from blood cancer as an adult, according to a new study published this week in BMC Public Health. This is important news for the increasingly large numbers of allergy sufferers worldwide.
“In our study, people with hives showed an increased risk of leukaemia,” said Dr. Karin Söderberg, who carried out the research with her colleagues from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. “We also found an increased risk of non-Hodgki
These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show the western end of the Valles Marineris Canyon system on Mars.
The images were taken during orbit 442 with a ground resolution of approximately 52 metres per pixel. The displayed region is located at the beginning of the canyon system at about latitude 7° South and longitude 269° East. The images show the western end of the canyons Tithonium Chasma and Ius Chasma, part o
A unique technology partnership between Cranfield University and California-based Hayes Diversified Technologies (HDT) has created the world’s first production diesel military motorbike – and the first bike of any kind with a purpose-designed diesel power unit.
An initial order for 522 diesel motorcycles has already been placed by the US Marines. Delivery is due to commence in early 2005. In addition, keen interest is being shown by the US Army, the UK Ministry of Defence
An international team of astronomers (including the UK) has produced the first ever image of an astronomical object using high energy gamma rays, helping to solve a 100 year old mystery – an origin of cosmic rays. Their research, published in the Journal Nature on November 4th, was carried out using the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), an array of four telescopes, in Namibia, South-West Africa.
The astronomers studied the remnant of a supernova that exploded some
Antarctic whales, seals and penguins could be threatened by food shortages in the Southern Ocean. Numbers of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), a shrimp-like crustacean at the heart of the food chain, are declining. The most likely explanation is a dramatic decline in sea-ice. The results are published this week in the journal Nature.
Sea-ice is a vital feeding ground for the huge number of krill in the Southern Ocean. The new research shows that krill numbers have dropped b
Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have perfected a delivery system for anticancer treatment that zeroes in on a tumor and becomes part of its supporting tissue. This new “cellular vehicle” then pumps drugs directly into cancer cells to disable them, but leaves normal tissue alone.
They say their study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is a proof of principle, conducted in mice, that shows this kind of strategy could b
A study from the Netherlands suggests that elderly persons who receive a yearly influenza vaccination have reduced risk of death from all causes, according to a study in the November 3 issue of JAMA.
“Influenza-associated morbidity and mortality increase with age, especially for individuals with high-risk conditions,” the authors provide as background information in the article. “The effectiveness of vaccination has been reported to decrease in high-risk persons. Annual influenz
Mutation indicates risk of acquiring disease
Researchers from the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital have determined that the mutation of a specific gene in some patients with colon cancer indicate a risk of acquiring the disease. The study appears in the Nov. 3 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The research team, led by Dr. Steven Gallinger used a population based study to determine that when one parent had the MutY human homologue
Increased fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease but not cancer, according to a new study in the November 3 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily has been recommended to reduce a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, the leading causes of death in the United States. Studies have evaluated the association of fruit and vegetable con
Risk of dying from experimental cancer treatment drops by 90 percent over 12 years
The chance that patients participating in early-stage cancer research studies will die from the experimental treatments has dropped dramatically over the past decade, according to a study from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In an analysis of more than 200 Phase 1 research trials from 1991 through 2002, the researchers found
The behavior of air bubbles in ordinary breakfast syrup demonstrates how scientists might be able to make vanishingly thin tubes and fibers for biomedical and other applications.
Previous experiments conducted in Sidney Nagel’s laboratory at the University of Chicago showed how to make liquid threads that measure only 10 microns in diameter (approximately one-fifth the diameter of a human hair). Now his Chicago colleague Wendy Zhang reports in the current issue of Physical R
Diabetic or obese patients suffering advanced heart failure have higher levels of fat embedded in their hearts and greater molecular evidence of haywire cardiac metabolism, a research team led by cardiologists at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston reports in the November issue of the FASEB Journal.
Heart failure, progressive and potentially fatal weakening of the heart muscle, is associated with both obesity and diabetes, but the mechanisms by which damage occur
St. Jude clinical trial XIIIB was based on stringent risk classification, early intensification of chemotherapy and addition of dexamethasone to improve outcome and increase quality of life
Improved risk classification for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), coupled with more intensive intrathecal chemotherapy for high risk patients and the use of a drug called dexamethasone, could one day permit physicians to omit irradiation as a part of routine treatment. These
St. Jude, Loyola and Kyoto University report that the system that controls the folding of newly made proteins also triggers the production of new membranes used to package and ship proteins
Part of a cellular mechanism that regulates the folding of new proteins into their proper shapes also includes a genetic response that enlarges the factory where both protein folding and packaging of proteins occurs. This finding, from researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,
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