Almost 150 different genomes have been sequenced to date, including the human genome. But sequencing needs are growing faster than ever: In March 2003, the Bush administration announced it will spend $1 billion over five years to increase forensic analysis of DNA, including a backlog of up to 300,000 samples. And the success of the growing field of genomic medicine, which promises to deliver better therapies and diagnostics, depends on faster sequencing technology.
This fall, researchers at
People who take a commonly prescribed yet problematic drug called Coumadin to prevent stroke or blood clots may soon have a hassle-free alternative, according to research at Stanford University School of Medicine. Results from a 7,329-person international study have found that a new drug called ximelegatran prevents strokes as effectively as Coumadin without the side effects or inconvenience.
“We think this will result in a huge shift in anti-coagulation therapy,” said Gregory Albers, MD, p
A super-cold collection of molecules behaving in perfect unison has been created for the first time from a sea of “fermion” atoms by researchers at JILA, a joint institute of the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder).
Fermions are a class of particles that are inherently difficult to coax into a uniform quantum state. The ability to meld fermions into this state—a soup of particles that ac
A technique that combines high-level magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with a new spectroscopic method may result in an accurate, non-invasive way to make breast cancer diagnoses. In this technique, MRI is used to detect breast lumps, while spectroscopy measures molecules known to accumulate in cancer cells.
According to a study in the Nov. 21 online version of the journal Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, researchers at The Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota have developed a magneti
Results of a US study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET provide details of the underlying physical causes of attention-deficit hyperactivity syndrome, with reductions in size of some brain areas and an increase in grey matter proportions being characteristic of children with the disorder.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a serious neuropsychiatric problem in schoolchildren (an estimated 3-6% of US schoolchildren are affected, for example). The disorder is characterise
Avoiding the sun is not the best strategy for reducing overall rates of cancer, claims a senior doctor in a letter to this week’s BMJ. Recommending moderate exposure to the sun would be more prudent.
Sun exposure is the main source of vitamin D, which reduces the risk of colon, breast, prostate, and other cancers, writes Professor Cedric Garland at the University of California.
People in the United Kingdom cannot synthesise vitamin D from November to March, so become deficient
Duke University Medical Center researchers may have solved the mystery of why lymph nodes swell when the body fights infection. Their findings may redefine how the immune system functions, they said.
Their research, published in the December 2003 issue of Nature Immunology, centered on the role of mast cells. Mast cells are immune cells that are typically found just under the skin and in the lining of the intestine and lungs and were previously associated primarily with the induction of al
More than 1.2 million accidents on European Union roads each year result in approximately 1.6 million injuries and 42,000 deaths. But recent studies estimate that the introduction of passive safety systems in cars could reduce these casualties by 120,000 annually. IST project CHAMELEON’s pre-crash demonstrator system with sensing and processing modules for obstacle detection and crash prediction might prove to be a future lifesaver on Europe’s highways.
Vehicles installed with a pre-crash
Use of caloric sweeteners, including sugar, has grown markedly around the world over the past 40 years, according to a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study.
In the United States, UNC scientists found increasing consumption of beverages, including soft drinks and sugared fruit drinks, was a major contributor to the burgeoning use of such sweeteners, which nutritionists believe contribute to unhealthy obesity. Obesity boosts the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and oth
New technology from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm is teaching a household robot a more efficient way to get around a house, for example. The method was recently awarded a prize for the best contribution among 500 others at IROS, one of the world’s largest robot conferences.
Philipp Althaus describes the concept in his dissertation, to be defended on November 21. Robots are making their way into our homes, toy robots and simple household robots. This is a clear trend, a
One of the National Institutes of Health has begun a concerted effort to determine the extent and causes of stillbirth- the death of a fetus at 20 or more weeks of pregnancy. Each year, more than 26,000 American women are reported to experience a stillbirth. To date, it has been difficult to collect information on stillbirths because the criteria for reporting them vary from state to state, and the issuance of fetal death certificates is not required. The National Institute of Child
Researchers achieve breakthrough in development of ultraviolet light-emitting diodes
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories developing ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) recently demonstrated two deep UV semiconductor optical devices that set records for wavelength/power output. One emits at a wavelength of 290 nanometers (nm) and produces 1.3 milliwatts of output power, and the other emits at a wavelength of 275 nm and produces 0.4 milliwatts of power.
“Emis
Findings may help tailor treatment decisions for most common form of brain tumor
The most common form of primary brain tumor – glioma, affecting about 25,000 Americans each year – poses a dilemma for doctors and patients trying to make decisions about treatment. Many of these tumors will be particularly vicious, killing patients within months of diagnosis even in the face of the most vigorous therapy. Still others are less aggressive, but these can be difficult to distinguish under th
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have shown that insulin family signaling is important for male sex determination, a discovery that furthers the understanding of testes formation and eventually could lead to treatments for reproductive disorders.
Their findings appear in the current issue of Nature and are available online.
“We are excited by this research for two reasons,” said Dr. Luis Parada, senior author of the Nature study and director of the Center fo
A study published this week in the journal Nature has revealed that even the food chain has cliques
Research by a team at Michigan State University, University of Maryland and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory examined what ecologists have previously theorized: that plants and animals in a complex network of interconnecting food chains – called a food web — interact more frequently with each other than with species ou
Combining radiation with an agent that blocks VEGF, a protein that promotes the development of blood vessels and the growth of cancerous tumors – a process known as angiogenesis – may be more effective against brain tumors than either treatment alone, researchers at Jefferson Medical College have found.
Scientists led by Phyllis Wachsberger, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiation oncology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and Adam Dicker, M.D., as
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