The Hox genes (also known as homeotic genes) play a crucial role in the development of animals, being involved in the determination of segment identity along the body axis. These genes were discovered in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster 90 years ago and have been found later in all animals, including humans. The Hox genes are arranged in the fly genome in a striking manner: they are clustered and their order is the same as that of the body segments they act upon. This organization is conserved

Patients suffering from asthma and diabetes could benefit

Patients suffering from conditions as diverse as asthma and diabetes could benefit from research at Cardiff University to improve the effectiveness of drugs taken through spray inhalers. Scientists in the Welsh School of Pharmacy are working on new nano-particle drug formulations for inhalers, and enhancers to improve the effectiveness of proteins, such as insulin, delivered to the lung.

“Drugs delivered through in

Children exposed to cocaine before birth show subtle but discernible differences in their ability to plan and problem-solve once they reach school age, University of Florida researchers report.

Still, most fare far better in the first few years after birth than many experts once predicted, contradicting the notion that as a rule, cocaine-exposed infants would be born with devastating birth defects or miss major developmental milestones. “I think the early information we had was

Exposure to carcinogens in traffic emissions at particular lifetime points may increase the risk of developing breast cancer in women who are lifetime nonsmokers, a study by epidemiologists and geographers at the University at Buffalo has found.

Their study was conducted among women who lived in Erie and Niagara counties of New York State between 1996 and 2001. They found that higher exposure around the time of first menstruation to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), potent

American Heart Association meeting report:

Some structural and functional measures of cardiovascular disease risk may improve by the eighth week of a diet and exercise regimen, according to a study presented today at the American Heart Association’s Sixth Annual Conference on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

“Our lifestyle management program appears to improve the health of the vasculature, so it might lower the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart at

A computerized tool to help emergency room physicians determine whether a patient is having a heart attack may not work as well among some racial and ethnic groups, according to research of almost 12,000 patients at nine medical centers.

“It’s notorious that women and elderly patients have markedly different heart attack symptoms from the younger male patient,” said Chadwick D. Miller, M.D., from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. “This study shows us that race and eth

Research may allow for more normal development of babies born to mothers who don’t stop smoking during pregnancy.

Research conducted in monkeys at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, suggests high doses of vitamin C may have potential to counteract some negative impacts of smoking in unborn babies. The research may benefit thousands of babies born to mothers who continue to smoke throughout pregnancy despite physician warnings. T

A new review of studies suggests that long-lasting symptoms of concussion – subjective at best – may increase when the outcome of a lawsuit is at stake.

The condition known as “postconcussional syndrome” is difficult to define medically but is generally defined as a string of cognitive, physical or behavioral losses that occur after a head injury.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Richard C.W. Hall of the University of Florida says a proliferation of lawsuits driven by claims of

USC researchers present information on ’artificial retina’ May 2 at ARVO 2005

Researchers from the University of Southern California and the Doheny Eye Institute’s Doheny Retina Institute will be presenting data on the first six patients implanted with an intraocular retinal prosthesis-more popularly referred to as an artificial retina-developed and manufactured in partnership with Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., of Sylmar, Calif.

According to Mark Hum

How does cholesterol in our diets end up as artery-clogging plaque that can cause heart attacks and strokes? Research in animals suggests that a little-studied enzyme may play a major role – and that drugs to target it could dramatically reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Lawrence Rudel, Ph.D., from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, presented new results from his research on ACAT2, a cholesterol transforming enzyme, today at the American Heart Association’s

New insights by Duke University Medical Center researchers as to how HIV evades the human immune system may offer a new approach for developing HIV vaccines. The findings suggest some HIV vaccines may have failed because they induce a class of antibodies that a patient’s own immune system is programmed to destroy.

The Duke team discovered that certain broadly protective antibodies, which recognize and latch onto the HIV protein gp41, resemble antibodies made in autoimmune disea

New c.cam gamma camera provides new angle in cardiology diagnosis

Siemens Medical Solutions today announced that its c.cam – a unique, reclining dedicated cardiac gamma camera system – will be available for the European market. Introduced at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology 2003, the rising number of nuclear applications in Europe also requires a gamma camera system specialized for examinations of the heart.

The c.cam’s myocardial viabili

New research shows that farmers who used agricultural insecticides experienced increased neurological symptoms, even when they were no longer using the products. Data from18,782 North Carolina and Iowa farmers linked use of insecticides, including organophosphates and organochlorines, to reports of reoccurring headaches, fatigue, insomnia, dizziness, nausea, hand tremors, numbness and other neurological symptoms. Some of the insecticides addressed by the study are still on the market, but some,

Canadian researchers have become the first to pinpoint specific behavioral signs in infants as young as 12 months that can predict, with remarkable accuracy, whether a child will develop autism.

The preliminary findings, published this month in the International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, were taken from an ongoing study of 200 Canadian infants, the largest study of its kind in the world. The infants, many of whom have been followed from birth to 24 months, are you

A new camera-in-a-pill can help doctors diagnose and evaluate diseases of the esophagus including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), erosive esophagitis and Barrett’s esophagus (a pre-cancerous condition) without the use of a traditional endoscope.

“The camera is about the size of a large vitamin pill, and is a non-invasive diagnostic alternative to traditional endoscopy, the most common procedure used to examine the esophagus, ” says gastroenterologist Dr. Michael Bro

By studying animals, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that the antibiotic minocycline might help alleviate HIV’s negative effects on the brain and central nervous system, problems that can develop even though antiretroviral therapy controls the virus elsewhere in the body.

Five monkeys infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a very close relative of HIV, and treated with minocycline had less damage to brain cells, less brain inflammation, and less virus in the