Solar Cell Implant May Restore Some Sight for the Blind

Ophthalmologists at Rush University Medical Center implanted Artificial Silicon Retina (ASR) microchips in the eyes of five patients to treat vision loss caused by retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The implant is a silicon microchip 2mm in diameter and one-thousandth of an inch thick, less than the thickness of a human hair. Four patients had surgery Tuesday, January 25. The fifth patient is scheduled for a later date.

Rush

A study done in part by the University of Alberta shows that children treated with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) have lower vaccination rates than the general population, exposing them to added risk from preventable illnesses such as mumps and measles.

A review of 482 pediatric charts at a teaching clinic in a naturopathic college showed that 35 per cent of the children presenting to the clinic for ailments such as skin disorders, stomach problems or psychiatric

In vitro fertilization can improve pregnancy rates among couples with unexplained infertility, but there is little evidence to show whether IVF results in more live births than other treatments, according to a new review of recent studies.

Although expensive and invasive, IVF is a widely used treatment, despite potential complications, including a multiple pregnancy rate of about 25 percent.

According to the analysis by Dr. Zabeena Pandian of the University of Aberdeen,

Ties, turtlenecks, jewelry worn more comfortably

On the show Ally McBeal, a character was romantically pursued because of her neck “wattle” or loose skin – a scenario that would only happen on television, right? In reality, many people want to rid themselves of neck “wattle” to look younger or to wear certain clothes or accessories more comfortably, without having facelifts. They may feel they are too young or old for an invasive procedure, are not able to afford the prolonged re

Viewing actual images of patients’ internal organs is more and more common in medical procedures. However, in many cases the treatment can be painful or uncomfortable, and high sterilisation costs can limit the procedure’s use. IVP’s prototypes aim to overcome such challenges.

With the IST project IVP finishing in September 2005, the project partners have developed two key prototypes; a new, smaller wired endoscope (called IVP1), and a tiny wireless-imaging probe taken in the

As cancer is the main cause of death among women aged 35 to 64 the EU’s Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) has agreed to provide seven million euros for a new Network of Excellence called TRANS-BIG, aimed at addressing the treatment of breast cancer.

TRANS-BIG aims to refine the diagnosis of breast cancer in a way that will enable specialists reduce the number of women being over treated by better identification of those who will benefit from treatment.

“Under the present sys

A study at the University of Sheffield, and published in Nature on Thursday 28 April 2005, has found that long-tailed tits rely on a family support network to bring up their offspring, and that they recognise family members through an individual family call that they learn in the nest.

Long-tailed tits breed co-operatively, with ‘helpers’ working together with breeding pairs to increase the chance that young are reared successfully to adulthood. These helpers choose to help chi

In a step toward making living cells function as if they were tiny computers, engineers at Princeton have programmed bacteria to communicate with each other and produce color-coded patterns.

The feat, accomplished in a biology lab within the Department of Electrical Engineering, represents an important proof-of-principle in an emerging field known as “synthetic biology,” which aims to harness living cells as workhorses that detect hazards, build structures or repair tissues a

In findings that could have implications for autoimmune disorders and drug-resistant bacterial infections, researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have identified a key protein involved in the appropriate shut-down of inflammation following an immune response to invading pathogens.

Published in the April 28, 2005 issue of the journal Nature, the study in mice and lab cultures of immune cells called macrophages showed that a protein c

Zeroing in on the core cellular mechanisms of sleep, researchers at University of Wisconsin Medical School have identified for the first time a single gene mutation that has a powerful effect on the amount of time fruit flies sleep.

In its normal state, the Drosophila (fruit fly) gene, called Shaker, produces an ion channel that controls the flow of potassium into cells, a process that critically affects, among other things, electrical activity in neurons. A handful of recent

The discovery of a ’molecular switch’ could lead to new ways of treating infections such as MRSA, and inflammatory diseases like arthritis.

According to research published today in Nature, the team from Imperial College London and the University of California, San Diego, have identified an enzyme called IKKá, which can act as a ’brake’ on an immune cell pathway responsible for regulating the body’s response to infection and inflammation.

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Findings demonstrate mechanism used by numerous membrane proteins throughout the body – opens pathway to new areas of exploration

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers have discovered how the membrane protein that allows us to sense cold works and how this protein becomes desensitized so that one no longer feels the cold. The study, published this week as an advance online publication by Nature Neuroscience, focused on a specific region of the cold receptor which is found

Observers in eastern Arkansas have reported at least eight independent sightings of a bird that appears to be an ivory-billed woodpecker, a species widely thought to be extinct. A video clip of one bird, though blurry, shows key features, including the size and markings, indicating that the bird is indeed an ivory-billed woodpecker, according to John W. Fitzpatrick of Cornell University and coauthors of a paper released online today by Science.

One of the world’s larges

Why do some cancer cells divide not into two, as cells are supposed to do in mitosis, but into three-four new cells that look thoroughly abnormal? This question was raised as early as the 1890s by the German tumor researcher David Hansemann, who could observe the strange mitosis even using the microscopes of his day. Now another David, Lund University researcher David Gisselsson, has found an answer.

Together with associates from the Section for Clinical Genetics, David Gissels

The discovery of a ‘molecular switch’ could lead to new ways of treating infections such as MRSA, and inflammatory diseases like arthritis.

According to research published today in Nature, the team from Imperial College London and the University of California, San Diego, have identified an enzyme called IKKa, which can act as a ‘brake’ on an immune cell pathway responsible for regulating the body’s response to infection and inflammation.

By inhibiting IKKa activity t

Scientists at Melbourne’s Howard Florey Institute have uncovered a clue about the causes of dementia in Huntington’s disease, one of the disease’s symptoms, by showing that mice susceptible to Huntington’s disease have problems with learning and memory before the diseases’ typical movement problems appear.

The Florey scientists also discovered that in Huntington’s diseased brains, information processing between neurons is disrupted, but the neurons d