West Nile virus alarmed Americans when it made its first U.S. appearance in New York City in 1999. It has since spread from coast to coast, sickened more than 16,000 Americans and killed more than 600. As the virus spread, medical investigators hastened research to develop an effective vaccine or therapy. None currently exist, but a newly published paper by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis points to a promising treatment. This research, published today online by Nature Medicine

More than half of air travellers find that their oxygen saturation drops to a level at which many hospital patients would be prescribed extra oxygen, according to a paper in the May issue of Anaesthesia.

The study, by a team of Belfast researchers, found that oxygen levels fell by an average of four per cent when people reached cruising altitude.

84 passengers, aged from one to 78, had their oxygen saturation levels measured by qualified anaesthetists on the ground and

Staying up past bedtime, skipping meals, and snacking constantly all add up to weight gain, fatty livers, and high cholesterol levels for an unlucky group of mice whose internal biological clocks are genetically disrupted.

Researchers at Northwestern University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have identified wide-ranging molecular and behavioral changes in mice that have a faulty circadian system. In people, similar changes in body fat and metabolic activity are known as

Particles could make earlier cancer diagnosis possible

Specially designed nanoparticles can reveal tiny cancerous tumors that are invisible by ordinary means of detection, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The researchers demonstrated that very small human melanoma tumors growing in mice—indiscernible from the surrounding tissue by direct MRI scan—could be “lit up” and easily located as soon as 30 minute

PET scans and cognitive tests have suggested that Alzheimer’s disease patients with genetically modified tissue inserted directly into their brains show a reduction in the rate of cognitive decline and increased metabolic activity in the brain, according to a study published in the April 24, 2005 online issue of the journal Nature Medicine by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.

PET scans demonstrated an increase in the brain&#

Elderly lung cancer patients tolerate combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy with no higher risk of death than younger patients, according to a new study appearing in the June 1, 2005 issue of CANCER (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/cancer-newsroom), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., with half of those diagnosed at age 70 years or older. About 20 percent of patients with lung cancer will hav

Cells tugged in one direction sent biochemical signals in the opposite direction in the form of a signature pattern of fluorescent light

Researchers at UCSD and UC Irvine have captured on video for the first time chemical signals that traverse human cells in response to tiny mechanical jabs, like waves spreading from pebbles tossed into a pond. The scientists released the videos and technical details that explain how the visualization effect was created as part of a paper publishe

Prions made in vitro cause brain disease in hamsters

UTMB scientists offer strongest evidence yet that infectious misformed proteins cause mad cow disease and other mysterious brain disorders. Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have produced the strongest proof yet that the mysterious and devastating brain diseases known as “transmissible spongiform encephalopathies” (TSEs) are transmitted by an infectious agent composed only of a malformed pr

Clues about how a suspect version of a gene may slightly increase risk for schizophrenia are emerging from a brain imaging study by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The gene variant produced a telltale pattern of activity linked to production of a key brain messenger chemical.

The study found that increased activity in the front of the brain predicted increases in the neurotransmitter dopamine in the middle of the brain in

In a genomics milestone, an international consortium of researchers has for the first time lifted the veil from a fungal plant pathogen by sequencing the genome – or set of all genes – of the most destructive enemy of rice: Magnaporthe grisea, the fungus that causes rice blast disease.

Dr. Ralph Dean, professor of plant pathology and director of North Carolina State University’s Center for Integrated Fungal Research, is the lead author of a research paper that describes the M. g

The power of a new technique to map connections among nerve cells in the brain has a UT Southwestern Medical Center scientist dreaming of solving the mysteries of sleep.

By tracking which nerve cells in the mouse brain stimulate others, researchers in Japan and at UT Southwestern found that a type of neuron responsible for keeping animals awake receives inhibitory signals from neurons active only during sleep, as well as reinforcing, positive signals from nerve cells that are very

Jeopardy answer: Death Valley and “ionic liquids.” Correct question: Where does a little bit of water make a whole lot of difference?

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report* that flow properties for a relatively new class of alternative solvents called ionic liquids are extremely sensitive to tiny amounts of water. For example, for one of these solvents, just a 0.01 percent increase in water dissolved into a sample, caused a 1 percent decrea

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified an enzyme that helps trigger the development of leukemia, a cancer of blood cells.

The enzyme hDOT1L activates a set of genes that plays a key role in the rare and largely incurable acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This disease affects less than 2 percent of the estimated 16,000 individuals diagnosed with acute leukemia nationwide each year. The discovery, based on research using bone marrow cells from mice,

A NASA funded study has found a decline in winter and spring snow cover over Southwest Asia and the Himalayan mountain range is creating conditions for more widespread blooms of ocean plants in the Arabian Sea.

The decrease in snow cover has led to greater differences in both temperature and pressure systems between the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Sea. The pressure differences generate monsoon winds that mix the ocean water in the Western Arabian Sea. This mixing leads to

Obesity and diabetes in both adults and children are rising at alarming rates and a wide range of culprits — super-sized food portions, lack of exercise due to television, computers, suburban sprawl and loss of gym classes, high-fat and fast foods, sugar-laden drinks and psychological trauma — have been blamed.

Now researchers from Northwestern University and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH) have pinpointed something deep within the brain and other tissues that plays an

Researchers at the University of Dundee have made a significant new discovery on how cells behave and protect themselves against cancers and congenital disorders as reported in Nature tomorrow (Thursday April 21).

Dr Tomo Tanaka and his team members at the University’s School of Life Sciences, Drs Kozo Tanaka, Naomi Mukae and Hilary Dewar, in collaboration with Drs Euan James and Alan Prescott and researchers in Germany, have uncovered how cells prepare for the process of chromosome