Myths about the infectious disease threat posed by dead bodies could lead to insensitive and inappropriate treatment of victims’ bodies following the floods in Haiti, and need to be checked, according to a public health researcher who has studied the potential risks at length.

Although most of the media coverage of the disaster has been responsible and accurate, there have been some reports which wrongly state that dead bodies can cause epidemics.

‘Fear that dead bodies cause

Two types of thyroid cancer that are closely related and sometimes difficult to distinguish can be readily identified by differences in only a few genes, new research shows.

The study, by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, used microarray analysis to show that papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) differ in the expression of only four or f

A common butterfly, found in a variety of habitats from the southern United States to northern Argentina, is actually comprised of at least 10 separate species, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania.

Astraptes fulgerator, a medium-large skipper butterfly, is a routine visitor to urban gardens and tropical rainforests. While the “species” has been known to science since 1775, only now has examination of a small and standardized signature piece of the genome –

Duke University Medical Center researchers have identified specific clusters of genes within human aortas that appear to predict with great specificity which patients may be at highest risk for developing atherosclerosis, as well as the severity of the disease.

For the researchers, this is an important first of many steps toward developing highly individualized approaches to identifying and treating atherosclerosis that are tailored to and informed by a patient’s unique genet

Patients needing second-time or “re-do” heart surgery have a new safer alternative. New findings show that an “off-pump” surgical procedure is performed safely and has improved outcomes for patients than traditional methods.

Due to a newly standardized approach and enhanced technology, doctors can perform this controversial surgery and eliminate the damaging effects of using a heart bypass machine. Off-pump surgery, also known as the “beating heart” method, is performed while the he

While Parkinson’s disease typically brings to mind symptoms such as tremors and slow movement, researchers have found that nearly half of all Parkinson’s patients also suffer from depression. While it might seem natural that someone who has a disease such as Parkinson’s might become depressed, it’s not so simple, says neurologist Irene Richard, M.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center.

“Many patients assume that’s it’s normal to feel this way

Nanomedicines already bringing clinical benefits to thousands

“Nanotechnology” is a newly fashionable field but in the world of drug development it is certainly not new, Professor Ruth Duncan of the Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University has told the British Pharmaceutical Conference (September 27-29).
The first nanomedicines are already bringing clinical benefit to thousands of patients, said Professor Duncan in her Conference Science Chairman’s address.

“Pr

A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology evaluates treatments for postherpetic neuralgia. The guideline is published in the September 28 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The guideline recommends tricyclic antidepressants, gabapentin, lidocaine patch, and opioids for treating the pain of postherpetic neuralgia.

Postherpetic neuralgia is characterized as pain that persists more than three months after an individual has exper

The scientist who identified the target for several drugs used to treat sleeping sickness and Chagas’ disease has just discovered that antimonial drugs used to treat Leishmaniasis attack the same target.

And, he is “highly optimistic” that research on the parasite molecule “trypanothione”, and enzymes that use trypanothione, will lead to a drug that will cure all three tropical diseases.

Professor Alan Fairlamb at the University of Dundee has worked out how the sulphur

Patients now living insulin free and off dialysis

Due to refined surgical techniques and advances in anti-rejection therapy, transplant surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh’s Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute (STI) are able to successfully perform a higher volume of kidney-pancreas transplants – more than 22 kidney-pancreas transplants in the past three months – which yields a shorter wait time on the transplant list, a better graft survival and quicker recovery. “Pe

If you missed your morning coffee and now you have a headache and difficulty concentrating, you might be able to blame it on caffeine withdrawal. In general, the more caffeine consumed, the more severe withdrawal symptoms are likely to be, but as little as one standard cup of coffee a day can produce caffeine addiction, according to a Johns Hopkins study that reviewed over 170 years of caffeine withdrawal research.

Results of the Johns Hopkins study should result in caffeine withdraw

Genetic predictive test clears way for targeted drug treatment

An international team of scientists and cancer specialists has identified which patients with the deadly form of brain tumours called glioblastomas are likely to live longer if they are treated with temozolomide, and which patients are likely to get only marginal, if any, benefit. The genetic predictive test on tumour biopsies to identify who will benefit from the drug could be carried out fairly easily in any genetics la

Short stretch of DNA sequence fast, accurate method for identifying species

The task of identifying Earth’s estimated 10 million species has daunted biologists for centuries – fewer than two million have been named. Using a technique called DNA barcoding, researchers at Rockefeller University and two Canadian institutions have uncovered four new species of North American birds. The findings are reported in the September 28 issue of Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology.

Findings could have implications for treating lung disease

Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have identified a master gene that controls the first breath a newborn infant takes. The findings could have implications for treating premature babies and children and adults with lung disease or lung injury. While other genes have been identified as having roles in lung development, this master gene, called Foxa2, controls key factors that allow the lungs o

In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Temple University researchers report that one of the functions of the c-myb gene, which leukemia cells depend on for proliferation, is the formation of white blood cells.

“This study is another step in the process of validating the c-myb gene as a potential target for new cancer drugs,” said Prem Reddy, Ph.D., professor and director of the Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology at Te

A new study headed by biologists at Washington University in St. Louis shows that Florida is an exporter of more than just fruit and star athletes.

Studying genetic variation in the common brown lizard, Anolis sagrei, the researchers found that introduced populations of the lizard in five different countries can be traced back to the Sunshine State as their site of export.

The team analyzed a small region of DNA from more than 600 different individuals to get a genetic “ID