Ionising radiation has long been recognised as a cause of leukaemia in exposed children. But delegates at a conference in London today (Tuesday 7 September) will hear how ground-breaking research is now providing evidence that the children of men exposed to radiation may also be at increased risk of developing leukaemia.

The causes of leukaemia in children are, in general, poorly understood. The disease is known to be multi-causal, and it is widely accepted that it is multi-stage, i

Traditional treatment of movement problems for people who have suffered traumatic brain injury or strokes has mainly focused on making the best use of motor functions the patient has retained. A team at the University of Surrey is now examining a method which focuses on improving the weaker arm of patients with upper body hemiparesis (hand/arm disability resulting from brain damage). Professor Annette Sterr and her Clinical Neuroscience Research Group are carrying out a five-year study into the pract

The pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, which has been routinely given to young children since 2000, reduces the incidence of middle ear infection and pneumonia, a new study shows.

“This highlights that the vaccine significantly decreases illnesses in children and reinforces its importance in our public health efforts,” said Dr. Kathy Poehling, assistant professor of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville. The study appea

Pushing neurons’ physiological limits provides researchers with new ways to repair nerve damage

Sometimes it is the extremes that point the way forward. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have induced nerve fibers – or axons – to grow at rates and lengths far exceeding what has been previously observed. To mimic extreme examples in nature and learn more about neuronal physiology, they have mechanically stretched axons at rates of eight millimeters per d

Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) present significant new discoveries on West Nile virus, monkeypox, and yellow fever in four papers in the September issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The articles are summarized below, and can be found on the EID web site at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/index.htm.

• In “Year-Round West Nile Virus Activity, Gulf Coast Region, Texas and Louisiana

International experts will (Wednesday 8 September) consider the evidence for a link between the rise in childhood leukaemia and increased light at night at an international scientific conference in London.

The incidence of childhood leukaemia increased dramatically in the twentieth century. The increase has mainly affected the under five age group, in whom the risk increased by more than 50 per cent during the second half of the century alone.

Although the causes of leuka

Tiny types of soil bugs already make many of the products we use in washing detergents, foods, and waste treatment, but scientists now hope that similar bacteria will also make the vaccines and drugs of the future, according to new research presented today (Tuesday, 07 September 2004) at the Society for General Microbiology’s 155th Meeting at Trinity College Dublin.

Researchers from the Institute of Cell and Molecular Studies at Newcastle University have successfully produced small q

Researchers from Rockefeller University, New York, have developed a new way of killing dangerous bacteria like the ones which cause anthrax and pneumonia, using products from a virus, according to new research presented today (Tuesday, 07 September 2004) at the Society for General Microbiology’s 155th Meeting at Trinity College Dublin.

The new bug-smashing technique uses the bacteria’s own natural enemies, tiny viruses called bacteriophages (or phages), which can infect bacterial c

The slippery mucus on the skin of rainbow trout is being studied by scientists as a possible source of new medicines to fight infectious diseases, according to research presented Monday, 06 September 2004 at the Society for General Microbiology’s 155th Meeting at Trinity College Dublin.

“Anglers, cooks and anyone cleaning up mess in their kitchen know how difficult it is to hold onto fresh slippery fish like rainbow trout,” says Dr Vyv Salisbury from the University of the West of En

Bee stings may provide a solution to overcome the growing problem of antibiotic resistance in bacteria according to new research presented Monday, 06 September 2004 by Belfast scientists at the Society for General Microbiology’s 155th Meeting at Trinity College Dublin.

A small protein found in bee venom called melittin can break open the protective skin which surrounds all cells, including cells in our own bodies, and the membranes which enclose bacteria.

“This new approach

Stopping bacteria from talking to each other could help prevent serious infections say scientists from Aberdeen, in new research presented Monday, 06 September 2004 at the Society for General Microbiology’s 155th Meeting at Trinity College Dublin.

“It is war out there. Bacteria need to wait until there are enough of them to attack us, otherwise they just get beaten off by our skin, the antibodies which patrol our blood, and our other defences,” says Professor Andrew Porter from Aberde

About half of today’s children have tooth decay, so a new solution that blocks the action of bacteria which attack teeth could bring significant benefits, say scientists speaking Monday, 06 September 2004 at the Society for General Microbiology’s 155th Meeting at Trinity College Dublin.

Researchers from the Department of Oral Immunology at King’s College London have discovered how the bacteria which attack teeth, Streptococcus mutans, attach themselves to the enamel surface. O

While the nucleus of a cell may be its command headquarters, mitochondria are equally vital—they are the power plants of the cell, and without them all cellular activity would quickly and irrevocably come to a halt. Testifying to their origins as once free-living bacteria, mitochondria have their own DNA, comprising 37 genes in humans on a single circular chromosome. However, most of the mitochondria’s presumed ancestral genes have been taken into the cell’s nucleus, where they are under t

Immunity to a cancer in chickens could shed light on ways to control certain human cancers according to scientists from the Institute for Animal Health (IAH). Their work on Marek’s disease (MD) in chickens has identified the first natural model for specific Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, and is published this week in PNAS (06-10 September 2004).

Marek’s disease virus (MDV) shares many biological properties with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) – a major cause of Hodgkin’s disease.

Analyzing the frequency among human populations of a variant in a gene that influences vulnerability to heart disease, biologists have found evidence that the gene has been influenced by the pressure of natural selection. What’s more, this evolutionary pressure has influenced heart disease risk.

An analysis of data on the genetic variation among 2,400 British middle-aged men indicated that the men would have suffered 43 percent more heart attacks had the positive selection for

Heart disease is Europe’s leading cause of death, but new research shows that the disease’s toll would be much greater had natural selection not shifted the frequency of susceptibility genes over the past few tens of thousands of years. The work underscores the role of ancient natural selection in shaping contemporary public health.

The findings are reported by Matthew Rockman, Dagan Loisel, and Greg Wray at Duke University, Matthew Hahn at UC Davis, and David Goldstein and Nicole