Researchers report they now can predict whether some parents are more likely than others to have a second child with the “isolated” form of cleft lip and palate, one of the world’s most common birth defects, according to results of a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The research was supported in part by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Heal

A defect in the action of a newly discovered protein may play a central role in muscular dystrophy, a disease of progressive muscle degeneration with no known cure.

Scientists at UCSF’s Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center discovered in an animal model of the disease that during periods of intense muscle activity, muscles remain excited too long and degenerate if the protein fails to transport the neurotransmitter acetylcholine away from the nerve-muscle synapse. Muscle d

New tool offers scientists great flexibility

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have successfully targeted unnatural sugar molecules with chemically unique functional groups onto the surfaces of cells in living animals without altering the animals’ physiology.
The achievement is a significant advance in the promising new field of metabolic engineering because it provides a new tool with which researchers can label specific cells in whole animals so that they can dif

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have identified, for the first time, a gene variation associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a complex, inflammatory autoimmune disease that affects multiple organs. The gene variation, known as PTPN22, is found in approximately 16 percent (or one in six) of healthy Caucasians in the United States. However, nearly one in four (or 23 percent) lupus patients carry this variant, which has also now been associated with risk for type 1 diabetes and r

Researchers in London are to explore the effectiveness of gingko, a complementary medicine traditionally used to treat circulatory problems, as a treatment for early dementia.

The study of 250 patients aged over 55 will seek to find out whether GPs can help patients by prescribing the supplement to those with memory loss, one of the early symptoms of dementia.

It will be the first to test gingko as a treatment for those who are still living in the community and are being t

A room where people smoke contains dozens or hundreds of times higher air concentrations of endotoxins than smoke-free indoor air. This has been shown by a research team from Lund University. Endotoxin is the name of a group of poisonous substances produced by bacteria and naturally occurring in the air and elsewhere. In normal low concentrations, endotoxins are not dangerous; indeed, they might play a role in protecting us against allergies. But at higher levels of concentration they induce seri

A new type of artificial hip, more robust and longer lasting than conventional artificial joints, is to undergo clinical trials and could be available for patients within five years.

These ‘ceramic-on-metal’ joints cause less damage to the surrounding bone than conventional artificial hips, therefore many recipients will avoid the need for further surgery. They could also lower the age at which it is practical for patients to undergo hip replacement, helping them to continue to lead

A group of researchers at the Public University of Navarre, led by Senior Lecturer in Zoology, Elena Urdaneta Artola, have studied both the mechanisms whereby foodstuffs known as functional act at a gastrointestinal level as well as their possible beneficial effects on the health of individuals.

The study, which will continue until 2006, has received the Ortiz de Landazuri Scholarship for 2004. This is an annual award by the Department of Health of the Navarre Government in reco

Most of the million-plus people having LASIK each year to correct their vision are happy with the results, according to a 15-year literature review that indicates most reasons for discontent could be resolved with more patient education before surgery.

“Basically this confirms our own clinical experience: patients are happy, patients turn out well,” said Dr. Balamurali Ambati, ophthalmologist and corneal specialist at the Medical College of Georgia.

Dr. Ambati was asked

The wind transports pollen far less effectively than scientists assumed, according to a new study of invasive Atlantic cordgrass by researchers at UC Davis. This discovery will help control a cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora, that is invading wetlands on the Pacific coast.

Plants including grasses, oaks and pine trees need the wind to carry pollen between plants, fertilizing nascent seeds. Scientists guessed that wind pollination was efficient, but the theory hadn’t been tested.

In this retrospective study, eighty-eight patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were treated with long-term chemotherapy infusion into the hepatic artery, the main artery that supplies the liver. Known as hepatic arterial chemotherapy, this treatment requires a reservoir/pump system to supply the drug directly to the liver and the liver cancer. The reservoir port systems currently available have to be surgically implanted, making this treatment unavailable to many patients who were u

New Model Can Aid In Understanding Immune System Diseases Researchers trying to understand diseases and develop new treatments can’t always depend on existing tools or organisms to make discoveries; sometimes they first must create models of the problems they want to study.

Such is the case with Epstein-Barr, a common virus that is often harmless but likely contributes to malignancies and autoimmnune disease in people with compromised immunity. A University of Iowa team has enginee

Teenagers suffering from depression improved more with a combination of an antidepressant and cognitive-behavior therapy than they did when treated with either separately, a multicenter study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows.

Results of a national, yearlong government-funded study in which UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers participated also showed that depressed teens treated only with cognitive-behavior therapy did little bet

But talk therapy alone is no better than placebo

A new study from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and 12 other medical centers shows the most effective treatment for adolescents with major depressive disorder is a combination of antidepressants and psychotherapy. Researchers say the study’s findings indicate this combination treatment may be best for both improving depression and reducing the level of suicidal thinking in adolescents.

The multicenter Treatment for

For most people, the need to wear eyeglasses to read is an inevitable part of aging. The eye’s natural lens hardens and loses its ability to change shape, making it more difficult to focus, especially when reading up close.

With age also comes the development of cataracts or clouding of the eye’s natural lens. Intraocular lenses (IOLs) traditionally have been used to replace the eye’s natural lens after its removal during cataract surgery. However, with the tradition

With increasing numbers of whole genomes being sequenced, researchers are keen to analyse the functions of the genes they contain and the proteins these genes encode. Yet, according to researchers writing in BMC Biology, to fully understand any genome, researchers must use palaeontology, geology and chemistry to help them discover the reasons why specific genes evolved.

Steven Benner and Eric Gaucher at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Frank and Rosalie Simmen at the U