Recent advances in brain imaging may allow very early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and other dementias, and improved assessment of treatment effectiveness

Imaging techniques such as PET and MRI are near to becoming useful in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease earlier and distinguishing it from other types of dementia, according to research reported today at the 9th International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (ICAD), presented by the Alzheimer’s As

A review article by Yale researchers reaffirms that the vast majority of people with cardiovascular disease can travel safely on airlines, provided they follow basic guidelines such as carrying an ample supply of medication or waiting two weeks to travel after having a cardiac procedure.

Published in the July 20 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, the article reviewed previous studies on air travel and cardiovascular disease. “We pulled together work that has been done on the topic, syn

Burr chervil is a new weed exploding across northern Idaho’s landscape. The weed may offer important clues to the biology of invasive species in general, a University of Idaho scientist says.

A decade ago, burr chervil seemed like it didn’t pose much of a threat, said Tim Prather, a UI weed scientist at Moscow. “We knew of a few plants that grew under hawthorn trees near Lewiston. It just seemed to be sitting there and not doing much.”

That was when Prather was doing graduat

Invasive species such as white pine blister rust, spotted knapweed and whirling disease in trout, as well as declining populations of plants and animals, are the focus of a new research center at the University of Idaho.

Officials announced the new Center for Research on Invasive Species and Small Populations July 14. UI scientists recently won a nearly $1 million grant from the Idaho Board of Education’s Higher Education Research Council to fund the new center.

“CRISSP bri

Less than 1 percent of the original Palouse Prairie remains. Split into patches of a few acres or less, the remnants tell an interesting story about insect communities, a UI researcher says.

Sanford Eigenbrode, interim Entomology Division chairman, is overseeing a study of insect communities in the prairie remnants that occupy small patches of hillsides across the Palouse.

The rich soils of the Palouse and modern agriculture meant that most of the original prairie was put to work g

Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona have developed the first international server that allows the user to analyze genetic diversity on a large scale. The web service, published in the special edition of Nucleic Acids Research on bioinformatics, will facilitate research about the genetic basis of hereditary diseases. The server is called PDA (Pipeline Diversity Analysis) and for the first time biologists around the world can search for small variations in the genomes of different

In experiments with fruit flies, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered how a key light-detecting molecule in the eye moves in response to changes in light intensity. Their finding adds to growing evidence that some creatures — and probably people — adapt to light not only by mechanically shrinking the pupil to physically limit how much light enters the eye, but also by a chemical response.

Building on their previous work showing that specific proteins in eye cells are redistributed i

Scientists from Novosibirsk are currently creating a pleasant and harmless vaccine – an edible one. So far, they managed to incorporate the protein gene – HIV antigen in tomatoes. The research is supported by International Science and Technology Center (ISTC).

All patients would be overjoyed to get edible vaccines, contained in vegetables and fruit. Imagine, a patient eats a vaccine and this way gets protected from a dangerous infection. However, this is not a fantasy, the fact being confir

A new genetic model for a motor disorder that confines an estimated 10,000 people in the United States to walkers and wheelchairs indicates that instability in the microscopic scaffolding within a key set of nerve cells is the cause of this devastating disability.

The study, which is published in the July 13 issue of the journal Current Biology, provides a provocative new insight into the molecular basis of the disease called hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) and suggests a new way to tre

For many shoppers the word “organic” is synonymous with “safe.” But food safety experts cannot concede that organic is safer than conventional food, as their research shows it is not. Dialogue on the confusion between fact and myth highlighted the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Food Expo being held here through Friday.

Surveys show that about 60 percent of consumers stress that it’s important to clarify that the organic label is a production claim, not a food safety claim

Despite the efforts of food retailers and food-processing plant managers to maintain a clean, safe environment, strains of the deadly pathogen Listeria monocytogenes can persist for up to a year or longer, according to Cornell University food scientists in the latest issue of Journal of Food Protection (July 2004).

“This is disturbing because this points the finger at retail stores and some processors as a continuing source of food contamination,” says Brian D. Sauders, a Cornell doctoral c

Highly innovative new drugs that can prevent scarring in the eye after glaucoma surgery have been discovered by a London-based team of scientists, who report today in the journal Nature Biotechnology.* By targeting more than one aspect of the scarring process at the same time, the team has been able to use the drugs safely and successfully in animal models of glaucoma surgery. The group includes scientists and clinicians from Imperial College London at Hammersmith Hospital, the Institute of Ophthal

May be due more to depression and poor physical performance than physiological side effects

Fatigue – a common problem in patients who are recovering from leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other haematological cancers – is associated with depression and reduced physical performance and not, as previously suggested, with anaemia, a flagging immune system or other physiological conditions. That is the conclusion of a German research team, reported (Monday 19 July), in Annals of Oncol

More analyses needed to assess clinical implications of new data

People with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) taking the drug donepezil were at reduced risk of progressing to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) for the first 18 months of a 3-year study when compared with their counterparts on placebo, according to a presentation of preliminary data from a recently completed clinical trial supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The reduc

Highly innovative new drugs that can prevent scarring in the eye after glaucoma surgery have been discovered by a London-based team of scientists, who report today in the journal Nature Biotechnology.* By targeting more than one aspect of the scarring process at the same time, the team has been able to use the drugs safely and successfully in animal models of glaucoma surgery. The group includes scientists and clinicians from Imperial College London at Hammersmith Hospital, the Institute of Ophthalm

Difficulties in performing more challenging cognitive tasks, such as managing one’s finances and medications, preparing meals and traveling independently, could be early warning signs that indicate the presence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), according to Emory University researchers. Other more basic and well-rehearsed daily tasks, such as bathing, grooming, and dressing, can also decline in patients with MCI, but to a lesser extent. The findings will be presented at the 9th International C