Imagine that by altering the function of a single gene, you could live longer, be thinner and have lower cholesterol and fat levels in your blood.

Medical College of Georgia researchers are using a tiny worm called C. elegans to transform that vision into reality. Researchers You-Jun Fei and Vadivel Ganapathy have found the Indy gene is critical in providing cells with energy, producing a transporter that helps deliver key ingredients of the fuel that drives cells. Indy delivers m

Medical drug falsification mainly concerns those which are in high demand, such as antimalarials in African regions where malaria is endemic. IRD researchers (1) have examined the quality of antimalarial medicines available from informal distribution networks in Cameroon. They also assessed the impact of malaria patients’ taking these medicines, obtained on the illicit market, on their health. Self-medication is common but when it relies on supplies of poor-quality drugs it is ineffectual for contro

UK Scientists are leading research which seeks to unlock the migratory secrets of endangered marine turtles at all four corners of the Atlantic this summer. Members of the public are invited to log on and follow their progress on a ground breaking free access website provided by USA non-profit SEATURTLE.ORG.

This summer, marine turtle scientists from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation of the University of Exeter in Cornwall are working with a range of national and international

Abnormalities in the spindles (the bi-polar thread like structures that link and pull the chromosomes during cell division) of human embryos before implantation may be the primary reason for many of the chromosome defects observed in early human development, a scientist said on Wednesday 30 June 2004 at the 20th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. Dr. Katerina Chatzimeletiou, from the Bridge Fertility Centre, London, UK, told the conference that her resear

Five children have been born conceived from previously isolated and frozen egg cells, Italian scientists announced today (Wednesday 30 June 2004) at the 20th annual conference of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology. The method bears great promise for patients who live in countries where embryo cryopreservation (freezing) is prohibited, like Italy, or who object to embryo freezing for personal reasons, said Dr. Paolo Levi Setti from the Istituto Clinico Humanitas in Milan.

Doctors in Denmark have succeeded in producing a two-cell embryo after ovarian tissue was removed, frozen, and then thawed and replaced two years later. It is believed that this is the first time a European group has succeeded in creating an embryo in this way.

Dr. Claus Yding Andersen told the 20th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology: “It is only a matter of time before a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child after having a thawed ovar

A new £18M Medical Research Council (MRC) facility to understand and compare the genetics of disease in mice and humans will be opened today, Wednesday 30 June, by Lord Sainsbury, Minister for Science and Technology.

The Mary Lyon Centre, at Harwell, Oxfordshire, headed by professor Bob Johnson, will primarily support research carried out at the neighbouring MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit which uses mouse genetics to understand what human genes do and how they contribute to health and disease,

Vital food crops will be protected worldwide under a new international agreement which comes into force today.

The UK is one of more than 50 countries committed to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which aims to improve food security and promote sustainable farming.

The treaty aims to ensure that plant genetic resources, which are the property of the country in which they are found, are conserved, used sustainably, and that their benefit

Significant abnormalities observed in cloned mice help reinforce the need to continue to avoid the reproductive cloning of humans, a scientist said on Wednesday 30 June 2004 at the 20th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. Dr. Takumi Takeuchi, from Cornell University, New York, USA told a media briefing that he and Dr. Gianpiero Palermo’s team had compared imprinting abnormalities (the process where specific genes inherited from both parents are silent)

Research aimed at teasing apart the workings of RNA enzymes eventually may lead to ways of monitoring fat metabolism and might even assist in the search for signs of life on Mars, according to University of Michigan researcher Nils Walter. His latest work was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences June 24.

Walter and associates at U-M and colleague Xiaowei Zhuang and associates at Harvard University, use techniques that allow them to study single molecules

Children whose mothers suffer domestic abuse are much more likely to be abused themselves. An article in BMC Medicine today shows that active screening significantly helps physicians to identify families that experience domestic abuse, and thus to protect children.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) notes that, “child abuse occurs in one third to three quarters of families that experience domestic violence”. Identifying these women, and taking steps to intervene, may be one of the m

If you want to pass an exam, be sure to get some good sleep before-hand. Because in sleep the brain processes and consolidates newly learnt matter. This is revealed in a new study shortly to be published in Nature. The study was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

As soon as deep sleep sets in, the brain cells start working in concord. Like football fans raising their hands in unison during a Mexican wave, millions of individual brain cells respond simultaneously wi

Researchers at the University of Essex are embarking on the first phase of a unique project to find out if mobile phone masts, have an adverse effect on our health.

The research team, led by the Department of Psychology, was awarded £250,000 to investigate into widespread public concern regarding exposure to electromagnetic fields emitted from mobile phone masts.

The first phase of the project aims to determine how common sensitivity to these fields is, and in what forms this se

Cancer treatments, including the most commonly used chemotherapy agents as well as the newest biologic and targeted therapy drugs, can harm a patient’s heart, sometimes fatally – but many physicians do not adequately monitor their patients for such damage or manage their care to minimize it.

So say cardiologists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, who published, in the June 29 issue of the journal Circulation, the first large scale review detailing cardiovascular compli

According to a new study by Sean Harbison, M.D., F.A.C.S., associate professor of surgery at Temple University School of Medicine and Temple University Hospital, laparoscopy does not appear to spread gallbladder cancer, nor does it hinder future surgeries. “Laparoscopic techniques might actually help us diagnose gallbladder cancer earlier and should remain as a treatment option,” said Harbison.

Although rare, gallbladder cancer is particularly deadly because it is usually discovered at a ve

It sneaks up on you, arriving 25 to 60 seconds after you swallow that first bite of ice cream. You can feel it coming, but you’re powerless to stop it. When it hits, the skin temperature on your forehead falls by almost two degrees. Then, just as the pain slams into your forehead and reaches its eye-watering peak, it subsides and is quickly gone.

You’ve just been the victim of an ice-cream headache.

Usually lasting between a few seconds and a minute, ice-cream headaches – yes, that