As SARS and other new diseases cross geographical boundaries with increasing rapidity, the need for Binghamton University’s new master of science in biomedical anthropology becomes ever more apparent.

The program, the first of its kind in the world, will offer a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the transmission and spread of infections, cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease, and the interaction of biological and socio-cultural factors that shape health outcomes.

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A new study in the Institute of Physics journal Physics in Medicine and Biology, reveals that the new generation of digital mobile phones can interfere with many types of heart pacemaker. The pacemakers can confuse the signals generated by mobile phones for the heart’’s own electrical signals, causing the pacemaker to malfunction. The authors of the paper, based in the US and Italy, say that newer pacemakers fitted with a ceramic filter are immune and recommend that all manufacturers use th

The case of a talented artist whose paintings evolved as her dementia progressed suggests that language skills are not necessary, and may even inhibit, some types of creativity. The case is reported in the May 27 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

“This case suggests that our brain wiring may be a major factor in determining the nature of our creativity,” said neurologist Bruce L. Miller, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, who

Eliminating X-ray exam could save patients time and money

When every minute counts in assessing and treating injuries in patients who have sustained severe trauma, multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) is more effective than conventional radiographs (x-rays) in helping radiologists pinpoint spine fractures, according to a new study appearing in the June issue of the journal Radiology.

The study was conducted at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, to determine

A heart rhythm disturbance that affects more than 2 million Americans is twice as likely to recur in patients with untreated sleep apnea, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in the May 27 edition of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a condition that causes people to repeatedly stop breathing during sleep.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained heart arrhythmia and can have serious consequences. When the upper chamb

Important step forward for safety of xenotransplantation

This week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Immerge BioTherapeutics, Inc., announced that they have identified the receptors that are used by porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) in order to enter and infect a cell (PNAS; May 27, 2003; vol. 100, no. 11; 6759-6764). This is a critical discovery because it allows scientists to begin to develop strategies to prevent PERV replication. PERV has

If successful in humans, vaccine could eliminate annual flu shot

Globally, the influenza virus, or flu, is thought to cause between three and five million cases of severe illness and between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths annually, according to the World Health Organization. New strains of the virus emerge each year, so that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and other public health services must produce and distribute a new vaccine against the new flu strains each year. And each year,

Maybe you really are what you eat. This would solve the long-time mystery of why so many of Guam’s Chamorro people – up to a third per village — suffered a devastating neurological disease. A new study suggests that they gorged on flying fox bats that in turn had feasted on neurotoxin-laden cycad seeds.

“Through the consumption of cycad-fed flying foxes, the Chamorro people may have unwittingly ingested large quantities of cycad neurotoxins,” say Clark Monson of the University of Hawaii,

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University this week announced preliminary study results showing smallpox vaccine protection lasts longer than previously thought. Until now, it was widely accepted that smallpox vaccine protection lasted approximately three to five years. However, early study data shows that significant, partial protection may last many decades after inoculation.

“More than 90 percent of Americans older than 35 have already been vaccinated against smallpox. This trans

Researchers at Emory University and Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a new method to manipulate the self-assembly and formation of amyloid fibrils, a major component of brain plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease, thereby opening new avenues for examination of their formation and for the construction of robust nanotubes that have potential applications in research, industry and medicine.

Certain short amino acid chains, the building blocks of proteins, are capable of self-a

A group of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has solved structures of a bacterial protein called pilin, which is required for infection by pathogens that cause human diseases like meningitis, gonorrhea, diarrheal diseases, pneumonia, and cholera.

In the latest issue of the journal Molecular Cell, the TSRI group reports two key structures of these pilins and discoveries about their assembly into fibrous “pili.” Because a whole class of bacterial pathogens require the ass

Mice without Fkbp6 gene have significantly reduced testes, completely lack sperm cells

A gene that belongs to a family of genes implicated in heart disease has been found to be essential for male fertility but has no impact on female fertility, researchers at U of T, along with colleagues in New York and Japan, have discovered.

“This gene – Fkbp6 – is a member of a family of genes that have been implicated in immunosuppression and heart disease,” says Dr. Josef Penninger, pr

Butterfly flight simulator sheds light on epic migration

During their winter migration to Mexico, monarch butterflies depend on an internal clock to help them navigate in relation to the sun, scientists have found.

By studying monarchs inside a specially designed flight simulator, the researchers have gathered what they believe is the first direct evidence of the essential role of the circadian clock in celestial navigation. The study appears in the journal Science, publishe

Mice lacking only one copy of the gene for CD2-associated protein (CD2AP) appear to be significantly more susceptible to kidney disease and failure than normal mice. Moreover, the mutation appears to impair the elimination of proteins that accumulate in the kidney, a previously unidentified process.

The study, which will be published in the May 23 issue of the journal Science, is the first to suggest that proteins normally pass into the kidneys and that kidney disease may result from an ina

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have gained new insights into the causes of human deafness and balance disorders by studying the inner ear of chickens.

The research provides new clues as to why birds can replace critical cells in the inner ear and humans cannot. Loss of these so-called sensory hair cells in humans is a leading cause of deafness and impaired balance due to aging, infectious disease and exposure to loud noise. The study will be published in

Effective today, the World Health Organization (WHO) is removing its recommendation that people should postpone all but essential travel to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Guangdong Province, China.

The recommendation to consider postponing all but essential travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong was issued on 2 April in order to minimize the international spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). WHO is changing this recommendation as the situation in these areas ha