Authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET describe a new technique where the detection of a specific protein in faeces could be a marker for colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer is a common disease (causing around 500,000 deaths each year worldwide), and screening methods that are more reliable than colonoscopy and faecal-blood assessment are needed for earlier disease detection. Nicholas Coleman and colleagues from the MRC Cancer Cell Unit, Cambridge, UK, aim to develo

Giving magnesium sulphate injections to pregnant women with pre-eclampsia halves the risk of eclampsia developing and can save their lives. This is the conclusion of a major international clinical trial funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and published in this week’s The Lancet.

The three-year £2.5 million study, the ‘Magpie’* Trial, was conducted in 33 countries spanning the UK and much of the developing world where eclampsia is the most common cause of death for pregnant women. Th

New product approved to prevent bleeding deaths

A razor nick during a much-too-close-shave ten years ago may result in hundreds of thousands of lives saved in the future. Scientist Frank Hursey was working with absorptive materials back in the late 80’s when he cut himself shaving. He picked up a volcanic mineral he’d been studying and decided to try it on his bleeding wound. The product worked so well as a coagulant that Hursey set to work doing further testing.

After three

A tiny methane-producing microbe has revealed the existence of a new amino acid, researchers report. Two studies published in the current issue of the journal Science describe pyrrolysine, a nonstandard amino acid encoded in the RNA of bacteria-like members of the group Archaea. The findings suggest that the genetic code may be more adaptable than previously believed.

When scientists first began to unravel the genetic code more than four decades ago, they determined that the four DNA bases

A study of birds on Pacific islands shows conclusively that the formation of new species is a gradual and not a sudden process, according to biologists from the UK, France, Australia and the USA writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today (28 May issue).

The `founder effect` theory, a controversial idea among biologists, says that speciation occurs suddenly due to a small influx of colonists founding new populations, in the process creating many new gene combinations

Giving birth is clearly a high-stress experience. But usually it involves positive stress, which helps the woman cope with the exigencies of delivery and prepares the baby for a life outside the mother’s womb.” These are the words of Siw Alehagen from Linköping University, Sweden, who has written a dissertation about fear, pain, and stress hormones in women giving birth. Among other things, she has performed studies during actual delivery, a method that few researchers have dared to attempt anywhere

On Friday, May 31, Anders Eklund, Department of Radiation Sciences, Medical Technology, Umeå University, Sweden, will defend his dissertation evaluating a new and simpler instrument for measuring the pressure of eye fluids, a key risk factor in glaucoma. Anders Eklund has a master’s in engineering and works at the Unit for Medical Technology and Informatics, Northern Sweden University Hospital. He has further developed and assessed a new type of sensor based on vibration technology. His work has targ

This month, Journal of Applied Microbiology publishes a ground-breaking study demonstrating that bacteria which are physically separated can transmit information through the air. It is well documented that bacteria can exchange messages by releasing substances into a surrounding liquid culture medium, but this new study is the first to demonstrate signalling between physically separated bacterial cells.

Professor Alan Parsons and Dr Richard Heal of QinetiQ ltd, have shown that physically sep

A signature of arts and crafts sessions, the Möbius strip–a seemingly endless ribbon with only one side and one edge that can be made from construction paper and sticky tape–has been given a new look. According to a report published today in the journal Nature, scientists have succeeded in growing crystals in the form of Möbius structures.

A piece of ribbon or paper can be twisted and turned easily, so a regular Möbius strip itself is no great feat of engineering. Crystals, in contrast,

It has often been claimed that psychological stress is an important cause of heart disease, but a study in this week’s BMJ shows that previous research may have been misleading.

Researchers measured self-assessed stress amongst middle-aged Scottish men working in and around Glasgow in the early 1970s. These men were then followed for more than twenty years to see whether or not they developed heart disease. Several different measures of heart disease were used.

Men who thought they

In a joint project with the STW Technology Foundation, medical information technologists from Leiden have developed a virtual robot which meticulously scans the heart muscle using images of the heart. The contours detector reduces the work of specialists and does not affect the patients. The research group will present the results in the middle of May at a congress in Honolulu.

To map the condition of a patient’s heart, physicians have until now used a series of MRI images (magnetic resonanc

The Genostar consortium today announces the launch of its Genostar platform for exploratory genomics, the result of two and a half years research carried out by a team of more than 20 genomics and bioinformatics scientists and developers. Exploratory genomics involves the study of the structure and function of genes and proteins and plays a vital role in healthcare, agrifood and other industries. Members of the consortium are GENOME express, Hybrigenics, INRIA and the Pasteur Institute (see boilerpla

Activity Generates New Nerve Cells For Old Mice – Study Supports Link Between Active Life And Lower Risk Of Neurodegenerative Disease

Active older people seem to have a lower risk of certain neurological disorders such as Alzheimer`s disease. A study published May 22 in the on-line edition of the Annals of Neurology, the research publication of the American Neurological Association, demonstrates how this increased activity might protect the brain.

Researchers in Germany and the Unit

Breastfeeding might protect against cot death, suggests research in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The researchers surveyed the parents of 244 babies who had died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and 869 babies still alive and well to find out how they had been fed. The study was conducted between 1992 and 1995. Over 80 per cent of the SIDS baby parents and almost three quarters of the comparison group responded.

During the study period breast feeding among the c

Further cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) disease could arise as a result of human growth hormone treatment, even after low doses, suggests research in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Dutch researchers report on the case of a man who developed CJD 38 years after receiving human derived growth hormone.

A 47 year old man was given only a low dose as part of a diagnostic procedure, rather than being given full treatment, which may explain why the incubation period

Scientists at the University of Ulster have unveiled a monitoring system that can ensure transplant organs arrive in pristine condition for the life-saving surgery.
They have developed tiny sensors which are inserted in the organs, and which monitor if there has been any deterioration in the organs’ condition since being removed from the donor.

The sensors are flexible micro-electrodes based on pioneering nanotechnology, which are implanted in the donor organ.

The electrodes mo