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Light-based techology rather than electric jolts may in future restore healthy heartbeats
Date: Aug-31-2013When a beating heart slips into an irregular, life-threatening rhythm, the treatment is well known: deliver a burst of electric current from a pacemaker or defibrillator. But because the electricity itself can cause pain, tissue damage and other serious side-effects, a Johns Hopkins-led research team wants to replace these jolts with a kinder, gentler remedy: light...
How anthrax toxins cause illness, death
Date: Aug-31-2013Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, both part of the National Institutes of Health, have identified the cells in two distinct areas of the body that are simultaneously targeted for damage by anthrax toxins, eventually causing illness and sometimes death. Their findings, which appear online in Nature, are based on testing in mice. However, the results may contribute to the development of anthrax treatments for humans, the researchers say...
Bioengineered myelin offers potential to regenerate neural tissue
Date: Aug-31-2013Stem cell technology has long offered the hope of regenerating tissue to repair broken or damaged neural tissue. Findings from a team of UC Davis investigators have brought this dream a step closer by developing a method to generate functioning brain cells that produce myelin - a fatty, insulating sheath essential to normal neural conduction. "Our findings represent an important conceptual advance in stem cell research," said Wenbin Deng, principal investigator of the study and associate professor at the UC Davis Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine...
Boosting malaria control efforts in Africa and Asia by targeting mosquito breeding sites
Date: Aug-31-2013A malaria control method that targets mosquito larvae and pupae as they mature in standing water could be an important supplementary measure in the fight against the disease, according to a new report. The Cochrane review -- led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in collaboration with Durham University and other researchers in the UK and US -- is the first systematic review looking at using larval source management (LSM) to control malaria, which causes an estimated 660,000 deaths worldwide every year...
New type of gas hydrate desalination technique could make potable water from oil and gas production
Date: Aug-31-2013In the midst of an intensifying global water crisis, scientists are reporting development of a more economical way to use one form of the "ice that burns" to turn very salty wastewater from fracking and other oil and gas production methods into water for drinking and irrigation. The study on the method, which removes more than 90 percent of the salt, appears in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. Yongkoo Seol and Jong-Ho Cha explain that salty wastewater is a byproduct of oil and gas production, including hydraulic fracturing, or fracking...
All-new hybrid material offers potential for wearable electronic devices
Date: Aug-31-2013Leveraging the amazing natural properties of the Morpho butterfly's wings, scientists have developed a nanobiocomposite material that shows promise for wearable electronic devices, highly sensitive light sensors and sustainable batteries. A report on the new hybrid material appears in the journal ACS Nano. Eijiro Miyako and colleagues explain that Morpho butterfly wings have natural properties that are beyond the capabilities of any current technology to reproduce artificially...
A glass of wine a day may keep depression away
Date: Aug-30-2013We have all heard that drinking a glass of red wine in moderation may be good for our health. But now, researchers have found that drinking wine may also reduce the risk of depression, according to a study published in the journal BMC Medicine. Researchers from Spain analyzed 2,683 men and 2,822 women over a 7-year period from the PREDIMED Trial - a study that conducts research around nutrition and cardiovascular risk. All participants were between 55 and 80 years of age, with no history of depression or alcohol-related problems when the study began...
Jet lag recovery sped up in mice
Date: Aug-30-2013New research led by the University of Oxford in the UK suggests it may be possible to speed up recovery from jet lag by targeting a mechanism that prevents the body clock adjusting quickly to changes in patterns of light and dark. Working on mice, they found a protein called SIK1 acts as a buffer or brake to limit the effect of light on the body clock. When they blocked the activity of the protein, the mice adjusted faster to changes in their light/dark cycle. One of the team leaders, Dr...
Major cause of age-related memory loss discovered
Date: Aug-30-2013Scientists say they have discovered a protein deficiency in the brain that is a major cause of age-related memory loss, according to a study published online in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The researchers, from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), say this discovery offers the "strongest causal evidence" that age-related memory loss and Alzheimer's disease are individual recognizable conditions...
Geriatric Safe Medicines Summit, 6-17 September 2013, London
Date: Aug-30-2013Call for specialists involved in clinical trials in older people SMi Group reports (August 29, 2013): Call for geriatric specialists: Big Pharma Companies will meet in London to discuss challenges and opportunities for performing clinical trials in older people There are only�3 weeks left until leading industry experts will gather in London at Geriatric Safe Medicines Summit (16-17 September) to discuss major challenges faced when performing clinical trials in older people. Through a novel range of case studies, attendees will discover new market gaps, market strategies and much more...
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