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Does the UK ambulance service need more training in mental health issues?
Date: Aug-03-2013Ruth Elliot, Senior Lecturer in the department of Mental Health and Learning Disability at the University of Huddersfield, has published an article discussing the need for a national 'Mental Health Pathway' to enable paramedics to provide the appropriate care for people who present mental health issues...
The flexible tail of the prion protein poisons brain cells
Date: Aug-03-2013Prion proteins are the infectious pathogens that cause Mad Cow Disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. They occur when a normal prion protein becomes deformed and clumped. The naturally occurring prion protein is harmless and can be found in most organisms. In humans, it is found in our brain cell membrane. By contrast, the abnormally deformed prion protein is poisonous for the brain cells. Adriano Aguzzi, Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Zurich and University Hospital Zurich, has spent many years exploring why this deformation is poisonous...
Climate change occurring 10 times faster than at any time in past 65 million years
Date: Aug-03-2013The planet is undergoing one of the largest changes in climate since the dinosaurs went extinct. But what might be even more troubling for humans, plants and animals is the speed of the change. Stanford climate scientists warn that the likely rate of change over the next century will be at least 10 times quicker than any climate shift in the past 65 million years. If the trend continues at its current rapid pace, it will place significant stress on terrestrial ecosystems around the world, and many species will need to make behavioral, evolutionary or geographic adaptations to survive...
Stem cells in urine easy to isolate and have potential for numerous therapies
Date: Aug-03-2013Could harvesting stem cells for therapy one day be as simple as asking patients for a urine sample? Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine and colleagues have identified stem cells in urine that can be directed to become multiple cell types. "These cells can be obtained through a simple, non-invasive low-cost approach that avoids surgical procedures," said Yuanyuan Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of regenerative medicine and senior researcher on the project...
US consumers don't understand health insurance, Carnegie Mellon research shows
Date: Aug-03-2013This fall, as part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), Americans will have a greater range of health care insurance options to choose from, including, for many, state-based plans. But will they make the right decisions? That's doubtful, according to a new study led by Carnegie Mellon University's George Loewenstein. Previous research has shown that competition at the consumer level is only likely to result in reduced prices and improved quality when sufficient numbers of consumers make informed decisions...
Test strips bearing gold nano-particles as sensor elements can detect numerous proteins simultaneously
Date: Aug-03-2013Chemists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a new method for parallel protein analysis that is, in principle, capable of identifying hundreds or even thousands of different proteins. It could be used to detect the presence of viruses and identify their type in tiny samples. At the same time, it is very cost-effective and quick. "We see possible applications of this technique in medicine, where it could be used, for example, for the rapid diagnosis of a wide range of diseases...
New microfluidic system allows hundreds of different bacteria cultures to be maintained simultaneously
Date: Aug-03-2013Chemical flasks and inconvenient chemostats for cultivation of bacteria are likely to soon be discarded. Researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw are the first to construct a microfluidic system allowing for merging, transporting and splitting of microdroplets. Now, hundreds of different bacteria cultures can be maintained simultaneously in a single system, which could speed up research on the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics. We could safely say that without chemical flasks there would be no chemistry at all...
Computer model allows highly variable jumping between very different cell types without taking a detour via stem cells
Date: Aug-03-2013Scientists at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg have developed a model that makes predictions from which differentiated cells - for instance skin cells - can be very efficiently changed into completely different cell types - such as nerve cells, for example. This can be done entirely without stem cells. These computer-based instructions for reprogramming cells are of huge significance for regenerative medicine. The LCSB researchers present their results today in the prestigious scientific journal Stem Cells...
Scientists solve structure of infection tool used by Yersinia bacterium
Date: Aug-03-2013Abdominal pain, fever, diarrhoea - these symptoms could point to an infection with the bacterium Yersinia. The bacterium's pathogenic potential is based on a syringe-like injection apparatus called injectisome. For the first time, an international team of researchers including scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, has unraveled this molecular syringe's spatial conformation...
Ceramide-1 phosphate transport protein discovered with vast potential for treatment of cancer and other diseases
Date: Aug-03-2013In cancer research, discovering a new protein that plays a role in cancer is like finding a key and a treasure map: follow the clues and eventually there could be a big reward. At least that's the hope from a new study published in the journal Nature that discovered a novel protein called ceramide-1 phosphate transport protein (CPTP) -- a finding that could eventually lead to the development of new drugs to treat a variety of cancers and other conditions involving inflammation and thrombosis, or blood clotting...
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