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Observing Real-Time Brain Activity In Live Mice Could Lead To New Treatments For Neurodegenerative Diseases
Date: Feb-22-2013If you want to read a mouse's mind, it takes some fluorescent protein and a tiny microscope implanted in the rodent's head. Stanford scientists have demonstrated a technique for observing hundreds of neurons firing in the brain of a live mouse, in real time, and have linked that activity to long-term information storage. The unprecedented work could provide a useful tool for studying new therapies for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's...
Stressed Bacteria Become Resistant To Antibiotics
Date: Feb-22-2013Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics when stressed, finds research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. In particular E. coli grown at high temperatures become resistant to rifampicin. It is generally thought that antibiotic resistance is costly to maintain, for example mutations which reduce antibiotic uptake also restrict the amount of nutrients entering the cell. Consequently in the absence of antibiotics non-resistant bacteria will out-compete the resistant ones...
Random Codon Re-Encoding Induces Stable Reduction Of Replicative Fitness Of Chikungunya Virus In Primate And Mosquito Cells
Date: Feb-21-2013A promising new method for next-generation live-attenuated viral vaccines against Chikungunya virus Researchers have successfully applied a novel method of vaccine creation for Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) using a technique called large scale random codon re-encoding.� Using this approach, a group from the UMR_D 190, Emerging viruses Department in Marseille, France in collaboration with the University of Sydney, Australia, demonstrated that the engineered viruses exhibit a stable phenotype with a significantly decreased viral fitness (i.e...
Mosquito Repellent DEET Is Becoming Less Effective
Date: Feb-21-2013Mosquitos are now able to ignore the scent of the insect repellent DEET three hours after being exposed to it. The finding, published in PLoS One, suggests that even though historically, insects have been strongly repelled by the scent of DEET, other studies by Dr.James Logan reveal that some mosquitoes and flies carry a genetic alteration in their aroma receptors rendering them insensitive to the smell...
Artificial Ear Looks, Acts Like A Normal Ear
Date: Feb-21-2013An artificial ear has been created using 3-D printing and injectable molds that looks and acts like a normal ear. The ear was developed by Cornell biomedical engineers and Weill Cornell Medical College doctors who believe that their invention will be able to help the thousands of children affected by mictrotia, a congenital deformity where the external ear, known as the pinna, is underdeveloped. The research, published in PLOS ONE, demonstrated how 3-D printing and injectable gels, made of living cells, are almost indistinguishable from a regular ear...
Fast Food Accounts For More Than 11% Of Americans' Daily Calories
Date: Feb-21-2013As lifestyles become more hectic, fast foods feature more frequently in the daily American diet. The latest national figures for 2007-2010 show that on average, adults in the US get more than 11% of their daily calories from eating fast food. Although this is lower than the nearly 13% of a few years earlier, federal officials say it does not necessarily indicate a downward trend. Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), published their findings online in a National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data brief on Thursday...
Bariatric Surgery Does Not Reduce Health Care Costs
Date: Feb-21-2013Bariatric surgery is not associated with reducing long term health care costs, reveals a study published in JAMA Surgery which analyzed a huge sample of insurance claims data. Bariatric surgery is commonly carried out for weight loss and treatment for obesity. Currently, obesity is one of the biggest health care system burdens in the U.S., incurring costs of billions every year. Bariatric surgery simply means weight loss surgery...
Antioxidants Do Not Reduce Stroke Or Dementia Risk
Date: Feb-21-2013We all thought that if we ate heaps of foods rich in antioxidants, our risk of developing serious diseases would be reduced. It appears that this is not the case for stroke and dementia, researchers from the Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, and Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, reported in the journal Neurology. Their findings contradict what other studies have shown. Elizabeth E. Devore, ScD, said: "These results are interesting because other studies have suggested that antioxidants may help protect against stroke and dementia...
Better Hospitals Have Happier Staff
Date: Feb-21-2013A new UK study suggests hospitals that perform better have happier staff. Doctors at Imperial College London reviewed satisfaction measures from NHS staff surveys and found hospitals in England with lower mortality rates were more likely to have staff who were happier with the standard of care they provided. First author Richard Pinder, Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at Imperial's School of Public Health, and colleagues, write about their findings in the 20 February online first issue of BMJ Quality and Safety...
Following Previous Exposure, Mosquitoes' Odor Receptors Are Less Sensitive To DEET
Date: Feb-21-2013Mosquitoes are able to ignore the smell of the insect repellent DEET within a few hours of being exposed to it, according to research published February 20 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by James Logan, Nina Stanczyk and colleagues from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. Though most insects are strongly repelled by the smell of DEET, previous studies by Logan's research group have shown that some flies and mosquitoes carry a genetic change in their odor receptors that makes them insensitive to this smell...
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