Health News

Designing Better Prosthetic Limbs

Date: May-10-2012
People walking normally, women tottering in high heels and ostriches strutting all exert the same forces on the ground despite very differently-shaped feet, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. The finding suggests that prosthetic lower limbs and robots' legs could be made more efficient by making them less human-like and more like the prosthetics used by 'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius. Walking involves a repeated process referred to by scientists as 'crash, vault, push' - landing ('crashing') on the heel, vaulting...

Another Facet Of War: Ex Armed Forces Service Personnel In Prison

Date: May-10-2012
Dr James Treadwell from the Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester presented his research before his peers at a research seminar, announcing his findings on why ex-armed forces personnel end up in prison The seminar will draw on 29 interviews with serving male prisoners, who were previously employed in HM armed forces undertaken in three prisons in England in late 2010. It will chart how recent explanations for offending by ex-military personnel have focused on the seeming connection between experiences of traumatic and violent conflict in active combat service and the onset...

Sex Chromosomes Are Here To Stay

Date: May-10-2012
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), looked at how genes on sex-linked chromosomes are passed down generations and linked to fertility, using the specific example of the W chromosome in female chickens. The results confirm that although these chromosomes have shrunk over millions of years, and have lost many of their original genes, those that remain are extremely important in predicting fertility and are, therefore, unlikely to become extinct. Professor Judith Mank, from the UCL Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment and senior...

'Diabetes Insulin Guidance System' Automatically Updates Weekly Insulin Dosage For Better Glycemic Control, Fewer Hypoglycemic Events

Date: May-10-2012
Newly published results from a clinical study of the Diabetes Insulin Guidance System (DIGS™), under development by Hygieia, Inc., demonstrate DIGS' potential to improve blood glucose control for insulin-using patients with type 2 or type 1 diabetes. DIGS automatically adjusted insulin dosage based on each individual's reported blood glucose results. Over the 12-week intervention period of the study, investigators observed:  Out of a total of 1,734 individual dosage adjustments, the study team over-rode the DIGS-instructed dosage only twice. Mean HbA1c levels decreased from a baseline of...

A System Needed To Improve Cancer Screening

Date: May-10-2012
An editorial by Marcus Plescia, MD, MPH, director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), calls for a more organized and comprehensive approach to increase cancer screening participation among those who are insured or are likely to become insured through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The editorial, which appears in the American Cancer Society journal, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, says public health has a responsibility to lead a national approach to cancer control that is comprehensive, strategic, and...

Improved Understanding Of How Hearing Works

Date: May-10-2012
Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have gained important new insights into how our sense of hearing works. Their findings promise new avenues for scientists to understand what goes wrong when people experience deafness. Their findings are published in Royal Society Open Biology, a new open access journal. The team was led by Prof John Wood of UCL (University College London). Professor Wood explains: "As many people will already know, our ears are filled with tiny hair cells that move in response to the pressure of a sound wave. But exactly...

Tiny Organelles Called Primary Cilia Hold The Key To Combat Inflammation

Date: May-10-2012
Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have found a new therapeutic target to combat inflammation. The research, published in the journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, revealed tiny organelles called primary cilia are important for regulating inflammation. The findings could lead to potential therapies for millions of people who suffer from arthritis*. Dr Martin Knight who led the research at Queen Mary's School of Engineering and Materials Science said: "Although primary cilia were discovered more than a century ago, we're only beginning to realise the importance they play...

Researchers Discover A New Family Of Key Mitochondrial Proteins For The Function And Viability Of The Brain

Date: May-10-2012
This family comprises a cluster of six genes that may be altered in neurological conditions, such as Parkinson's and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. A team headed by Eduardo Soriano at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) has published a study in Nature Communications describing a new family of six genes whose function regulates the movement and position of mitochondria in neurons. Many neurological conditions, including Parkinson's and various types of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, are caused by alterations of genes that control mitochondrial transport, a process that...

Study Finds Income Inequality Leads To More US Deaths

Date: May-10-2012
A new study provides the best evidence to date that higher levels of income inequality in the United States actually lead to more deaths in the country over a period of years. The findings suggest that income inequality at any one point doesn't work instantaneously - it begins increasing mortality rates 5 years later, and its influence peaks after 7 years, before fading after 12 years. "This finding is striking and it supports the argument that income inequality is a public health concern," said Hui Zheng, author of the study and assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State University. The...

Droplet Array Sheds Light On Drug-Resistant Cancer Stem Cells

Date: May-10-2012
Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the world's first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute, have developed a miniaturized biochip for investigating the effect of drugs on cancer stem cells (CSCs). Published recently in Nano Today, this new technology could boost the development of more effective cancer drugs. In a tumor, CSCs form a small and distinct class of cancer cells that are more resistant to chemotherapy. Similar to stem cells found in human tissues, CSCs can produce and differentiate into different cell types. If CSCs are not...