March 23, 2009
In a dramatic rewrite of the recipe for life, scientists from Florida describe the design of a new type of DNA with 12 chemical letters instead of the usual four. This artificial genetic system already is helping to usher in … Read More
March 23, 2009
UK scientists plan a major research project to see if synthetic human blood can be made from embryonic stem cells. Led by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, the three year trial could provide an unlimited supply of blood for … Read More
March 23, 2009
The regulation, which has split the medical community since its enactment, has many fearing it could endanger funding for and access to care. (American Medical News)
March 23, 2009
As a transplant ethicist, Katrina Bramstedt deals in hearts, kidneys, livers, lungs, pancreases and lengths of intestine. But mostly what she deals in is motivation. For recipients, it is obvious: They get the organ or they die. For deceased donors, … Read More
March 23, 2009
Supervisory shortcomings, rather than problems with a vaccine itself, led to the death of a baby girl in India last fall during a Wyeth clinical trial, according to an official investigation by India’s top drug regulator. (Wall Street Journal)
March 23, 2009
A Bush veteran weighs in on President Obama’s decision to expand federal funding. Why science could finally end the debate. (Newsweek)
March 23, 2009
When I first became familiar with the transhumanist movement, I immediately thought that there were many fundamental similarities between transhumanism and Nietzsche’s philosophy, especially concerning the concept of the posthuman and that of Nietzsche’s overhuman. This is what I wish … Read More
March 23, 2009
GENERATING efficiency in the health-care market will be one of President Obama’s greatest challenges. To do this, he will have to create meaningful competition between drug companies, and between public and private plans. Congress’s attempt at market-driven health care offers … Read More
March 23, 2009
Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare Dr. Deo Mtasiwa made the call on Thursday when opening a two-day workshop on research ethics regulatory authorities in Africa. (ippMedia)
March 23, 2009
A seriously ill baby, whose parents lost a court battle to keep him alive on a ventilator, has died. The nine-month-old, known as “Baby OT”, had a rare metabolic disorder and had brain damage and respiratory failure. (BBC)
March 23, 2009
Hope—and anxiety—run high as the first clinical trial of embryonic-stem-cell therapy begins this summer. (Newsweek)
March 23, 2009
Genes for Health 2-6 May 2009 Fremantle, Western Australia Rapid advances in medicine in general, and genetic research in particular, has led to the development of a chasm between new discoveries and the translation of these to public health benefits. … Read More
March 23, 2009
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008: New Directions in Biolaw and Bioethics Monday 30 March 2009 @ Keele University (Salvin Room, Keele Hall; 10.30 am – 5.30 pm) Following a lengthy review and consultation process the UK’s Human Fertilisation … Read More
March 23, 2009
Artificial Life and Robotics (Volume 13, Number 2, March 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Haptics for medical applications” by Kouhei Ohnishi, Tomoyuki Shimono and Kenji Natori, 383-389. “Membrane computing and brain modelling” by Marion Oswald, 390-393. “Modular robotic tiles: experiments for … Read More
March 20, 2009
From an economic perspective, a nation’s health system can be thought of as a giant bazaar that presents the rest of society with a price list for wrestling from nature better health, or longer life, of both, through a variety … Read More
March 20, 2009
With his long-awaited 9 March executive order lifting restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research, President Barack Obama has opened the door to some political fighting as nasty as any that has been seen so far on the subject … Read More
March 20, 2009
Citizen scientists are setting up their own gene laboratories in the hope of inventing new and useful organisms. But are they a danger to us all? (The Guardian)
March 20, 2009
The government said on Friday it would allow MPs a free vote on proposals to change the law on assisted suicide to allow people to take terminally ill patients abroad to die for without fear of prosecution. (Reuters)
March 20, 2009
An influential Harvard child psychiatrist told the drug giant Johnson & Johnson that planned studies of its medicines in children would yield results benefiting the company, according to court documents dating over several years that the psychiatrist wants sealed. (New … Read More
March 20, 2009
Unverified medical treatments based on stem cells are proliferating and need oversight. [Premium (Science)]
March 19, 2009
Millions of older and disabled people could face stiff new restrictions on where they can go for medical equipment under a Medicare plan to overhaul how the federal insurer pays for such devices. (Wall Street Journal)
March 19, 2009
A way of preserving the chances of having a child for women and girls facing cancer treatment that will leave them infertile has been demonstrated to work, for the first time. (Reuters)
March 19, 2009
The study would come to be called “cursed,” but it started out just as Study 15. It was a long-term trial of the antipsychotic drug Seroquel. The common wisdom in psychiatric circles was that newer drugs were far better than … Read More
March 19, 2009
Rep. Mike Castle said he may take on the issue of human cloning as he and Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado consider their next legislative move on stem cell research. (News Journal)
March 19, 2009
Concerted, visionary efforts by the PA profession’s formal leadership and its rank-and-file members have placed physician assistants in a position of prominence with respect to the integration of genetics into education and practice. Those efforts—sustained during the past half-dozen years … Read More
