October 12, 2009
Live-cell fluorescence imaging identifies bona fide reprogrammed cells. The next tools for reprogramming cells to an embryonic-like state might just be a camera and a set of fluorescently tagged antibodies. (Nature News)
October 12, 2009
Canada’s lead health research agency has for the first time authorized the use of days-old human embryos for a stem cell project. (Canada.com)
October 12, 2009
Scientists have created part of the jaw joint in the lab using human adult stem cells. They say it is the first time a complex, anatomically-sized bone has been accurately created in this way. (BBC)
October 9, 2009
In for a dime, in for a dollar, my father always said—so since I already have what seems like every psychologist in the country furious at me for writing about a report that takes the profession to task for practicing … Read More
October 9, 2009
Medical tourism in Latin America needs to be regulated to protect consumers, according to Université de Montréal researchers. A new study published in the journal Developing World Bioethics argues that Argentinean fertility clinics are increasingly marketing themselves to international health … Read More
October 9, 2009
Scientists at The Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee have successfully produced liver cells from patients’ skin cells opening the possibility of treating a wide range of diseases that affect liver function. (ScienceDaily)
October 9, 2009
Researchers trying to figure out a safe way to turn an ordinary skin cell into a powerful stem cell treatment said they took another big step on Thursday, using one chemical to partly transform the cells. (ABC News)
October 9, 2009
Public health officials would have the power to isolate individuals and order quarantines to contain the outbreak of serious contagious diseases under a bill approved by the Massachusetts House on Thursday. (Boston Globe)
October 9, 2009
Even as state and federal initiatives have extended a medical safety net beneath children in recent years, more American adults have been without insurance coverage — compounding the already serious problems of the health care system and fueling sharp disparities … Read More
October 9, 2009
Harvard University researchers have found that public health authorities would do better to extend the vaccination of adolescent girls against human papillomavirus (HPV) than to launch a campaign to get boys and young men vaccinated as well. The study, published … Read More
October 9, 2009
Stem cells are once again creating excitement here, with the government finally ending its mourning period over disgraced gene scientist Hwang Woo-suk and lifting the research ban on new stem cell lines. However, the decision has also revived a disquieting … Read More
October 9, 2009
Archives of Internal Medicine (Volume 169, Number 17, September 28, 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Patient-Centered Care: What Is the Best Measuring Stick?” by Grace A. Lin and R. Adams Dudley, 1551-1553. “Clinicians’ Assessments of Electronic Medication … Read More
October 9, 2009
Xenotransplantation (Volume 16, Issue 4, July/August 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Heading towards an application of pig-to-man islet transplantation,” 193. “Chapter 4: Pre-clinical efficacy and complication data required to justify a clinical trial” by David K. C. … Read More
October 8, 2009
The brave new world of consumer genomics has attracted enormous interest both in the popular press and amongst the scientific and medical establishment. Opinions vary widely about the validity and utility of these tests, and the extent to which such … Read More
October 8, 2009
As the first wave of swine flu vaccine crosses the country, more than a third of parents don’t want their kids vaccinated, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. (AP News)
October 8, 2009
Medical tourism is becoming increasingly popular among Americans because of escalating health care costs in the United States, but consumers should be careful to look for accredited centers for their care. This is especially important in the Latin American medical … Read More
October 8, 2009
Two southwestern Connecticut doctors said Wednesday that they are suing the state to allow them to provide “aid in dying” for mentally competent, terminally ill patients. (Connecticut Post)
October 8, 2009
School of Dental Medicine Professor Jonathan Garlick succeeded earlier this year in growing three-dimensional tissues from human embryonic stem cells, making him and his team of scientists the first to achieve the pioneering research for the field. (Tufts Daily)
October 8, 2009
An infant is born with no functioning brain. A teen is ravaged in a car wreck. A 90-year-old with dementia and pneumonia lies unconscious in intensive care. Medical and moral decisions must be made. But there’s no written directive for … Read More
October 7, 2009
Two of the Nobel Prize winners announced yesterday for Medicine or Physiology have something in common besides their groundbreaking work on how cells copy chromosomes. Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider both served on presidential bioethics commissions. Blackburn, of … Read More
October 7, 2009
For years the autism community’s most powerful public-relations weapon has been a striking statistic: an estimated 1 in 150 children have the diagnosis. Now it appears that estimate is actually too small. According to two new studies, the number of … Read More
October 7, 2009
For years I’ve heard friends describe experiences of being caught in a web of excessive and unnecessary medical testing. Their doctors ordered test Z to investigate a seemingly incidental finding on test Y, which had come about because of a … Read More
October 7, 2009
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced in September that it was preparing to conduct a clinical trial of the H1N1 influenza vaccine involving pregnant women. This is welcome news since pregnant women have been identified as … Read More
October 7, 2009
Clinical Genetics (Volume 76, Issue 4, October 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Preimplantation genetic diagnosis” by JPM Geraedts and GMWR De Wert, 315-325.
October 7, 2009
The American Journal of Bioethics (Volume 9, Issue 10, 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “The Era of Nanomedicine and Nanoethics: Has It Come, Is It Still Coming, Or Will It Pass Us By?” by Summer Johnson, … Read More
