April 17, 2013
Smoke and mirrors
Italy’s parliament must listen to expert advice before deregulating stem-cell therapies. (Nature)
Monthly Archives: April 2013
April 17, 2013
Online furor draws press to abortion doctor’s trial
The grisly details drew mainly local attention. But after an online furor that the case was being ignored by the national news media because of troubling accounts of late-term abortions, reporters from major newspapers and television networks descended Monday on … Read More
April 17, 2013
Synthetic biologists and conservationists open talks
But worries persist about unintended consequences of tinkering with nature. (Nature)
April 17, 2013
New nanotechnology technique to deliver life-saving drugs to the brain
In a study published in today’s issue of Nature Communications (“Externally controlled on-demand release of anti-HIV drug using magneto-electric nanoparticles as carriers”), researchers from Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine describe a revolutionary technique they have developed that … Read More
April 17, 2013
Using nanotechnology to clean the environment
Researchers from Rice University, DuPont Central Research and Development and Stanford University have announced a full-scale field test of an innovative process that gently but quickly destroys some of the world’s most pervasive and problematic pollutants. (Nanowerk)
April 16, 2013
U.S. Scientists build artificial kidneys
U.S. scientists built functional replacement kidneys — artificial kidneys — on the structure of donor rat organs from which living cells were stripped. (UPI)
April 16, 2013
Justices seem wary of bold action in gene patent case
In a lively Supreme Court argument on Monday, the justices struggled to find a narrow way to rule on the momentous question of whether human genes may be patented. (New York Times)
April 16, 2013
Drug makers use safety rules to block generics
For decades, pharmaceutical companies have deployed an array of tactics aimed at preventing low-cost copies of their drugs from entering the marketplace. But federal regulators contend the latest strategy — which relies on a creative interpretation of drug safety laws … Read More
April 16, 2013
How African doctors can cure medical ‘brain drain’
Many highly skilled doctors and health professionals of African birth practice cutting-edge medicine and surgery in leading medical institutions outside Africa. They are valuable to the hospitals and countries they work in but their hearts are also at home in … Read More
April 16, 2013
Autism: What we know right now
In a couple of years, we will learn something new that changes everything all over again. But what we know right now could change a child’s life. (CNN)
April 16, 2013
FDA let drugs approved on fraudulent research stay on the market
The FDA in 2011 announced years’ worth of studies from a major drug research lab were potentially worthless, yet it has yet to pull any of the drugs from the market and has yet to name the drugs. (Scientific American)
April 16, 2013
Brain development is guided by junk DNA that isn’t really junk
Specific DNA once dismissed as junk plays an important role in brain development and might be involved in several devastating neurological diseases, UC San Francisco scientists have found. (Science Daily)
April 16, 2013
Myriad Genetics: Patent saves lives, aid innovation
Genetic testing has saved many people from cancer. But the tests require a significant investment of time and money. To create tests for hereditary breast cancer and ovarian cancer, our company and its investors spent more than $500 million over … Read More
April 15, 2013
Nanosponges to suck up toxins
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego have invented a “nanosponge” capable of safely removing a broad class of dangerous toxins from the bloodstream, including toxins produced by MRSA, E. Coli, poisonous snakes and bees. (Discovery News)
April 15, 2013
Stem-cell tourists living in hope: Study
With what appears to be thousands of Australians heading overseas for expensive treatments that don’t reverse their illnesses, university researchers are trying to understand the ”stem-cell tourism” phenomenon. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
April 15, 2013
Catholic Church brings scientists working on stem cells to Vatican
Clerics here greeted stem-cell researchers in an unusual conference at which the Catholic Church sought to show what the cardinal who organized the meeting called the “necessary union between science and faith.” Hundreds of scientists, including 2012 Nobel laureate John … Read More
April 15, 2013
Turkish womb transplant patient is pregnant
The first woman to have a successful womb transplant from a dead donor is pregnant, a hospital in southern Turkey said. (Reuters)
April 15, 2013
Concern as Australians turn to Thailand for surrogates
Concerns are being raised about the use of surrogates in Thailand as a growing number of Australians look to the country in their bid to have a child. (ABC.net)
April 15, 2013
Do drugs for bipolar disorder ‘normalize’ brain gene function? U-M study suggest so
Using genetic analysis, the new study suggests that certain medications may help “normalize” the activity of a number of genes involved in communication between brain cells. It is published in the current issue of Bipolar Disorders. (eScience News)
April 15, 2013
IVF and the legacy of its inventors
Many of us have friends and relatives who have born children via IVF. But the process as described by the couples who have been through the complicated and expensive procedures, can be more than a little dismaying. (Forbes)
April 15, 2013
Genetic researchers identify new height, obesity genes
An international scientific collaboration led by Dr Ruth Loos of Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK, and Dr Erik Ingelsson of the Uppsala University, Sweden, has reported the discovery of four new loci (the specific place on a chromosome where a gene … Read More
April 15, 2013
Montana doctor could face jail time for assisted suicide
Dr. Eric Kress has been a family physician for 26 years, but he will never forget the terminally ill patient who called him a “coward” for hesitating to prescribe him lethal medication that would ease his pain and help him … Read More
April 15, 2013
Study finds racial differences in end-of-life care for patients receiving chronic dialysis
At the end of life, black patients with kidney failure receiving chronic dialysis are less likely to be referred to hospice and to discontinue dialysis compared with white patients, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the … Read More
April 15, 2013
‘Chinese Google’ opens artificial-intelligence lab in silicon valley
Baidu calls its lab The Institute of Deep Learning, or IDL. Much like Google and Apple and others, the company is exploring computer systems that can learn in much the same way people do. (Wired)
April 12, 2013
When your M.D. is an algorithm
Despite all that drug-enforcement agents and regulators are doing to fight prescription painkiller abuse, the most effective combatant might turn out to be a computer algorithm. (Wall Street Journal)
