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CHICAGO— Genetic medicine is the focus of two presentations at today's Scientific Program of the 2010 American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) – Middle East-Africa Council of Ophthalmology (MEACO) Joint Meeting. The AAO-MEACO meeting is in session October 16 through 19 at McCormick Place, Chicago. It is the largest, most comprehensive ophthalmic education conference in the world.

Seeking Genetics-Specific Treatments for Age-Related Macular Degeneration

(Phoenix, Arizona October 15, 2010) -- An internationally-recognized gynecologic oncologist at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona is warning that the results from a long-awaited global study of ovarian cancer should be viewed cautiously.

Published in The Lancet last month, the study reported that women who received early chemotherapy for a recurrence of ovarian cancer did not live longer than those whose treatment is delayed. London-based, The Lancet is one of the world's most respected medical journals.

Calgary, AB - Researchers at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine are using an innovative new imaging technique to study how white blood cells (called neutrophils) respond to inflammation, and have revealed new targets to inhibit the response.

Rivers and streams supply the lifeblood to ecosystems across the globe, providing water for drinking and irrigation for humans as well as a wide array of life forms from single-celled organisms up to the fish humans eat.

An article published in the October issue of the Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden describes a new genus of tree of the Aptandraceae family, a group that is related to the sandalwoods (order Sanatalales). The genus, which has been given the name Hondurodendron, is endemic to Honduras and means "tree of Honduras."

In the article, "Hondurodendron, a New Monotypic Genus of Aptandraceae from Honduras," lead author Dr. Carmen Ulloa, associate curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and co-authors

AURORA, Colo. (October 14, 2010) - In the battle against obesity, new research has found that it may not be necessary to spend a lot on a weight loss program when cheaper, nonprofit alternatives may work just as well.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus found those who spent three years in the nonprofit Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS) program lost five to seven percent of their body weight and kept it off.

Alzheimer's disease is not the only type of dementia. Two particular forms are dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson's disease dementia. In both forms, the diagnosis is of vital importance because the treatment for these dementias differs from that for Alzheimer's dementia, as Brit Mollenhauer and co-authors explain in the dementia theme issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2010; 107[39]: 684-91).

Two women taking part in the world's first controlled study of a comprehensive genetic screening test before IVF have given birth to healthy babies. The babies, twin girls born in Germany in June and a singleton boy born in Italy in September, are the first deliveries in a pilot study of comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) by microarray, a new method of screening oocytes for IVF for a full range of chromosomal disorders.

DARIEN, IL – A study in the Oct. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that adults with fibromyalgia had a much higher prevalence and risk of restless legs syndrome than healthy controls. The study suggests that treating RLS may improve sleep and quality of life in people with fibromyalgia.

Kidney disease patients are healthier and live longer if they've beefed up their muscles, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The results suggest that patients may benefit from pumping iron or taking medications to boost their lean body mass.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have gained insight into how different types of age-related hearing loss may occur in humans. The discovery could eventually help physicians develop drugs to combat progressive hearing loss. Their paper is published on October 14 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

1. One-Size-Fits-All Blood Pressure Recommendations Won't Suit All Dialysis Patients

Age, Race, and Diabetes Status Affect Blood Pressure's Link to Premature Death

Stem cells, the prodigious precursors of all the tissues in our body, can make almost anything, given the right circumstances. Including, unfortunately, cancer. Now research from Rockefeller University shows that having too many stem cells, or stem cells that live for too long, can increase the odds of developing cancer. By identifying a mechanism that regulates programmed cell death in precursor cells for blood, or hematopoietic stem cells, the work is the first to connect the death of such cells to a later susceptibility to tumors in mice.