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A new study led by University of Leicester researchers at Glenfield Hospital suggests that CT scans may be the way forward for monitoring progression of severe asthma as well as checking how it is responding to treatment.

CT scans, a series of X-ray images of the body, are usually used to detect tumours – but the Leicester study, points to their use in asthma. Preliminary results from the study will be showcased at the University of Leicester's Festival of Postgraduate Research on 24 June.

KNOXVILLE -- Research by a small group of microbiologists is revealing how marine microbes live in a mysterious area of the Earth: the realm just beneath the deep ocean floor. The ocean crust may be the largest biological reservoir on our planet.

University Hospitals Case Medical Center cardiologists have uncovered new research showing an increased risk of cancer with a group of blood pressure medications known as angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs).

This class of drugs is used by millions of patients not only for high blood pressure but also for heart failure, cardiovascular risk reduction and diabetic kidney disease.

Gothenburg, Sweden: Couples considering undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment should be informed about the increased risk of congenital malformation posed by the use of ART, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics will hear today (Monday). Dr. Géraldine Viot, a clinical geneticist at the Maternité Port Royal hospital, Paris, France, will say that she believed that most doctors working in ART clinics in France only told couples about such risks if they were asked specific questions.

Gothenburg, Sweden: Individual results of genetic research studies should not be disclosed to participants without careful consideration, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Monday). Dr.

A team led by researchers from the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has developed a technique that someday may allow growth of transplantable replacement livers. In their report that will be published in Nature Medicine and is receiving early online release, the investigators describe using the structural tissue of rat livers as scaffolding for the growth of tissue regenerated from liver cells introduced through a novel reseeding process.

Gothenburg, Sweden: A small genetic change can predict how people infected with hepatitis C react to treatment, paving the way to personalised therapy for this difficult to treat disease, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics will hear today (Sunday 13 June). Dr. Zoltan Kutalik, from the Department of Medical Genetics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, will tell delegates that individuals with this change, in a gene encoding for the antiviral cytokine (cell-signalling molecule) interferon lamda, reacts less well to treatment.

Gothenburg, Sweden: Usher syndrome (USH), an inherited condition involving both hearing and vision loss, is not a simply recessively inherited disease, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Saturday). Dr.

Gothenburg, Sweden: Understanding the genetic ancestry of mixed populations, such as those found in North America, can not only help to detect their origins but also to understand the genetic basis of complex diseases, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Saturday June 11). It is the first time that the genomes of individuals of admixed ancestry have been sequenced in such detail, says Dr. Francisco De La Vega of Life Technologies, Foster City, California, USA.

MADISON — A research team at the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) has developed a powerful new tool that promises to unlock the secrets of biomass degradation, a critical step in the development of cost-effective cellulosic biofuels. The details of this method were published online on June 11 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Researchers at Rice University, Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have solved a long-standing mystery about why some fluids containing polymers -- including saliva -- form beads when they are stretched and others do not.

The findings are published online this week in the journal Nature Physics.

The mechanism by which 'polycomb' proteins critical for embyronic stem cell function and fate are targeted to DNA has been identified by UCL scientists.

The discovery, which has implications for the fields of stem cell and tissue engineering, is detailed in research published today in the journal Molecular Cell.

A new study at the University of Leicester is examining a sequence of DNA- known as telomeres - that varies in length between individual.

This follows evidence that these structures shrink in length over an individual's lifetime and that this may contribute to several diseases including those commonly associated with ageing and, perhaps most importantly, the development of cancer.

Now the study is trying to understand how this process is controlled.

Amsterdam, 11 June 2010 - Elsevier announced today the publication of the May 2010 issue of Reproductive Health Matters, which brings to light polemic issues related to cosmetic surgery, body image and sexuality. The issue explores the lack of proper information about the risks of complications and failure rate of many of these procedures. It also examines the controversy generated by the use of available resources, including skilled surgeons, for such procedures, when essential health and medical care are subject to serious restrictions in both developed and developing countries.