Body

Researchers are hot on the trail of a whole new class of broad-spectrum antibiotics, according to a new report in the October 17th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- After spending years developing a computational model to help illuminate cell signaling pathways, a team of MIT researchers decided to see what would happen if they "broke" the model.

The results, reported in the Oct. 17 issue of the journal Cell, reveal new ways in which cells process chemical information and could indicate how to maximize the effectiveness of disease treatments such as chemotherapy.

Evanston, Ill. - October 16, 2008 – Two new articles examine the theory of "fetal programming" and their effect on racial health disparities. The studies, published in American Journal of Human Biology, suggest that the higher rates of hypertension and cardiovascular disease present in African Americans may be a consequence of low birth weights, and that these low birth weights may be a result of social rather than genetic factors.

October 16, 2008 -- A South African treatment study conducted by researchers in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health shows that mortality among TB-HIV co-infected patients can be reduced by a remarkable 55%, if antiretroviral therapy (ART) is provided with TB treatment at the same time. The randomized, known as the SAPIT (Starting Antiretrovirals at three Points in Tuberculosis) trial, randomly assigned TB-HIV co-infected patients to receive ART.

Modern nuclear techniques are giving the world's scientists and regulators better tools to fight pollution and other environmental threats – even those that may be lurking naturally at the beach or near your backyard. Many of the world's top "radioecologists" are in Morocco this week to assess a dynamic picture.

People who began drinking and using marijuana regularly prior to their 15th birthday face a higher risk of early pregnancy, as well as a pattern of school failure, substance dependence, sexually-transmitted disease and criminal convictions that lasts into their 30s.

A study published online by the journal Psychological Science has been able to sort out for the first time the difficult question of whether it's bad kids who do drugs, or doing drugs that makes kids bad.

Athens, Ga. – Streams that once sang with the croaks, chirps and ribbits of dozens of frog species have gone silent. They're victims of a fungus that's decimating amphibian populations worldwide.

October 16, 2008, New York – A 5,000-person, five-country study released today by Edelman shows that people want more active, trusted, and personal health interaction with companies, organizations and brands, effectively rewriting the "rules of engagement" in health. The Edelman Health Engagement Barometer finds that to win a "license to engage," companies must, above all, help people address their specific personal health concerns and help them maintain their health through prevention and care.

Arnhem, 16 October 2008 – Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common male cancers in the Western world. Currently, early detection of PCa depends on an abnormal digital rectal examination and an elevated prostate-specific-antigen (PSA) level requiring a prostate biopsy, often associated with anxiety, discomfort, complications, and heavy expenses. The prostate-cancer-gene-3 (PCA3) test is a new PCa gene-based marker carried out with a urine sample. PCA3 is highly specific to PCa and has shown promising early detection results at repeat biopsy.

For centuries man has had a uniquely close relationship with dogs – as a working animal, for security and, perhaps most importantly, for companionship. Now, dogs are taking on a new role – they are helping in the hunt for genetic mutations that lead to diseases in humans.

"Dogs get very similar diseases to humans," said Kerstin Lindblad-Toh of Uppsala University in Sweden and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts. "If you ask a dog owner what sort of conditions their pets get, they will say cancer, allergies, eye diseases."

Australians should be able to choose either private health cover or Medicare to ensure a more efficient and fair system and help reduce public waiting lists, a health care economist from The Australian National University has proposed.

Dr Francesco Paolucci – a Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Economic Research on Health (ACERH) at ANU – says the current public/private mix in health care financing leads to duplication, high-transaction costs, and long waiting times in the public health sector.

When the Americans eventually send a manned mission to Mars, the whole world will be able to watch 'live' television coverage of the event courtesy of CSIRO know-how.

The US space agency NASA has announced that CSIRO research scientist, Dr John Bunton, is to receive a NASA Space Act Board Award for research into the development of a novel 'beamformer' capable of providing a live video link from Mars.

Researchers in the Hunter region are poised to begin the biggest asthma study of its type in the world.

The Asthma and Macrolides: Azithromycin Efficacy and Safety (AMAZES) study will explore a new way of treating inflammations in asthma patients by studying the role of macrolide antibiotics in persistent asthma.

Professor Peter Gibson, a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Health respiratory specialist, has today secured $2.9 million over five years from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for the study.

A new screening method can be used to detect the chromosomal abnormalities most commonly associated with autism spectrum disorders. By screening for genetic defects associated with various kinds of cognitive impairment, the approach described in the open access journal BMC Medical Genomics will help clinicians identify the underlying causes of some patients' autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).