Body

A public survey conducted in Europe found that the vast majority of people overestimate the life-saving benefits of breast and prostate cancer screening, according to a new study published online August 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Canadian scientists uncover alarming invasion of round goby into Great Lakes tributaries: impact on endangered fishes likely to be serious

A team of scientists from the University of Toronto, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the University of Guelph has identified a drastic invasion of round goby into many Great Lakes tributaries, including several areas of the Thames, Sydenham, Ausable and Grand Rivers. A number of the affected areas are known as "species-at-risk" hot spots.

A new experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) completely reverses the devastating autoimmune disorder in mice, and might work exactly the same way in humans, say researchers at the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University in Montreal.

MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body's own immune response attacks the central nervous system, almost as if the body had become allergic to itself, leading to progressive physical and cognitive disability.

Researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (The Neuro), McGill University have discovered a genetic mutation underlying late-onset Leigh syndrome, a rare inherited metabolic disorder characterized by the degeneration of the central nervous system. The study published in Nature Genetics, provides vital insights into the cell biology of this neurological disorder and will lead to the development of diagnostic and predictive tests allowing for family and genetic counseling.

Pain therapy for cancer patients – whether inpatient or outpatient – is often inadequate. At Heidelberg University Hospital, the use of an innovative electronic system – combined with guidance by an experienced clinical pharmacist – has been successfully tested. The treatment of the patients showed little variance from international guidelines on pain therapy. In addition, patients reported having less pain. The results of the study have been published in the journal Pain.

Twice-yearly treatment with denosumab, a new targeted therapy to stop bone loss, increased bone density and prevented spinal fractures in men receiving androgen-deprivation therapy for prostate cancer. The report from an international research study, the first to document reduced fracture risk in men receiving the hormone-blocking treatment, will appear in the August 20 New England Journal of Medicine and is receiving early online release.

PHILADELPHIA – A new study conducted at the Jefferson Headache Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shows an investigational, orally-inhaled therapy is effective in treating migraines. The multi-center, phase three FREEDOM-301 trial for the orally-inhaled migraine therapy, LEVADEX™, shows study participants had significant relief from symptoms such as pain, nausea and light and sound sensitivity when compared to placebo treatment.

Rats fed a high-fat diet show a stark reduction in their physical endurance and a decline in their cognitive ability after just nine days, a study by Oxford University researchers has shown.

The research, funded by the British Heart Foundation and published in the FASEB Journal, may have implications not only for those eating lots of high-fat foods, but also athletes looking for the optimal diet for training and patients with metabolic disorders.

Research on blood transfusions points to a potential risk of transfusing donated platelets, especially to patients with bone marrow failure syndromes who are subsequently candidates for bone marrow transplantation.

The results are online and scheduled for publication in the September 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Until now immediate cooling of the newborn infant was the only treatment that could possibly prevent brain damage following oxygen deprivation during delivery. New research findings from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg and Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden, in collaboration with Zhengzhou University in China, open up the possibility of a new and effective treatment that can be started as late as two days after birth.

An international team of researchers from the Netherlands, Russia and Austria discovered that monolayer coverage and channel length set the mobility in self-assembled monolayer field-effect transistors (SAMFETs). This opens the door to extremely sensitive chemical sensors that can be produced in a cost-effective way. The research was done at Philips Research Eindhoven and Eindhoven University of Technology. The findings were published as an Advanced Online Publication in Nature Nanotechnology.

SAMFETs

Biologists have long known how adaptive evolution works. New mutations arise within a population and those that confer some benefits to the organism increase in frequency and eventually become fixed in the population.

By washing your hands after digging in beach sand, you could greatly reduce your risk of ingesting bacteria that could make you sick. In new research, scientists have determined that, although beach sand is a potential source of bacteria and viruses, hand rinsing may effectively reduce exposure to microbes that cause gastrointestinal illnesses.

LIVERMORE, Calif. -- If manmade devices could be combined with biological machines, laptops and other electronic devices could get a boost in operating efficiency.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have devised a versatile hybrid platform that uses lipid-coated nanowires to build prototype bionanoelectronic devices.

Mingling biological components in electronic circuits could enhance biosensing and diagnostic tools, advance neural prosthetics such as cochlear implants, and could even increase the efficiency of future computers.

Hamilton, ON (August 10, 2009) –Accumulating safety data from the large, international ORIGIN trial have been reviewed by its independent data monitoring committee, who have concluded that there is no cause for concern.

This six-year study, which is lead by McMaster University professors Dr. Hertzel Gerstein and Dr. Salim Yusuf of the Population Health Research Institute, is determining whether insulin glargine and/or omega 3 fatty acids can reduce cardiovascular events in 12,578 people with elevated blood sugar levels from around the world.