94 Articles with the topic: Methodology of Medical Research


NIH Suspends Grant to Emory University
jerry submitted, created time 1 month 6 days (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has suspended a $9 million grant for a depression study led by psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff at Emory University in Atlanta. The punishment, imposed in August but only made public today, is apparently the most severe reaction by NIH so far to a Senate investigation of NIH-funded researchers who may have failed to report all of their income from drug companies.
Recipients of NIH grants are required to report income from industry consulting activities 


Logic models of pathway biology
kavin submitted, created time 6 months 6 days (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Living systems seamlessly perform complex information processing and control tasks using combinatorially complex sets of biochemical reactions. Here, they describe the use of logic as a tractable and informative approach to modelling biological pathways that can allow us to improve our understanding of the dependencies in complex biological processes. 


Nanoparticle Research Aids Drug Development
piggy submitted, created time 1 week 4 days (www.sciencedaily.com)
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have developed a new technology which can dramatically improve the effectiveness of antibacterial treatments.
Soluble drugs, soluble antibiotics in this case, that can dissolve in water tend to be more effective at lower doses, but these are rare. Insoluble drugs are more common, but they have to be administered at higher doses so that the patient will feel the same effect 


New test to identify heart failure in emergency medicine found superior to current standards
piggy submitted, created time 1 week 2 days (www.reuters.com)
A new blood test to identify heart failure patients in most dire need of treatment when they turn up at an emergency room complaining of shortness of breath proved better than current tests, according to results of a study unveiled on Tuesday.
The pivotal trial of the test developed by privately held German company Brahms AG succeeded in its goal of demonstrating superiority over tests considered the current gold standard.
"I think that this is clearly significantly better than what we have now," Dr. W 


Tumor Secrets Written in Blood
piggy submitted, created time 3 days 9 hours (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)
Doctors may soon be able to use blood tests rather than invasive biopsies to figure out what type of brain tumors their patients have. The findings, which come thanks to new insights about how tumor cells communicate with their environment, may also bring physicians closer to the goal of more personalized medicine.
Cells are chatty, constantly exchanging proteins or electrical signals with their neighbors. For example, tumor cells can signal nearby blood vessels to grow in their direction, thereby facilitating tumor growth 


UGA research may lead to safer, more effective gene therapy
sea-maid submitted, created time 4 months 3 weeks (esciencenews.com)
The potential of gene therapy has long been hampered by the risks associated with using viruses as vectors to deliver healthy genes, but a new University of Georgia study helps... 


Benefits of "magic mushroom" therapy are long lasting
sea-maid submitted, created time 4 months 2 weeks (www.nature.com)
The benefits for people who have had positive or even mystical experiences induced by the psychedelic drug psilocybin — the psychoactive ingredient in "magic mushrooms" — linger for as much as a year, according to the latest follow-up study of such patients.
The study offers more support to those who argue that, when used responsibly, some drugs more commonly taken for leisure can safely be used to relieve the stress associated with severe chronic diseases such as cancer. 


Are plastic tools spoiling experimental results?
sea-maid submitted, created time 1 week 3 days (www.nature.com)
Thousands of scientists could be unwittingly ruining their own experiments merely by using standard plastic lab equipment, according to a new study. These findings may have strong implications for the methodology of basic research.
Andrew Holt, a researcher at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, was looking at how drugs affected the human enzyme monoamine oxidase B when he noticed that the drugs seemed to be inhibiting enzyme activity at much lower concentrations than they should 


Sue Wu submitted, created time 9 months 1 day (www.mercurynews.com)
Another article about stem cell therapy. Human embryonic cells have been coaxed into differentiating into three different kinds of stable neural cells. When injected into the brains of post-stroke laboratory rats, the rats improved. This shows serious potential for human stroke treatments. 


Sequencing single molecules of DNA
jane2007 submitted, created time 7 months 2 weeks (www.nature.com)
A machine produced by Helicos BioSciences is the first of a new generation of devices, called single-molecule DNA sequencers, to enter the market. It can read individual letters from single molecules of DNA. 


Symptoms Plus Blood Test Boost Ovarian Cancer Detection
lily1984 submitted, created time 4 months 3 weeks (www.washingtonpost.com)
U.S. researchers boosted the level of early-stage ovarian cancer detection by 20 percent through use of a blood test to detect a tumor marker as well as a woman's report of new-onset symptoms.
Using either test alone only uncovered about 60 percent of early-stage ovarian cancers in a high-risk group of women, while the two techniques together found 80 percent of early-stage tumors, according to finding published Monday in the online version of the journalCancer 


Induced stem cell lines may soon be available from Harvard
Darkfrog submitted, created time 3 months 1 week (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)
A few weeks ago, we talked about how researchers had been able to take a cell from an ALS patient and develop a working, research-quality pluripotent cell line. Well the next step has been taken.
I've been saying that induced pluripotent stem cells might become the preferred research model (over embryonic stem cells), but only if they became easier to obtain than embryonic stem cells. It looks as though that might happen soon. The Harvard Stem Cell Institute is dedicating an iPS core lab 


High expression of DNA repair pathways is associated with metastasis in melanoma patients
davidd submitted, created time 9 months 3 weeks (www.nature.com)
They find high expression of DNA repair pathways is associated with metastasis in melanoma patients. This overexpression of repair genes explains nicely the extraordinary resistance of metastatic melanoma to chemo- and radio-therapy. Their results may open a new avenue for the discovery of drugs active on human metastatic melanoma. 


Sniffling mice raise therapy hope
Sue Wu submitted, created time 9 months 2 weeks (24hnews.net)
Scientists have created a mouse that can catch a cold - raising hopes of new ways to treat serious respiratory conditions and asthma. 
New Genes Linked to Prostate Cancer Risk
Sue Wu submitted, created time 9 months 1 week (www.efluxmedia.com)
In a report published in Nature Genetics, Cancer Research UK announced that its scientists have discovered seven new sites in the human genome that are linked to men's risk of developing prostate cancer. 