Heart failure, where the heart is unable to maintain a sufficient blood flow to supply the body’s needs, is a leading cause of death, especially among the over 65’s. Half of all chronic heart failure patients die within four years of diagnosis. It can have a number of causes, for example damage to heart tissue … Continue reading Heart failure breakthrough: animal research paved the way!
Author: Editor
Mice, rats, and the secrets of the genome.
It’s just over a decade since the completion of the first working draft of the human genome was announced, and seven years since the publication of the complete sequence, but in that short time the impact of this new knowledge on all areas medical research has been immense. Sequencing the human genome was a huge … Continue reading Mice, rats, and the secrets of the genome.
Of mice and mTOR: Can damaged spinal cords be taught to repair themselves?
There's an interesting story on the BBC website about new research on nerve cell regeneration after spinal cord damage in mice, work undertaken by a team led by Dr. Zhigang He of the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Children's Hospital Boston. Those of you who follow developments on the field of spinal cord repair may … Continue reading Of mice and mTOR: Can damaged spinal cords be taught to repair themselves?
Hopping rabbits herald breakthrough in tissue engineering
A team of NIH-funded scientists and veterinarians at Columbia University, the University of Missouri, Clemson University, and the Medical University of South Carolina, have this week announced a significant advance in tissue engineering, for the first time they have used cutting–edge tissue engineering technology to produced a moving joint, in this case the hip, in … Continue reading Hopping rabbits herald breakthrough in tissue engineering
Microbicide gel cuts HIV infection rates…thank the monkeys!
There was exciting news on Monday when it was announced at an international AIDS conference in Vienna that microbicide gel had dramatically reduced the transmission of HIV in a Phase 2 clinical trial involving 889 women in South Africa. If confirmed by larger phase 3 trials this gel will offer millions of women a way … Continue reading Microbicide gel cuts HIV infection rates…thank the monkeys!
Shots without jabs: The future of vaccination.
Vaccines make a crucial contribution to public health, saving hundreds of millions of people from deadly or debilitating diseases every year, but it’s also fair to say that getting your shots is not the most pleasant of experiences. It’s not just a question of short term discomfort, many people suffer from needle phobias that can … Continue reading Shots without jabs: The future of vaccination.
How to build a lung
Tissue engineering, a field that combines cell biology, engineering, and materials science to manufacture tissues - and more recently even whole organs - to replace those lost to injury or illness, must be one of the most exciting areas in modern medicine. Since the earliest reports about a mouse with a human ear growing on … Continue reading How to build a lung
FASEB Excellence in Science Award for Stem Cell Pioneer
The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is one of the world’s largest and most influential scientific organizations, representing 23 independent scientific societies and over 90,000 individual scientists. Regular readers of this blog will be aware that FASEB also takes a keen interest in educating and informing the public about the value and … Continue reading FASEB Excellence in Science Award for Stem Cell Pioneer
Speaking of Research 