Over the past few weeks we have reported on how scientists are discovering how to engineer tissues and cells to treat disease, and how animal research is underpinning this new field of medicine. It seems appropriate that Science, one of the world's top scientific journals, has this week published a special edition that surveys recent … Continue reading From organ development to tissue engineering
Tag: paul browne
Discworld author calls for more funding of Alzheimer’s research
A bit of positive news from the UK which shows how big institutions and charities can publicly get behind animal research. The author Terry Pratchett, who is best known for writing the hugely inventive Discworld novels, has handed a petition to the Gordon Brown calling on the government to increase spending on research into the … Continue reading Discworld author calls for more funding of Alzheimer’s research
Fighting hospital superbugs
In recent years the "hospital superbug" Clostridium difficile has gained notoriety as a major cause of illness and death among patients, and poses a particular danger to the elderly. C.diff is found naturally in the intestines of a minority of the human population and usually poses no threat, but when the bacterial population of … Continue reading Fighting hospital superbugs
A better, safer TB vaccine
There's an interesting report in "Infection and Immunity" this week about the development of a safer and more effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine (1), something that is certainly needed as the rate of TB infection is rising in many countries. A major problem for the current TB vaccine, the BCG vaccine first developed in the 1920's, … Continue reading A better, safer TB vaccine
Jellyfish, worms and research revolutions
At first glance the jellyfish Aequorea victoria seems an unlikely candidate to spark a revolution in medical research, but thanks to the work of the marine biologist Osamu Shimomura that's exactly what it did. In their decision to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien for their … Continue reading Jellyfish, worms and research revolutions
A pig model of cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is one of the most commonly inherited diseases, affecting about one in every four thousand children born in the USA, and is caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. The CFTR gene produces a channel that allows the transport of chloride ions across membranes in the body, and … Continue reading A pig model of cystic fibrosis
Attacking Alzheimer’s disease from every angle
The characteristic feature of Alzheimers’s disease is the presence in the brain of two different kinds of abnormal protein structures, the amyloid plaques that are formed from the amyloid beta peptide along the outside of the nerve cells, and the neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) that are formed by the tau protein inside the nerve cells. As … Continue reading Attacking Alzheimer’s disease from every angle
Stem cell hope for Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an inherited disease that affects about one in every 4,000 males born in the USA. It is caused by mutations in the DMD gene that lead to the protein dystrophin being either absent or faulty, which leads to muscle cell death, progressive muscle wasting and early death, with few patients … Continue reading Stem cell hope for Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Speaking of Research 