Investing in Canada’s public health system is the best way to improve it, rather than privatization, writes Dr. Marcia Angell, a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
An international team of researchers, probing how a yeast cell senses its cellular environment and makes decisions about whether or not to express a gene, finds the process of transcribing non-coding RNAs is required for the eventual production of the protein-encoding RNA. The transient synthesis of these non-coding RNAs serves to unfurl the tightly wound DNA, essentially loosening the structure to allow for gene expression.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
Researchers have found, in a previously identified gene, a variation that likely contributes to one in five cases of isolated cleft lip. It’s the first time a genetic variant has been associated with cleft lip alone, rather than both cleft lip and palate. The study provides insight on a previously unknown genetic mechanism and could eventually help with diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cleft lip, which affects more than five million people worldwide.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
Researchers have discovered what promises to be the on-off switch behind several major diseases. In today’s Nature Medicine, scientists from Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center, the Université de Montréal and the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale in France report how the GPR91 receptor contributes to activate unchecked vascular growth that causes vision loss in common blinding diseases. These findings could also have wide-ranging and positive implications for brain tissue regeneration.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
Researchers have developed a low-cost, high-resolution imaging system that can be attached to a helicopter to create a complete and detailed picture of an area devastated by a hurricane or other natural disaster. The resulting visual information can be used to estimate the number of storm refugees and assess the need for health and humanitarian services.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
A special supplement of the Oct. 15 journal Cancer for the first time details guidelines for low- and middle-income countries to implement breast cancer programs to detect and treat the most common disease among women worldwide.”Guidelines for International Breast Health and Cancer Control - Implementation” developed by the Breast Health Global Initiative outlines a tiered system of resource allocation — based on countries’ overall economic status and availability of resources — toward early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and developing an overall breast health program.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
With the US Supreme Court due to review a series of lower court rulings that restrict the Navy’s use of sonar in submarine detection training exercises off the coast of Southern California, George Mason University professor Chris Parsons discusses the links between mass strandings and military exercises worldwide in a paper published by the Marine Pollution Bulletin.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
A multi-institutional study led by researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has found that using chemotherapy alone and delaying or avoiding cranial radiation altogether can be effective in treating pediatric patients with unresectable or progressive low-grade glioma. The study was presented Sunday at the 40th annual International Society of Pediatric Oncology Meeting in Berlin, Germany.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
A research study funded by JDRF suggests that a common intestinal bacteria may provide some protection from developing type 1 diabetes. The findings provide an important step towards understanding how and why type 1 diabetes develops in people, and may lead to potential cures.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered that the EBNA1 protein of Epstein-Barr virus disrupts structures in the nucleus of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells, thereby interfering with cellular processes that normally prevent cancer development.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008