http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/what-media-blog.html What media blog From Thecancerblog Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT en-us http://www.thecancerblog.org/images/blogs/what-media-blog-189210.jpg http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/what-media-blog.html 99 74 http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/outcome-in-chronic-myeloid-leukemia.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/outcome-in-chronic-myeloid-leukemia.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT While the median age at diagnosis for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is over 60 years old and incidence increases dramatically with age,limited data are available about the long-term outcome for older patients treated with imatinib, the standard first-line treatment used to treat CML. Results from a study published recently in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology, reveal that age does not affect response to imatinib and study researchers conclude that overall survival for CML is similar in older and younger patients treated with the drug........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2010/boosting-supply-of-key-brain-chemical.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2010/boosting-supply-of-key-brain-chemical.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT cientists at Vanderbilt University have "engineered" a mouse that can run on a treadmill twice as long as a normal mouse by increasing its supply of acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter essential for muscle contraction. The finding, reported this month in the journal Neuroscience, could lead to new therapys for neuromuscular disorders such as myasthenia gravis, which occurs when cholinergic nerve signals fail to reach the muscles, said Randy Blakely, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Center for Molecular Neuroscience........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2007/extended-wakefulness-combined-with-alcohol.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2007/extended-wakefulness-combined-with-alcohol.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT The combination of extended wakefulness and low-dose alcohol has significant adverse effects on a persons ability to drive, and elevates the risk of getting into a vehicular accident, as per a research studyreported in the October 1 issue of the journal SLEEP. The study, authored by Mark E. Howard, PhD, of the Institute for Breathing and Sleep in Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia, focused on 19 volunteer professional drivers, who participated in a driving simulation and the Psychomotor Vigilance Task. The subjects were measured in a rested state (12-15 hours awake) and after extended wakefulness (18-21 hours awake) during two sessions. Alcohol was administered during one session, with performance measured at blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of 0.00 percent, 0.03 percent and 0.05 percent in a non-sleep deprived state, and at 0.03 percent after extended wakefulness (at 1 a.m. and at 3 a.m.). During the second session, tests were performed at the same times without alcohol........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/9-2007/secret-of-bones-strength.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/9-2007/secret-of-bones-strength.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT New research at MIT has revealed for the first time the role of bone's atomistic structure in a toughening mechanism that incorporates two theories previously proposed by scientists eager to understand the secret behind the material's lightweight strength. Past experimental studies have revealed many different mechanisms at different scales of focus, rather than a single theory. The combination mechanism uncovered by the MIT scientists allows for the sacrifice of a small piece of the bone in order to save the whole, helps explain why bone tolerates small cracks, and seems to be adapted specifically to accommodate bone's need for continuous rebuilding from the inside out........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/6-2007/pairing-nanoparticles-with-proteins.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/6-2007/pairing-nanoparticles-with-proteins.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT In groundbreaking research, researchers have demonstrated the ability to strategically attach gold nanoparticles - particles on the order of billionths of a meter - to proteins so as to form sheets of protein-gold arrays. The nanoparticles and methods to create nanoparticle-protein complexes can be used to help decipher protein structures, to identify functional parts of proteins, and to "glue" together new protein complexes. Applications envisioned by the scientists include catalysts for converting biomass to energy and precision "vehicles" for targeted drug delivery........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/6-2007/computerized-physician-order-entry-system.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/6-2007/computerized-physician-order-entry-system.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT The occurence rate of medicine errors can be reduced by implementing a computerized doctor order entry (CPOE) system, as per a review of several studies conducted by scientists at the University of Minnesota. The review, recently reported in the online journal Health Services Research, analyzed 12 studies conducted between 1990 and 2005 that compared the number of handwritten and computerized medicine errors made by hospital physicians. Medication errors, which include prescribing the wrong drug, ordering an inaccurate dosage, or administering a drug at the wrong time, dropped by as much as 66 percent in United States hospitals that switched to a CPOE system. Illegible handwriting and transcription errors account for more than 60 percent of medicine errors........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/6-2007/doctoral-research-without-borders.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/6-2007/doctoral-research-without-borders.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT The enabling of structured doctoral research within a collaborative scientific network has been the declared objective of the Research Training Group Programme, offered by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), since its inception in 1990. How important the internationalisation of this programme is to the DFG is also shown by the International Research Training Group programme, founded in 1997, in which German groups together with groups from abroad offer structured doctoral programmes. The DFG also expects Research Training Groups not belonging to this category to have an international orientation, and it supports efforts to establish international contacts. At its meeting on 1 June 2007 in Bonn, for example, the committee responsible for Research Training Groups allocated additional funds to seven projects for cooperation with the graduate schools funded by the Academy of Finland........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2007/a-new-wrinkle-in-evolution.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2007/a-new-wrinkle-in-evolution.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT Nature, through the trial and error of evolution, has discovered a vast diversity of life from what can only presumed to have been a primordial pool of building blocks. Inspired by this success, a new Biodesign Institute research team, led by John Chaput, is now trying to mimic the process of Darwinian evolution in the laboratory by evolving new proteins from scratch. Using new tricks of molecular biology, Chaput and co-workers have evolved several new proteins in a fraction of the 3 billion years it took nature........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2007/thymus-transplants-gives-hope-to-babies.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2007/thymus-transplants-gives-hope-to-babies.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT "My baby is doing what other babies her age are doing -- she's feeding herself, putting on her own clothes and she loves to dance". Lolita Harding is describing her daughter Dave'yana, who will turn three in September, thanks in large part to a thymus transplant she received at Duke University Medical Center in April 2005 to reconstitute her absent immune system. Dave'yana was the 31st baby to receive such a transplant at Duke to correct immune system deficiencies caused by a condition called DiGeorge anomaly. Duke is the only center in the world that performs the procedure........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2007/regulating-californian-stem-cell-research.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2007/regulating-californian-stem-cell-research.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT How is California regulating its $3 billion stem cell research initiative? Regulations governing human stem cell research must strive to assure strict oversight while simultaneously fostering scientific innovation through collaboration, says a group of researchers from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), one of the world's largest supporters of such research........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2007/mri-to-determine-features-of-osteoarthrosis.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2007/mri-to-determine-features-of-osteoarthrosis.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT Abnormalities in the ligaments found on the outside of the knee (lateral collateral ligament complex or LCLC) are usually seen on MRI in patients with knee osteoarthrosis (OA), as per a research studyconducted by scientists from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2007/strengthening-swallowing-rehabilitation.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2007/strengthening-swallowing-rehabilitation.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT Just thinking about swallowing makes it harder to do. Head and neck cancer, a stroke, brain tumor, brain injury or even a tracheostomy tube and mechanical ventilation needed to sustain life can make it impossible. Dysphagia, or swallowing problems, can also result from aging and accompanying loss of muscle strength........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2007/unravel-clue-in-cortisol-production.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2007/unravel-clue-in-cortisol-production.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT When a person's under stress or injured, the adrenal gland releases cortisol to help restore the body's functions to normal. But the hormone's effects are a number of and varied, lowering the activity of the immune system, helping create memories with short-term exposure, while impairing learning if there's too much for too long. Given the variety of its effects,understanding how cortisol is made is essential to producing medications that can alter its production........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2007/major-susceptibility-gene-for-crohns-disease.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2007/major-susceptibility-gene-for-crohns-disease.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT A consortium of Canadian and American scientists report in Nature Genetics the results from a search of the entire human genome for genetic risk factors leading to the development of Crohn's disease. Specifically, using a novel approach, the authors identified that the PHOX2B, NCF4 and ATG16L1 genes constitute genetic risk factors for Crohn's disease. In addition, their study identified two regions of the genome where genetic risk factors are located but no known genes were implicated further work will be necessary to identify the causal genes in these regions........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2007/protecting-brains-of-premature-infants.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2007/protecting-brains-of-premature-infants.html Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:48 GMT A study of how the brain of a premature infant responds to injury has found vulnerabilities similar to those in the mature brain but also identified at least one significant difference, as per neuroresearchers and neonatologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In an animal model of brain injury, scientists showed for the first time that parts of the developing brain are vulnerable to damage from glutamate, a nervous system messenger compound. Glutamate is already well-known for its links to injury in the mature brain. But researchers also found damage in the developing brain that could not be associated with glutamate, suggesting that different therapys are needed to prevent brain injury in premature infants........ ]]>