By 2010 India’s population will suffer approximately 60% of the world’s heart disease. – Heart disease is the number one killer in the world and India carries more than its share of this burden. Moreover, the problem is set to rise: it is predicted that by 2010 India’s population will suffer approximately 60% of the world’s heart disease.
US Food and Drug Administration approves Milnacipran for the management of fibromyalgia. – Pierre Fabre Laboratories announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved the marketing application filed by Forest Laboratories, Inc. and Cypress Bioscience, Inc. for Milnacipran.
All NIH human embryonic stem cell registry lines now deposited at NSCB – The U.S. National Stem Cell Bank (NSCB) has announced that it has received deposits of two human embryonic stem cell lines from Cellartis AB, a biotechnology company based in Sweden. With the addition of the new lines, the National Stem Cell Bank now has received all 21 cell lines from the six providers listed on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) federal registry.
Scientists call up stem cell troops to repair the body using new drug combinations – Scientists have tricked bone marrow into releasing extra adult stem cells into the bloodstream, a technique that they hope could one day be used to repair heart damage or mend a broken bone, in a new study published today in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Health Minister invites diaspora to join in developing healthcare – Indian Health Minister Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss has called for public-private partnership in health sector to meet the gap between supply and demand.
Scientists can now differentiate between healthy cells and cancer cells and normal stem cells. – One of the current handicaps of cancer treatments is the difficulty of aiming these treatments at destroying malignant cells without killing healthy cells in the process.
University of Maryland researchers identify common gene variant linked to high blood pressure. STK39 gene produces protein involved in regulating how kidneys process salt. – Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have identified a common gene variant that appears to influence people’s risk of developing high blood pressure, according to the results of a study being published online Dec. 29, 2008 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Aesthetic Medicine has seen a dramatic increase in the diversity of the patients treated over the past decade and this trend is expected to continue to grow stronger than ever, with applications that cater to all people. – The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), the leading national organization of board-certified plastic surgeons who specialize in cosmetic surgery, offers its predictions for cosmetic surgery in 2009.
Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, says WHO. – The Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared on 25 December an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Mweka District, Kasai Occidental province based on laboratory results from the Centre International de Recherches M?dicales de Franceville (CIRMF) in Gabon.
US researchers watched genetic diseases unfolding in the laboratory after finding a way to make large numbers of affected cells. – When neurons started dying in Clive Svendsen’s lab dishes, he couldn’t have been more pleased. The dying cells ? the same type lost in patients with the devastating neurological disease spinal muscular atrophy ? confirmed that the University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell biologist had recreated the hallmarks of a genetic disorder in the lab, using stem cells derived from a patient.
Breathing life into injured lungs: World-first technique will expand lung donor organ pool – For the first time in the world, transplant surgeons at Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network used a new technique to repair an injured donor lung that was unsuitable for transplant, and then successfully transplanted it into a patient.
EPA should pursue cumulative risk assessment of phthalates and other chemicals – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should examine whether combined exposures to chemicals known as phthalates could cause adverse health effects in humans, says a new report from the National Research Council.
