The scientific study of the nature of disease and its causes, processes, development, and consequences. Also called pathobiology.
Geron Receives FDA Clearance to Begin World’s First Human Clinical Trial of Embryonic Stem Cell-Based Therapy. Geron to Study GRNOPC1 in Patients with Acute Spinal Cord Injury. – Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted clearance of the company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the clinical trial of GRNOPC1 in patients with acute spinal cord injury.
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.
Pregnant women who smoke are at a higher risk of delivering physically aggressive children. – Women who smoke during pregnancy risk delivering aggressive kids according to a new Canada-Netherlands study published in the journal Development and Psychopathology.
USC researchers derive first embryonic stem cells from rats. Finding represents major breakthrough for biomedical research. – Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have, for the first time in history, derived authentic embryonic stem (ES) cells from rats. This breakthrough finding will enable scientists to create far more effective animal models for the study of a range of human diseases.
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.
Preventing a broken heart: Research aims to reduce scarring from heart attacks – A heart damaged by heart attack is usually broken, at least partially, for good. The injury causes excessive scar tissue to form, and this plays a role in permanently keeping heart muscle from working at full capacity.
New evidence may explain why it is that we lose not only our youthful looks, but also our youthful pattern of gene activity with age. – Researchers have discovered that DNA damage decreases a cell’s ability to regulate which genes are turned on and off in particular settings. This mechanism, which applies both to fungus and to us, might represent a universal culprit for aging.
Brain imaging study supports the ‘cognitive reserve’ hypothesis. Greater education has been associated with better cognitive function during life. – Individuals with higher education levels appear to score higher on cognitive tests despite having evidence of brain plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Stress may activate immune cells in the skin, resulting in inflammatory skin disease. – Current research suggests that stress may activate immune cells in your skin, resulting in inflammatory skin disease. The related report by Joachim et al., “Stress-induced Neurogenic Inflammation in Murine Skin Skews Dendritic Cells towards Maturation and Migration: Key role of ICAM-1/LFA-1 interactions,” appears in the November issue of The American Journal of Pathology.
Largest review of its kind associates anti-inflammatory drugs with reduced breast cancer risk – Analysis of data from 38 studies that enrolled more than 2.7 million women ? the largest of its kind ? by researchers at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, and the University of Santiago de Compostela reveals that regular use of Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) is associated with a 12 per cent relative risk reduction in breast cancer compared to non-users.
