AScribe Medicine News Service articles from June 2006

AScribe Medicine News Service archives from June 2006

Scientists Identify Cell-Killing Molecular Switch Activated by Free Radicals and Oxidative Stress; Molecular Pathway May Contribute to Stroke, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Heart Disease, Diabetes, the Aging Process.
June 1, 2006... Byline: Harvard University Medical School BOSTON, June 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Just as humans undergo daily stress, so do our individual cells. The cellular variety, called oxidative stress, is caused by the build-up of free radicals, which...

Real-Life Epilogue to "Erin Brockovich": Medical Journal Retracts Fraudulent Chromium/Cancer Study by Firm Headed by Bush Appointee.
June 1, 2006... Byline: Environmental Working Group WASHINGTON, June 2 (AScribe Newswire) -- In a real-life epilogue to "Erin Brockovich," a peer-reviewed medical journal will retract a fraudulent article written and placed by a science-for-hire...

Targeted Therapy Shows Significant Benefits Over Standard Treatment for Advanced Kidney Cancer.
June 4, 2006... Byline: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center ATLANTA, June 4 (AScribe Newswire) -- According to a new study, the drug sunitinib malate (Sutent (r)) is more effective than the current standard cytokine treatment given as an initial therapy...

Ethnic Disparities in Teen Exercise: Do Schools Play a Role? School-Based Obesity Interventions May Need to Be Tailored by Gender.
June 4, 2006... Byline: Children's Hospital Boston BOSTON, June 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- A study of 17,000 U.S. adolescents finds that black and Hispanic girls are less physically active than white girls, but that this difference is attributable to the...

Newborn Screening Can Cause Unnecessary Parental Stress; Worries Linger Even After False-Positive Diagnoses Are Ruled Out.
June 4, 2006... Byline: Children's Hospital Boston BOSTON, June 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Virtually all babies in the U.S. have their heels pricked soon after birth to get a blood sample for genetic testing. These "heel stick" tests identify rare metabolic...

Cancer-Reducing Benefits of Preventive Surgery May Be Specific to Gene Mutation.
June 5, 2006... Byline: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center ATLANTA, June 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new multicenter study is the first to suggest that the prophylactic removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes may provide a different benefit for women...

Mayo Clinic Cancer Center on the Forefront of Fight Against Multiple Myeloma; Most Recent Research Demonstrates Effectiveness of Thal/Dex Therapy.
June 5, 2006... Byline: Mayo Clinic ATLANTA, June 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Promising findings were reported today showing that the combination of thalidomide and dexamethasone (Thal/Dex) when used as initial therapy for multiple myeloma, slowed disease...

New X-ray Delivery Method Could Improve Radiation Therapy.
June 5, 2006... Byline: Brookhaven National Laboratory UPTON, N.Y., June 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and colleagues at Stony Brook University, the IRCCS NEUROMED Medical Center in...

Nation's Largest Computing Grid Announces Inaugural Conference.
June 6, 2006... Byline: Purdue University INDIANAPOLIS, June 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists and researchers who are coming together thanks to the nation's largest computer grid will have a chance to meet face-to-face on June 12-15 at the first...

First Whole-Genome Scan for Links to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Reveals Evidence for Genetic Susceptibility.
June 7, 2006... Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions BALTIMORE, June 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- A federally funded team of researchers including several from Johns Hopkins have identified six regions of the human genome that might play a role in...

First Adult Cancer Patient in Nashville to Receive Stem Cell Transplant From Umbilical Cord Blood at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
June 8, 2006... Byline: Vanderbilt Medical Center NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- When 24-year-old Charles Dougherty checks into Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center tomorrow, he'll be preparing for a treatment that has never been performed...

Georgetown University Medical Center Research Leads to First Cancer Vaccine; New Vaccine Technology Is 100 Percent Effective at Preventing HPV Infection.
June 8, 2006... Byline: Georgetown University Medical Center WASHINGTON, June 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- More than twenty years of collaborative research in the Georgetown lab of Dr. Richard Schlegel has resulted in a major medical breakthrough -- the world's...

University of Pennsylvania Health System to Begin Construction of Proton Therapy Treatment Facility; Cancer Patients to Have Access to Most Precise, Sophisticated Treatment Available.
June 8, 2006... Byline: University of Pennsylvania Health System PHILADELPHIA, June 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- The University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) has announced today that they will begin construction on a new proton therapy treatment facility...

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor's Phage-Hunters Strike Pay Dirt.
June 8, 2006... Byline: Howard Hughes Medical Institute CHEVY CHASE, Md., June 8 (AScribe Newswire) -- A handful of Pittsburgh high school and college students, openly encouraged to dig in the dirt around their homes and schools by their teachers and...

Infected for Life: How the Herpes Simplex Virus Uses MicroRNA to Hide Out in Cells.
June 12, 2006... Byline: University of Pennsylvania Health System PHILADELPHIA, June 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered part of the reason why cold sores, caused by a herpes virus, come...

Hope I Die Before I Get Old: Study Finds Attitudes About Aging Contradict Reality; University of Michigan/VA Ann Arbor Team Find Young, Old Alike Fail to Anticipate Late-Life Happiness.
June 13, 2006... Byline: University of Michigan Health System ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Back when he was 20 years old in 1965, rock star Pete Townshend wrote the line "I hope I die before I get old" into a song, "My Generation" that...

LSU Health Sciences Center Research Finds Evidence of RNA in Structures Essential to Cell Division.
June 13, 2006... Byline: LSU Health Sciences Center NEW ORLEANS, June 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Research led by Mark Alliegro, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at New Orleans, provides evidence...

New State-of-the-Art Surgical Suites Open at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
June 14, 2006... Byline: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center NEW YORK, June 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) has opened a new 72,000-square-foot surgical center that was uniquely designed to take advantage of the...

Drug That Battles Resistance to Leukemia Pill Gleevec 'Extremely Effective' in Fighting Cancer, UCLA Study Finds; Experimental Drug Sprycel Gives Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients Another Option When All Other Treatments Fail.
June 14, 2006... Byline: UCLA LOS ANGELES, June 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- An experimental therapy that battles drug resistance in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) has proved "extremely effective" in fighting cancer, giving patients for whom all conventional...

Study Reveals Biochemical Signature of Cocaine Craving in Humans; Finding Suggests New Target for Treatments Aimed at Stopping Addiction.
June 14, 2006... Byline: Brookhaven National Laboratory UPTON, N.Y., June 14 (AScribe Newswire) -- Ask anyone who has been addicted to drugs and they'll tell you that the mere sight of someone using their drug of choice -- or even people, places, or objects...

University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine Opens Animal Health Research Center.
June 15, 2006... Byline: University of Georgia ATHENS, Ga., June 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- The College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia has opened its state-of-the-art Animal Health Research Center (AHRC). The AHRC, located on the...

Engineering Electrically Conducting Tissue for the Heart: Experiments Suggest an Alternative to Pacemaker Treatment.
June 18, 2006... Byline: Children's Hospital Boston BOSTON, June 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- Patients with complete heart block, or disrupted electrical conduction in their hearts, are at risk for life-threatening rhythm disturbances and heart failure. The...

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder at Young Age Linked to Antidepressant Use.
June 18, 2006... Byline: Mayo Clinic ROCHESTER, Minn., June 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- A Mayo Clinic study has shown that the onset of REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) at a younger age appears to be connected to antidepressant use. RBD is a sleep...

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder Found to Be Precursor of Brain-Degenerating Diseases Later in Life; Acting Out Vivid Dreams May Forewarn of More Serious Illness for Many.
June 18, 2006... Byline: Mayo Clinic ROCHESTER, Minn., June 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- Mayo Clinic sleep medicine specialists have found that almost two-thirds of patients with REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) develop degenerative brain diseases by...

Helen Scannell Thomas Named Wald Center Director; Community Health Nurse Practitioner to Lead Hopkins Nursing Clinic.
June 20, 2006... Byline: School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University BALTIMORE, June 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON) has appointed Helen Scannell Thomas, a certified pediatric nurse practitioner, to serve as...

Receptor Holds Key to Mosquito Immune Response; Researchers Identify Gene Used to Recognize Pathogens.
June 20, 2006... Byline: Bloomberg School of Public Health BALTIMORE, June 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a gene in the Anopheles gambiae mosquito's DNA that is central to the...

Neuroengineering Conference June 26-28 at University of Texas at Dallas; Advances in Neurological Bioengineering Will Be Focus of Three-Day Event.
June 21, 2006... Byline: University of Texas at Dallas RICHARDSON, Texas, June 21 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD)...

Study Links Virus to 2001 Thoroughbred Abortion Epidemic.
June 22, 2006... Byline: Oregon State University CORVALLIS, Wash., June 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new study by veterinary researchers at Oregon State University has linked a major epidemic of abortion a few years ago in Kentucky Thoroughbred mares to...

Fruit Flies Aboard Space Shuttle Subjects of University of Central Florida Study on Immunity in Space.
June 27, 2006... Byline: University of Central Florida ORLANDO, Fla., June 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- Fruit flies aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery will help University of Central Florida and University of California, Davis, biologists learn more about how...

Leaders in Allied Dental Education Plan for the Future.
June 27, 2006... Byline: American Dental Education Association WASHINGTON, June 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) held its 39th Annual National Allied Dental Program Directors' Conference: A Summit on Allied Dental...

Eczema and Asthma Connection to Be Explored Through $5 Million Grant.
June 28, 2006... Byline: Indiana University School of Medicine INDIANAPOLIS, June 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- A $5 million grant has been awarded to the IU School of Medicine to establish an Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Center (AADCRC)....

Mayo Researchers Discover Immune System Blocker at Work in Kidney Cancer; May Predict Outcomes, Provide New Treatment Target.
June 28, 2006... Byline: Mayo Clinic ROCHESTER, Minn., June 28 (AScribe Newswire) -- Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a new and deadly player in the most common form of kidney cancer. They've shown that the molecule B7-H4 helps renal cell carcinoma...