ill in Biological News

Pitt team first to profile genes in acutely ill idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients

PITTSBURGH, July 7 The first findings from a one-of-a-kind, patient-driven effort to provide lung tissue for research might help doctors predict when patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are becoming dangerously ill and also could point the way to interventions that could sustain the...

When the ill need protection from the cure

In the quest to discover the root of illnesses, patients have to undergo an increasing number of scans and tests that may involve the use of ionising radiation to detect the source and scope of an ailment. However, this practice could also put patients at risk. "There has been concern that new ...

For good or ill Ireland gains another mammal species

Dave Tosh, from the School of Biological Sciences at Queens University, found the greater white-toothed shrew in Tipperary and Limerick while working with University College Cork and BirdWatch Ireland. Its natural range is in parts of Africa, France and Germany and before now the closest it has be...

If you don't want to fall ill this Christmas, then share a festive kiss but don't shake hands

We've all heard people say 'I won't kiss you, I've got a cold'. But a report just published warns that we may be far more at risk of passing on an infection by shaking someone's hand than in sharing a kiss. A group of hygiene experts from the United States and the UK have published the first de...

Do the Europeans turn ill sitting up so late?

An extensive EU-financed sleep research project is coordinated from FinlandIn spring 2005 a large European research and training network was establishedto investigate the causes and implications of poor sleep from the medical as well as from the social point of view. This EU-financed sleep research...

Software might revolutionize glucose monitoring in critically ill patients

Researchers have developed a new computerized system to easilymonitor the levels of glucose in the blood of patients in intensivecare. A study published today in the open access journal BMC MedicalInformatics and Decision Making reports that GRIP, a computersoftware that assists in the monitoring...

Carbon nanoparticles toxic to adult fruit flies but benign to young

... tube. That test showed how insects could be vectors for transporting nanomaterials, Rand said. While two generations of fruit fly larvae showed no ill effects from eating carbon nanoparticles, the Brown scientists noticed that some of the particles ended up being stored in the flies' tissue. That mea...

New insights into health and environmental effects of carbon nanoparticles

...rval and adult fruit flies. Scientists use fruit flies as stand-ins for humans and other animals in certain kinds of research. There were no apparent ill effects on fruit fly larvae that ate food containing high concentrations of nanoparticles. However, adult flies died or were incapacitated when their ...

Early detection and quick response are key to defense against anthrax attack

...for a response to be effective, quick detection and treatment are essential, and any delay beyond three days would overwhelm hospitals with critically ill people. The results of a computer simulation study appear in the July/August edition of the journal Medical Decision Making -- one of two studies...

Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC scientists identify enzyme important in aging

...n and cardiovascular disease in adults. By deleting PAPPA, the researchers were able to control the availability of IGF in tissues and dampen its many ill effects. In the thymus, deletion of PAPPA maintained just enough IGF to sustain production of T cells without consuming precursor cells, thereby preve...

Faculty of Translational Medicine boosts support for biomedical researchers

...hment of the Faculty of Translational Medicine, which will support the BRC's mission to drive innovation in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of ill health and to translate advances in biomedical research into real benefits for patients.' ...

Study suggests obese women should not gain weight

...ding to her skepticism was the fact that women who develop gestational diabetes are routinely put on diets that effectively limit weight gain, with no ill effects. "It is the mindset of our specialty, and our society, that we need to have round, chubby pregnant women in order make sure they are healt...

First comprehensive guidelines for managing medullary thyroid carcinoma published in Thyroid journal

... benchmark for patient management and clinical research, as they illuminate the diagnostic and therapeutic strategies required when caring for gravely ill patients and those in the anxiety-ridden early stages of the disease, and when offering testing and counseling to family members." MTC is a complex...

A combined tooth-venom arsenal revealed as key to Komodo dragon's hunting strategy

...t increases the damage done by their long serrated teeth," said Dr Fry. The researchers located and surgically excised the glands from a terminally ill dragon at the Singapore Zoo, and used mass spectrometry to obtain a profile of the venom molecules. The team also analysed which toxin genes were expr...

Komodo even more deadly than thought: Research

... However, magnetic resonance imaging revealed the dragons have complex venom glands as well. After surgically excising the glands from a terminally ill dragon in a zoo, the researchers used mass spectrometry to obtain a profile of the venom, finding that the toxin was similar to that of the Gila monst...

Star Trek-like technology offers noninvasive monitor for patients and athletes

...space. Soller said the technology's multiple, real-time applications will be beneficial to astronauts in their day-to-day activities and to critically ill patients on Earth. "Tissue and blood chemistry measurements can be used in medical care to assess patients with traumatic injuries and those at ris...

Sugar on bacteria surface serves as base for a web of resistance

...c fibrosis, a genetic disease characterized in part by excess mucus in the lungs a condition that can foster creation of the biofilm. Some critically ill hospitalized patients also are susceptible to infection by Pseudomonas, which can lead to sepsis or bacteremia, common causes of death in very sick in...

Research could lead to new non-antibiotic drugs to counter hospital infections

...lained. And rather than try to look for it in the blood steam of critically ill patients, where they would encounter armies of antibiotics and disease-figh...le mechanisms in pathogens that colonize the intestinal tract of critically ill patients has important implications for the design of phosphate-based compo...

University of Kansas graduate student researcher takes aim at deadly brain tumors

...io. "These can have terrible side effects and make you sick. So for patients, not only do they only have 12 to 18 months to live, but they can be very ill during that last year. So we'd like to find treatments that are more effective and have fewer side effects." In the lab, Ciaccio has shown that hin...

Common fragrance ingredients in shampoos and conditioners are frequent causes of eczema

...ed and can cause allergy. Manufacturers do include other substances in the products to delay this oxidation process, but allergenic substances can st! ill be formed from linalool when it is stored. "One way of trying to minimize exposure to oxidized linalool is to avoid buying large packs of soap and ...

Children seriously affected when a parent suffers from depression

...m depression. Children take on an enormous amount of responsibility for the ill parent and for other family members. It is therefore important for the heal... help the whole family Involving the entire family when a parent becomes ill is important, both for the children and the parents. It is essential to hav...

Lincoln Park Zoo scientists awarded National Institutes of Health grant

... Chicago, ill Lincoln Park Zoo post-doctoral researcher Carson Murray, Ph.D. has received a $900,000 grant over five years from one of the world's foremost medical...

Study examining role of genetics and environment in type 1 diabetes

...insulin early and at least delay destruction, the researchers say. It's a stark contrast to how the autoimmune disease is typically diagnosed: gravely ill children are brought to an emergency room where parents find out the pancreas is essentially wrecked. The first children enrolled in TEDDY in 2004 ...

Researcher seeks to turn stem cells into blood vessels

...s for human health remedies. "Stem cell research has generated lots of excitement because it has so much potential to help so many people who are ill or injured," she said. "But we don't have a very good understanding of what's going on when stem cells change into a certain type of tissue, and we ca...

Unexplained chest pain can be due to stress

...chest pain a year after they became ill, compared with patients that became ill with angina or suffered heart attacks. Deaths among men a year after falling ill with unexplained chest pain were a third higher compared with men in the re...

Lincoln Park Zoo awarded $1.5 million grant for new research institute

... Chicago, ill Lincoln Park Zoo has been awarded a grant by The Davee Foundation to establish a new research division, the Urban Wildlife Institute, which will focu...

Texas Medical Center researchers win collaborative grants

...re isn't enough money there to fund more projects." Unraveling mysteries of tuberculosis Why does the tuberculosis germ make some people gravely ill and leave others untouched? That's what intrigues Margaret Goodell, Katherine King and Catherine Bollard of Texas Children's Hospital and Edward Gravi...

Genetic mutation causes familial susceptibility for degenerative brain disease

... members also carried the gene mutation. Of those, slightly less than half had a previous episode of ANE, and about half of the individuals who became ill had recurrent ANE, the researchers said. ANE was initially found in Asia and is now known to affect children worldwide. Cases in the United State...

UT faculty members win American Heart Association awards for advancing research

... the American Heart Association selects one surgeon to receive a Lifetime Achievement award for their contributions to the resuscitation of critically ill or injured patients. Dr. Holcomb, while serving in the U.S. Army (now retired) made significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of in...

Proactive care saves lives of seniors, study finds

...e of deaths and hospitalizations among chronically ill older adults? The answer based on a three-year study involving more than 3,400 chronically ill seniors led by Oregon Health & Science University ...investment in the future health of the chronically ill patient population." ...

Jupiter's shrinking red spot

...) WALKERS' WAKES CAN SPREAD GERMS IN AIRPLANES Airliner ventilation systems are designed to limit passengers' exposure to airborne particles -- from ill travelers' contagious germs to terrorists' aerosol biohazards. Vents in a plane's center ceiling direct air out and down toward the floor below the wi...

Animal and biological science highlights: San Antonio Fluid Dynamics Conference, Nov. 23-25

...) WALKERS' WAKES CAN SPREAD GERMS IN AIRPLANES Airliner ventilation systems are designed to limit passengers' exposure to airborne particles -- from ill travelers' contagious germs to terrorists' aerosol biohazards. Vents in a plane's center ceiling direct air out and down toward the floor below the wi...

Purdue researcher invents molecule that stops SARS

...spiratory Syndrome, spread through two dozen countries over a period of a few months before it was contained. A total of 8,098 people worldwide became ill and 774 died. In addition to its ability to block the SARS virus, the molecular compound that inhibits the virus provides new insights into a group...

Providing toilets, safe water is top route to reducing world poverty: UN University

...orce a household below the poverty threshold," the analysis says. This becomes self-perpetuating as a poverty-stricken household is more prone to ill health. Low education levels and lack of knowledge further maintain this cycle, as understanding links between hygiene and waterborne diseases tend t...

TB bacterium uses its sugar coat to sweeten its chances of living in lungs

...ork that he and colleagues recently reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The research team has identified two different strains of TB from ill patients that interact completely differently with macrophages. These strains do not coat themselves with sugar, so they have a harder time finding th...

Hidden infections crucial to understanding, controlling disease outbreaks

... ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Scientists and news organizations typically focus on the number of dead and gravely ill during epidemics, but research at the University of Michigan suggests that less dramatic, mild infections lurking in large numbers of people are the k...

New book brings upper US Gulf Coast climate change and sea-level rise into focus

...with this understanding and the general recognition that accelerated sea-level rise will severely impact low-gradient coastlines, scientists are still ill prepared to predict coastal response. This study of seven Gulf Coast estuaries (Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound, Weeks Bay, Calcasieu Lake, Sabine...

Researchers create safer alternative to heparin

..., the search for a safer alternative to the common drug had reached a frantic pace after more than 80 people around the world died and hundreds became ill after they were administered what was believed to be contaminated batches of heparin. Linhardt, who is the Ann and John H. Broadbent Jr. '59 Senior...

Large reservoir of mitochondrial DNA mutations identified in humans

...ected that there may be a large number of people in the general population who carry pathogenic mitochondrial DNA mutations, but who are not obviously ill with a mitochondrial disease. This study gives us, for the first time, a measurement of the number of these carriers of pathogenic mitochondrial DNA m...

Ikaria(R) Receives FDA Orphan Drug Designation for Inhaled Carbon Monoxide for Delayed Graft Function in Solid Organ Transplants

... focused on the development and commercialization of innovative pharmaceutical and biological products and drug/device combinations for the critically ill in the hospital and ICU setting. The company's product, INOmax(R) (nitric oxide) for inhalation, is an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of hypoxic ...