WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Surgeons of the future might use a system that recognizes hand gestures as commands to control a robotic scrub nurse or tell a computer to display medical images of the patient during an operation.
Both the hand-gesture…
At least one in five horses used for leisure are overweight or obese. It’s a condition which can lead to laminitis and equine metabolic syndrome.
The pilot study, carried out by The University of Nottingham’s School of Veterinary Medicine and Scie…
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Researchers have found evidence that an environmental pollutant may play an important role in causing multiple sclerosis and that a hypertension drug might be used to treat the disease.
The toxin acrolein was elevated b…
BOSTON (November 16, 2010) — Researchers have developed a promising new approach to vaccination for rotavirus, a common cause of severe diarrheal disease that is responsible for approximately 500,000 deaths among children in the developing …
Cockroaches could be more of a health benefit than a health hazard according to scientists from The University of Nottingham.
Experts from the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science have discovered powerful antibiotic properties in the brains …
Opening a new front in the battle against Alzheimer’s disease, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have found that a protein long associated with the disease inflicts grave damage in a previously unimagined way: It seals off mitochondria in affected neurons, resulting in an “energy crisis” and buildup of toxins that causes cells to die. This pathway, the first specific biochemical explanation for pathologies associated with Alzheimer’s, is detailed in the April 14 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.
Once a year, Ronald Schultz checks the antibody levels in his dogs’ blood. Why? He says for proof that most annual vaccines are unnecessary. Schultz, professor and chair of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, has been studying the effectiveness of canine vaccines since the 1970s; he’s learned that immunity can last as long as a dog’s lifetime, which suggests that our “best friends” are being over-vaccinated. Based on his findings, a community of canine vaccine experts has developed new veterinary recommendations that could eliminate a dog’s need for annual shots. The guidelines appear in the March/April issue of Trends, the journal of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA).
Scientists have found that exposure to male perspiration has marked psychological and physiological effects on women: It can brighten women’s moods, reducing tension and increasing relaxation, and also has a direct effect on the release of luteinizing hormone, which affects the length and timing of the menstrual cycle.
To survive and thrive in a decidedly hostile environment, the lowly tapeworm uses a chemical trick to evade the propulsive nature of its intestinal home. Capitalizing on that tapeworm chemistry, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison believe they may have found a way to slow the transit of drugs through the intestine, making them more effective in their delivery and holding out the promise not only of more effective treatment, but also of lowering dosage and cost, and eliminating wasted medicine.
By solving a long-standing puzzle about how the influenza virus assembles its genetic contents into infectious particles that enable the virus to spread from cell to cell, scientists have opened a new gateway to a better understanding of one of the world’s most virulent diseases. This insight into the genetic workings that underpin infection by flu, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides not only a better basic understanding of how flu and other viruses work, but holds significant promise for new and improved vaccines and drugs to combat the disease by exposing the genetic trick it uses to form virus particles.
Coonhound puppies on diets containing the type of fat found in deep-fried foods are furthering understanding of how these fats contribute to aging and development of human diseases such as atherosclerosis and cancer, according to Purdue University scientists. One group of dogs fed a highly-oxidized lipid diet and another group fed one with a moderate level of this fat type, both had reduced growth, bone formation and immune function, said John Turek, Purdue professor of basic sciences. This was the first study in dogs to assess the effects of oxidized lipids on growth, antioxidant status, bone development and immune function.
Scientists have found a new wrinkle in the developmental biology dogma that cell differentiation occurs irreversibly as stem cells give rise to increasingly specialized types of offspring cells. The researchers have shown that certain mouse cells retain an ability to oscillate between very distinct blood cell types ? B-cells and macrophages ? long after what has been commonly regarded as the point of no return.