tissue
U-M develops a potential ‘game changer’ for pathologists
Ulysses Balis, M.D., clicks a mouse to identify a helicopter in a satellite photo of Baghdad, Iraq. With another click, an algorithm that he and his team designed picks out three more choppers without highlighting any of the buildings, streets, tree…
Advancements in fertility preservation provide oncology patients new options
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Many young people who’ve just learned that they have cancer also are told that the therapies that may save their lives could rob them of their ability ever to have children. Infertility caused by chemotherapy and radiation affect…
Research heralds potential for early diagnosis of degenerative brain disorders
A team of American scientists claim that a new method of testing for neurological diseases could provide doctors with a rapid and non-invasively method of diagnosing degenerative disorders. The research, published in The journal of Comparative Neuro…
Genetics underlie formation of body’s back-up bypass vessels
CHAPEL HILL — Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have uncovered the genetic architecture controlling the growth of the collateral circulation — the “back-up” blood vessels that can provide oxyge…
Faster method for growing adult stem cells for bone regeneration
A new method for utilizing adult stem cells for bone or other tissue regeneration without having to go through the intermediate step of expanding the number of cells in tissue culture has won a Kaye Innovation Award for a young doctoral student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Kaye Awards, now marking the tenth anniversary year of their inception, were presented on May 27 during the 66th meeting of the Hebrew University Board of Governors meeting in Jerusalem.
Photo therapy a success in esophageal cancer study
Gastroenterologists at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., report photodynamic therapy (PDT) appears to destroy the abnormal tissue of Barrett’s esophagus as well as superficial esophageal cancer. Here’s how PDT works. Patients are given an injection of a photosensitizing drug called porfimer sodium (Photofrin). Cells in the body absorb this drug. Normal cells get rid of it, but the drug tends to collect in premalignant and malignant cells. Two days after the injection of Photofrin, physicians insert and endoscope into the sedated patient’s esophagus. An endoscope is a thin, flexible tube with a miniature camera on its tip. Physicians deliver a specific wavelength of red laser light through the endoscope to the targeted cells. The laser light destroys the Photofrin-containing cells. Normal esophageal cells grow back in their place.
Cholestrol Drug Could Lead to New Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis
While cautioning that their findings still must be evaluated in humans, University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University Medical Center researchers report that the cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin (Lipitor) significantly improved, prevented relapses or reversed paralysis in mice with an experimental disease that closely resembles multiple sclerosis. The study, reported in the November 7 issue of Nature, was conducted in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the standard animal model for multiple sclerosis.