Alternative Medicine
Building bones from wood
November 9, 2012 8:42 am | News | CommentsA research project in Europehas the aim of building bone implants that have been sourced from wood. The wood serves as a scaffolding that transforms to a ceramic identical to the mineral part of bone tissue: hydroxyapatite. The researchers believe the approach could appear in a clinical setting within ten years.
Oregon scientists make embryos with 2 women, 1 man
October 26, 2012 9:26 am | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsScientists in Oregon have created embryos with genes from one man and two women, using a provocative technique that could someday be used to prevent babies from inheriting certain rare incurable diseases. The embryos are not being used to produce children, but it has already stirred a debate over its risks and ethics in Britain, where scientists did similar work a few years ago.
Complex logic circuits can be made from bacterial genes
October 12, 2012 5:07 pm | by Diana Lutz, Washington University in St. Louis, Tae Seok Moon, logic circuit, gene circuit | News | CommentsLogic circuits can be built from just about anything, including billiard balls, pipes of water, or animals in a maze. Tae Seok Moon, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, intends to build logic gates out of genes, and has already built the largest such device yet reported. But the purpose of these circuits is not to crunch numbers.
Stinky frogs are a treasure trove of antibiotic substances
January 25, 2012 11:34 am | News | CommentsRecent research in China on amphibians so smelly that scientists term them “odorous frogs” has revealed a potentially rich source of new antibiotics. They concluded that these frogs possess the greatest diversity of germ-killing peptides.
Nature's medicine cabinet could yield hundreds of new drugs
December 13, 2011 4:49 am | News | CommentsAccording to a new analysis by a New York Botanical Garden scientist, there are probably at least 500 medically useful chemicals awaiting discovery in plant species whose chemical constituents have not yet been evaluated for their potential to cure or treat disease.
Gene therapy boosts blood-clotting for hemophiliacs
December 12, 2011 5:22 am | by Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer | News | CommentsIn what's being called a landmark study, researchers used gene therapy to successfully treat six patients with severe hemophilia, a blood-clotting disorder. The six men each received a single, 20-minute infusion of healthy genetic material delivered by a virus found in monkeys. Four of the patients were able to stop conventional blood-clotting treatments altogether.
Danish mushroom could be cancer fighter
December 8, 2011 6:22 pm | News | CommentsIn Denmark, mushrooms have primarily been used in food preparation or as intoxicants. But until. Dr. Ming Chen, an expert in traditional Chinese medicine, came along, nobody had discovered than a certain type of toxic mushroom was actually effective and selective against cancer cells.
An alternative to antibiotics?
June 7, 2011 12:45 pm | News | CommentsAntibiotics are among the greatest achievements of medical science. But bacteria are increasingly developing resistance to once-potent drugs. Researchers are scrambling for an alternative, and researchers in Germany say they have found one in a therapeutic equivalent that could replace penicillin and related pharmaceuticals.
Growth-factor-containing nanoparticles accelerate healing of chronic wounds
January 26, 2011 8:04 am | News | CommentsMassachusetts General Hospital investigators have developed a novel system for delivery of growth factors to chronic wounds such as pressure sores and diabetic foot ulcers. They fabricated nanospheres containing keratinocyte growth factor. When suspended in a fibrin gel, these nanoparticles improved the healing of deep skin wounds in diabetic mice.
