Health and Medicine

Cancer specialists will soon be able to compare mammograms with computerised images of breast-cancer from across Europe, in a bid to improve diagnosis and treatment. Researchers – including computer experts from the Complex Cooperative Systems Research Centre at the University of the West of England – have just received a grant of 1.9 million Euros (£1.2 million) from the European Union for the three-year project.

“Improving access to data on cancer could be highly relevant to the early det

Researchers have conducted the most definitive study of its kind to show that sleeping on the stomach increases the risk of U.S. infants for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Previously, researchers had relied largely on overseas studies for making the recommendation that infants be placed on the back to sleep in order to reduce their risk for SIDS.

The study focused primarily on SIDS cases among African Americans, a group at roughly twice the risk for SIDS than are Caucasians. The findin

Scientists are beginning to change their thinking about why the immune systems of most people infected with HIV cannot control the spread of the virus while the immune systems of a rare group of individuals, called long-term nonprogressors, can. For some time, scientists thought that people who could not control HIV had too few HIV-fighting white blood cells called CD8+ T cells. However, a new study suggests the difference is not the number but the quality of these cells: both nonprogressors and othe

Researchers receive grant to use robots to improve walking

Irvine, Calif. — Paralysis from spinal cord injury was significantly reversed by adding tiny nerves from the rib cage and mixing them with a powerful growth inducer found in most nerve cells, a UC Irvine and Long Beach Veterans Administration Medical Center study has found.

The study, conducted in rats, suggests that nerve cells can be inserted and stimulated to grow through damaged areas of the spinal cord, perhaps

Eye specialists at the University of Leicester are using a new technique of ‘lighting up the brain’ to investigate and understand eye diseases.

The Ulverscroft Foundation has funded a new five-year research post at the University to probe into the link between the eyes and the brain with a view to increasing knowledge about common eye problems and improving treatment for patients. The Foundation is a charity that the funds production of large print books for visually impaired people.

A new use of old technology could lead to handheld scanning diagnostic devices (as seen in Star Trek!) one day becoming a reality.

Writing in the October issue of Biologist, Steve Mitchell and colleagues (Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London) envisage a future where, ‘an entire individual could be quickly scanned using a handheld device. Extrapolating further, such a scan could provide a virtually instant readout of an individual’s biochemistry, revealing potential ill