Health and Medicine

A new class of all organic composites that change shape under an electric voltage may open the door for the manufacture of artificial muscles, smart skins, capacitors, and tiny drug pumps, according to Penn State researchers.

“Electroactive polymers have been around for a long time, but the energy input required for them to do enough work to be of value was very high,” says Dr. Qiming Zhang, professor of electrical engineering. “With this new composite we have reduced the voltage to one tent

Scientists for the first time have engineered a harmless virus to correct, rather than replace, the genetic defect causing the most common single gene disorder.

The new research presents a novel approach to gene therapy in treating the most common inherited anemias: the thalassemias. Thalassemias are genetic blood diseases that result in failure to produce sufficient hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein component of blood cells. This failure is caused by defects in the genetic code respo

How to build greater coherence in European cancer research? This is the key question to be debated at a conference today, which brings together around 250 representatives from science, the medical profession, government, patient organisations, foundations, industry and European institutions.

The aim of the conference, jointly organised by the European Commission and the European Parliament, is to kick-off the conception of a joint European strategy for cancer research, rallying all actors c

A computer simulation that shows how branches and bends in blood vessels disturb smooth-flowing blood and contribute to heart disease has been built by researchers at the University of California, Davis. Eventually, it could be possible to use such models to predict the risk of some types of heart disease.

Every minute at rest the heart pumps out about five liters, or more than a gallon, of blood. The swirls and eddies of that blood could help determine where fatty plaques build up, damagin

There is a sound neurological basis for the cliché that men are more aggressive than women, according to new findings by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, the Penn scientists illustrated for the first time that the relative size of the sections of the brain known to constrain aggression and monitor behavior is larger in women than in men.

The research, by Ruben C. Gur, PhD, and Raquel E. Gur, MD, PhD, and

Folic acid is not only a safeguard against spina bifida and other birth defects in babies – it can also prevent heart disease and strokes, two of Northern Ireland’s biggest killers, according to research from the University of Ulster.

Research at the University has shown and folic acid and three other related B-vitamins can prevent the accumulation of a high blood level of homocysteine, a risk factor in heart disease and strokes.

The risk of high homocysteine is similar to the risk