An article in Journal of Physics B, published on 7 July 2003 by the Institute of Physics, reports on a new technique which could in future help scientists working in rational drug design (a way of tailoring a new drug to fit the structure of the protein it targets) to develop drugs more efficiently. The work, which was on a molecule called stella-2,6-dione, was a collaboration between colleagues at three Australian universities (Flinders, Swinburne and ANU), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial

HRT could be used to protect younger postmenopausal women from heart disease. An article published in the journal Lipids in Health and Disease shows that estrogens commonly used in HRT reduce the build up of harmful oxidised lipoproteins, which can lead to heart disease, by acting as antioxidants.

It is well known that high-density lipoproteins (HDL) protect against heart disease while low-density lipoproteins (LDL) promote it. However, recent research has shown that the relationship is not

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have discovered a gene critical to the development of the human heart and that mutations in the gene lead to congenital heart defects – the leading noninfectious cause of death in newborns.

GATA4 is only the second gene to have been identified as a cause of isolated congenital heart disease not associated with medically identified syndromes.

The findings will be published in a future edition of the journal Nature and appear o

Rats with severe strokes recovered function following intravenous injections of stem-like cells obtained from circulating human blood — a finding that points to another potential cell therapy for stroke.

The study, by researchers at the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair, appears in today’s issue of the journal Cell Transplantation.

The human blood donors were injected with granulocyte stimulating factor (G-CSF) to stimulate the release of stem-like c

Web Services is currently one of the hottest issues in the software industry. There are good reasons for predicting a success of Web Services. However, there are still a number of open issues. Is Web Services just another technology hype or the beginning of a new era in the evolution of information and communication technology? What will be the role for telcos in the emerging Web Service scenarios?

The new issue of ‘Eurescom mess@ge’, the quarterly magazine for R&D in telecoms, presents answ

Lotura launches CDPrest! a software that companies can use to generate their own multimedia catalogues, up-dating and customising them for their clients. Video, 3D imaging, photos of and instructions for use of the products can be included in the catalogues.

The Gipuzkoan-based company, Lotura (www.lotura.com), has launched the CDPrest! software on to the market, an application that enables companies to create their own products catalogue in multimedia format and their subsequent transfer to