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Popular Articles

Britons Unaware Of The Signs Of Skin Cancer
With many British families packing for their annual summer holiday, basking Britons could face a cloud on the horizon this summer with many unaware of how to check for skin cancer, research from Friends Provident reveals.

New Hope For Patients With Melanoma - The Most Deadly Form Of Skin Cancer And The Most Rapidly Increasing Cancer In The UK
Roche and Plexxikon announced interim results from a phase I study with PLX4032 (R7204) a new, highly selective and potentially promising oral treatment for patients with advanced melanoma whose cancer harbours the BRAF mutation (known as mutation-positive). Patients treated with PLX4032 lived for a median of six months without their disease getting worse and more than half experienced significant shrinkage of their tumours; this included patients where the cancer had spread to the liver, lung and bone.1 Historically, less than 5% of metastatic melanoma patients are still alive five years after diagnosis.2
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Fat Tissue Growth In Rodent Models Suppressed By Turmeric Extract
Curcumin, the major polyphenol found in turmeric, appears to reduce weight gain in mice and suppress the growth of fat tissue in mice and cell models. Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (USDA HNRCA) studied mice fed high fat diets supplemented with curcumin and cell cultures incubated with curcumin.
Cardiovascular

Motor Neurone Disease: New Stem Cell Research Could Make Lab Mice Redundant

Researchers from the University of Bath are embarking on a project to use stem cell technology that could reduce the number of animal experiments used to study conditions such as motor neurone disease. Dr Vasanta Subramanian, from the University"s Department of Biology & Biochemistry, will be developing a technique using human stem cells to study this debilitating neurological disease, greatly reducing the number of animals used in research. Stem cells are the precursor cells that are able to develop into more specialised cells and tissues such as neurones or skin cells. Whilst previously most stem cells were derived from embryos, this new research project will instead use Induced Pluripotent Stem cells (iPS cells) which are made from skin cells from adults. Dr Subramanian has been awarded a major three year grant by the National Centre for Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) to study ALS, a form of motor neurone disease in which the nerve cells that control the muscles die. This currently incurable condition causes patients to lose movement in muscles, affecting breathing and eventually causing death. Dr Subramanian will be making iPS cells from the skin cells of patients suffering from ALS to study the genes that are thought to cause the disease. She said: "These are exciting times for stem cell research and there is tremendous potential in the iPS cell technology both for medical applications and in basic biology. "This technology will not only help understand the mechanisms underlying the disease, but will also reduce the numbers of animals used in research. "There is a real need to develop alternative methods for studying these diseases that are more robust and better simulate how the disease develops in humans." The grant will fund a teaching replacement for Dr Subramanian, allowing her to focus on her research, and a research assistant to work on the project. It will also fund a state-of-the-art high power microscope that will allow the researchers to observe the movements and growth of neurones in real time. The project is one of 13 receiving a share of a ÷£4.5 million fund from the NC3Rs. Dr Vicky Robinson, chief executive of the NC3Rs, said: "If we are to reduce animal use and at the same time continue to develop new treatments for diseases then we must engage the best minds and harness the best science and technology in this endeavour. "That is what we are doing with the ÷£4.5 million in 13 new research projects that the NC3Rs is investing in. We are really pleased to be giving grants to scientists who are trying to develop treatments in major areas of concern such as cancer, motor neurone disease and Alzheimer"s disease. "If they can do this, and reduce their reliance on animal use then this has to be good news." Vicky Just University of Bath


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