Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

Critical Need For Safe Staffing Levels In Aged Care, Australia
With nearly 40% of aged care residents spending less than one year in a nursing home and 18% less than 3 months, it is critical that the Australian government acts now to implement minimum staffing levels and an adequate skills mix of carers, enrolled and registered nursing staff.
generic viagra online
What Is Cystitis? What Causes Cystitis?
Cystitis refers to inflammation of the lining of the bladder. It usually occurs when the normally sterile urethra and bladder (lower urinary tract) are infected by bacteria and become irritated and inflamed. Cystitis is fairly common and can affect both men and women and people of all ages. However, it is more common in women.
News of the day
Opinion Pieces React To Obama's Nomination Of Sotomayor To Supreme Court
Several newspapers on Wednesday included editorials and opinion pieces on President Obama"s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Summaries appear below. ~New York Times: Obama "seems to have made an inspired choice" in selecting Sotomayor as his nominee because she "has an impressive judicial record, a stellar academic background and a compelling life story," a Times editorial states. According to the editorial, "Based on what we know now, the Senate should confirm her so she can join the court when it begins its new term in October." The editorial notes that, "Conservative activists have already begun trying to paint Judge Sotomayor as a liberal ideologue, but her carefully reasoned, fact-based decisions indicate otherwise." The editorial continues, "If Judge Sotomayor joins the court, it will be a special point of pride for Hispanic-Americans," and "will also bring the paltry number of female justices back to two." It adds, "Judge Sotomayor, though, is more than just a distinguished member of two underrepresented groups. She is an accomplished lawyer and judge, who could become an extraordinary Supreme Court Justice" (New York Times, 5/27).~Gerard Magliocca, New York Times: In addition to sharing Obama"s "experience and intellect," Sotomayor "also mirror"s the president"s measured temperament," Magliocca, a law professor at Indiana University, writes in a Times opinion piece. Magliocca writes that he has known Sotomayor for 13 years and notes that although he is a conservative and has at times been "at odds with" Sotomayor professionally, he does not dispute her qualifications. According to Magliocca, "For those of us who think that intellectual rigor and fairness are the crucial factors" to be a Supreme Court justice, "no matter which party the president hails from, there is no question that Judge Sotomayor should be confirmed" (Magliocca, New York Times, 5/27).~USA Today: Upon hearing that Sotomayor was Obama"s nominee, Republican critics "quickly insisted that the Senate assure itself that Sotomayor would not make rulings based on her "personal politics, feelings and preferences,"" a USA Today editorial states. According to the editorial, "To some extent, the entire argument is overblown. People inevitably are the product of their experiences, and they can hardly shed their history and character at the courthouse door." The editorial continues, "That is why the court is enriched by having an eclectic mix of justices who can bring differing perspectives to bear on the case at hand." The editorial concludes, "Sotomayor"s education and experience make her far more than a political twofer who allowed Obama to check the "female" and "Hispanic" boxes. But there"s a limit to the application of empathy and heritage to the law, and her confirmation hearings will be an opportunity for her to spell out exactly where she believes that line falls," (USA Today, 5/27).~ Steven Waldman, Wall Street Journal: "Everyone seems to assume" that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is "ardently for abortion rights," but there is "stunningly little information about her abortion views -- and what we do know hardly paints her as a pro-choice activist," Waldman, president and editor-in-chief of Beliefnet.com and author of "Founding Faith," writes in a Journal opinion piece. He continues that Sotomayor has ruled only on three cases "indirectly related to abortion," and each time ruled in a way preferred by abortion-rights opponents, "albeit for reasons unrelated to the merits of abortion." Although Sotomayor"s decisions in the cases were related "to matters of constitutional law and criminal procedure, ... at a minimum, it showed that whatever her abortion views, it didn"t produce some powerful inclination against the pro-life position," according to Waldman. "Now all of this might not mean anything. She may prove to be a strong advocate of Roe v. Wade. But it"s telling that the abortion interest groups took sides without knowing anything about her abortion
Mental Health

Researchers Edit Genes In Human Stem Cells

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have successfully edited the genome of human- induced pluripotent stem cells, making possible the future development of patient-specific stem cell therapies. Reporting this week in Cell Stem Cell, the team altered a gene responsible for causing the rare blood disease paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, or PNH, establishing for the first time a useful system to learn more about the disease. "To date, only about six genes have been successfully targeted or edited in human stem cells out of countless people and attempts that"s just not efficient enough if we want to move disease research and therapy forward," says Linzhao Cheng, Ph.D., an associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics and member of the Johns Hopkins Institute of Cell Engineering. "We"ve been able to improve gene targeting and editing in human embryonic stem cells more than 200 fold." Cheng"s lab and collaborators at Johns Hopkins study PNH, a condition where "friendly fire" kills patients" own blood cells and the body can"t replenish the lost blood cells due to loss of normal blood stem cells. PNH is an acquired disease that occurs only in adults, according to Cheng. "It"s a tough condition to study because we need to study it in blood stem cells and they"re difficult to grow in the lab. So for years we"ve been trying to develop another cell system to better understand and perhaps fix what"s going on in PNH." To establish a system for research, they used human embryonic stem cells which can be expanded unlimitedly in the laboratory, but they also had to create a mutation as found in a PNH patient. To target and remove the function of the one specific gene known to cause PNH, the research team improved on the standard approach of gene targeting, which can remove a functional gene or replace a dysfunctional gene. The gene targeting technology, first used successfully for mouse embryonic stem cells, won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007. Gene targeting exploits a cell"s own ability to repair broken DNA. When DNA breaks from exposure to mutagens or other agents like DNA-cutting enzymes, DNA-repairing enzymes in the cell find and re-join the two exposed DNA ends. However, if another piece of DNA with exposed ends is floating around, it effectively can be spliced into the broken DNA during repair, and replace the defective copy. The team"s technological improvement includes the use of custom-designed molecular scissors that are made by collaborators at Harvard University and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. These engineered DNA cutting enzymes make a precise break at specific locations in a cell"s DNA in this case in the gene that causes PNH. They added the molecular scissors and a fragment of DNA containing a gene that confers selection of rare targeted clones in both human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. The latter, also known as iPS cells, are very similar to embryonic stem cells in biological properties, but generated by using adult tissues such as skin. Of all the cells surviving selection, they picked and grew eight iPS cell lines to study further, and five of those contained a targeted insertion at the gene site. Further examination showed that the cells contained the correct number of chromosomes, no longer contained any trace of the molecular scissors and had characteristics as cells from PNH patients that lack a group of cell surface molecules. "I commend my team especially Dr. Jizhong Zou who spent three years with the help of many collaborators on this challenging project," says Cheng. "We"re very excited about this accomplishment; it will enable better studies for other blood diseases. But there"s still much to do before we can really use human iPS cells in clinical therapies." Cheng"s team will continue to improve on techniques and begin applying these techniques to iPS cells from patients. This study was funded by the Stem Cell Research Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering, the National Institutes of Health, a Maryland Stem Cell Research Postdoctoral Fellowship grant, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Massachusetts General Hospital Pathology Service, the State of Texas and the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund. Authors on the paper are Jizhong Zou, Prashant Mali, Bin-Kuan Chou, Guibin Chen, Zhaohui Ye and Linzhao Cheng of Johns Hopkins; Morgan Maeder, Stacey-Thibodeau-Beganny and J. Keith Joung of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Shondra Pruett-Miller and Matthew Porteus of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; and In-Hyun Park and George Q. Daley of Children"s Hospital, Boston and Harvard Medical School. Johns Hopkins Medicine


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009