November 26, 2009
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Shop 'till you drop it's not, but U.S. women are finally starting to buy clothes again.
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A new type of cancer vaccine tested in mice appears to overcome some of the major hurdles associated with the treatment approach, according to a paper published today (November 25) in Science Translational Medicine.
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November 25, 2009
Mice are so lucky! Doctors are always working hard on cures for them.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2009) — A cancer vaccine carried into the body on a carefully engineered, fingernail-sized implant is the first to successfully eliminate tumors in mammals, scientists recently reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine. |
The new approach, pioneered by bioengineers and immunologists at Harvard University, uses plastic disks impregnated with tumor-specific antigens and implanted under the skin to reprogram the mammalian immune system to attack tumors. The new paper describes the use of such implants to eradicate melanoma tumors in mice. |
The slender implants developed by Mooney’s group are 8.5 millimeters in diameter and made of an FDA-approved biodegradable polymer. Ninety percent air, the disks are highly permeable to immune cells and release cytokines, powerful recruiters of immune-system messengers called dendritic cells. |
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November 23, 2009
| ATLANTA — One celebrity chef is showing what it means lend a hand this holiday season.Savannah’s own Paula Deen is helping to deliver more than 25,000 lbs. of protein to Hosea Feed the Hungry.Although the focus was on giving back, things took a quick turn when Deen got a serving of ham in a rather unique way.While tossing hams and turkeys, a misguided thrown ham hit Deen in the face, but that didn’t sideline her from the topic at hand. |
| While Deen managed to escape visible injury, she did say the area around her nose hurt.“I just got hit with a hog so what do I expect said Deen through laughter. “Ran head on to a hog.” |
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November 20, 2009
I heard about this on an episode of Law and Order this week. It’s the first I’d heard about it.
| Unlike finicky fingerprints and frowned-upon fiber analysis, DNA evidence has been the most bulletproof evidence for forensic sciences in recent years. But staffers at a research firm in Israel have recently upended the presumed infallibility of this forensics golden child—by making it themselves. |
Nucleix, a Tel-Aviv-based life sciences company, was able to create credible DNA evidence that could be used to finger the wrong person, proof that even genetic evidence can be manipulated (beyond planting a hair or used cigarette) just like other physical traces.
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“You can just engineer a crime scene,” Nucleix founder Dan Frumkin told The New York Times. “The current forensic procedure fails to distinguish between such samples of blood, saliva, and touched surfaces with artificial DNA, and corresponding samples with in vivo generated (natural) DNA,” Frumkin and co-authors wrote in a recent Forensic Science International: Genetics study that announced the technological achievement. |
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