By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H. When researchers used a small molecule to block a cellular channel called KCa1.1, which is known to exist at high levels in rheumatoid arthritis, they found that the molecule reduced the negative effects of the disorder, said a consortium of researchers led by those at Baylor College of Medicine, in … Continue reading
By Dr. Maggie Curnutte As techniques such as next generation sequencing, which determines the precise order of the nucleotides that make up DNA, are used in patient diagnosis and treatment, three critical policy areas remain ill-defined: Regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Reimbursement policies for clinical … Continue reading
By Peter Hotez MD PhD and Maria Elena Bottazzi PhD The devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa is now expected to affect at least 20,000 people in the coming weeks, with some estimates suggesting that those numbers could climb several times higher. Link those numbers with additional recent estimates that Ebola virus infection causes 70 … Continue reading
By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H. Experts seeking ways to prevent and treat infections with the human norovirus – the leading cause of gastrointestinal illness in the world – have faced a major hurdle because they cannot grow the virus in the laboratory. In a report that appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, … Continue reading
By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt electrified the world when he won three gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in Bejing – the first man to win both the 100- and 200-meter races in times that broke records. He won his fourth gold medal in 2012 Olympics in London. If there is a … Continue reading
The gibbon nimbly maneuvers through the branches of his or her environment, but until an international consortium of experts that included those at the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center sequenced and analyzed the ape’s genome, scientists were unclear on the effects of its unusually rapid rate of chromosome rearrangement. In a report … Continue reading
From the Labs 