science wire

PA 116/09 Scientists at The University of Nottingham are investigating whether stem cell markers could have a role to play in speeding up wound healing in patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

BERKELEY — Pediatricians and educators have long known that psycho-stimulant medications can help children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) concentrate on learning for short periods of time. But a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, has found evidence that grade schoolers with ADHD who take medications can actually improve their long-term academic achievement, and make greater gains in standardized math and reading scores than students with ADHD who do not take medications.

New £99 million facility to find treatments for serious health problems New six-storey building will contain over 450 world-class researchers and clinicians from Imperial College London and Imperial

UCL has entered into a collaboration with the biopharmaceutical group Pfizer, negotiated by UCL Business, to advance development of stem cell-based therapies for age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Office of News and Information Johns Hopkins University 901 South Bond Street, Suite 540 Baltimore, Maryland 21231 Phone: 443-287-9960 | Fax: 443-287-9920 President Ronald J. Daniels and three

New scholarship programme forged between Imperial College London and Abbey-Santander New agreement to encourage Iberamerican students to study in the UK - %0A " Thursday 23 April 2009 By Naomi Weston

The world's leading candidate for a tuberculosis vaccine, developed at the University of Oxford, is to enter Phase IIb proof-of-concept clinical trials, making it the first TB candidate vaccine for more than 80 years to get to this advanced stage of clinical trials in infants. More than two billion people are infected with tuberculosis (TB) - approximately one out of every three people on the planet - and 1.8 million die annually from the disease.

PA 111/09 Parasite infestations might have a good side. Wild mice from a Nottinghamshire forest have given experts at The University of Nottingham clues as to the importance of some parasites, such as lice, for the conditioning of a "natural" immune system.

Office of News and Information Johns Hopkins University 901 South Bond Street, Suite 540 Baltimore, Maryland 21231 Phone: 443-287-9960 | Fax: 443-287-9920 Supporting a cause is central to the mission

PA 110/09 Around 175,000 young people across the UK care for parents, siblings or other relatives who are sick, disabled or in need of support or supervision. These young people, under the age of 18, often assume a level of caring responsibility usually expected of adults.

People with severe and recurrent depression could benefit from a new form of therapy that combines ancient forms of meditation with modern cognitive behaviour therapy, early-stage research by Oxford University psychologists suggests. The results of a small-scale randomised trial of the approach, called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), in currently depressed patients are published in the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy .

Professor Terence Stephenson has been appointed Nuffield Professor of Child Health at the UCL Institute of Child Health, effective from 1 October 2009.

UCL has won four grants worth a total of just over £5million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to support research into large-scale integrated projects that exploit nanotechnology for healthcare purposes.

NURTURE - the Nottingham University Research and Treatment Unit in Reproduction - has maintained its position of achieving the highest clinical pregnancy rates in the Midlands.

Cambridge, Mass. April 7, 2009 - Seguro Popular, a Mexican health care program instituted in 2003, has already reduced crippling health care costs among poorer households, according to an evaluation conducted by researchers at Harvard University in collaboration with researchers in Mexico. The study was designed and led by Gary King, David Florence Professor of Government and director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard.

In results from the largest health policy study of its kind, a Mexican health care program created in 2003 has been found effective in reducing crippling health care costs among poorer households.

Young adults at future risk of Alzheimer's have different brain activity, says study Results may support the idea that memory function could gradually wear itself out in those who go on to develop Alzheimer's Imperial College London and University of Oxford news release Under strict embargo for 17.

Point-of-care nanosensors for HIV diagnosis and monitoring, to be developed with £2 million award A new device for people living with HIV to monitor their own health is being developed %0A " Joint P

BERKELEY — As the struggle over national healthcare reform unfolds in Congress, a panel of experts, at an April 1 campus forum, explored "considerations for the Obama administration" in the herculean and unpredictable political battle ahead.

PA 95/09 Despite great hopes for stem cell therapy, major structural and cultural changes within the NHS are needed if it is to succeed in the UK. Currently the chances of getting effective treatments into routine use in the short-term are small and the industry is at serious risk of 'market failure'.

Accelerating success: Imperial teams up with the Cockcroft Institute New research partnership to focus on next generation of particle accelerators %0A " By Danielle Reeves 6 April 2009 Developing the

Patients with schizophrenia are able to see correctly through the 'hollow mask? illusion, probably because their brain disconnects 'what the eyes see? from what 'the brain thinks it is seeing', accor

Our faces contain 'barcodes' of information which help us recognise people and may have implications for improving face recognition software, according to a study co-authored by Steven Dakin of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology published today in the Journal of Vision .

Smokers who do not want to quit right now, but who are prepared to try to reduce their smoking are twice as likely to stop smoking in the long-term if they use nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to help them cut down gradually, according to research by scientists at the University of Birmingham.

Research funded by RNID and Deafness Research UK has made a major breakthrough towards using stem cells as a treatment for hearing loss in the future.

UCL Business and biopharmaceutical company Ocera Therapeutics Inc have signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement for UCL-L1V - a compound that can be used to treat acute hepatic encephalopath

Reforms to increase competition in primary healthcare are unlikely to deliver benefits unless more attention is given to patient choice, according to new research published online today in the British Medical Journal.

Study suggests new approach may be needed for treating infectious blindness Programmes may need to treat everyone who is living with someone infected with trachoma, say researchers %0A " By Laura Gal

Potential new HIV drug may help patients not responding to treatment D-1mT appears to help Anti-Retroviral Therapy work more effectively - %0A " Imperial College London News Release For Immediate Rel

Links: UCL Institute of Child Health Sparks Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Richard Chin, a clinical lecturer at UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH) and Great Ormond Street NHS Trust, has won the Sparks charity's annual Young Investigator of the Year award for his work into childhood onset epilepsy.

A consortium headed by UCL has been chosen by the Department of Health to lead a nationally accredited training system for NHS Stop Smoking practitioners.

Links: UCL Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Steering Committee The London Project to Cure Blindness UCL on iTunes U Four UCL professors discuss the science and debates surrounding stem cell research, reflect on their own work and consider the implications of President Obama's reversal of the ban on US federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research.

24 March is World TB Day.

Pentraxin Therapeutics Ltd, a UCL spin-off company, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are collaborating to develop the world's first dual drug?antibody treatment for the rare and often fatal condition amyloidosis.

PA 78/09 A University of Nottingham research team specializing in childhood eczema has been shortlisted for an award from the BMJ Group.

A pilot study led by Professor Carol Dezateux (UCL Institute for Child Health) has informed a decision to introduce a blood test for a rare metabolic condition for all newborn babies across England.