As the South Korean epidemic of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) continues unabated, researchers have raced to find treatments for the deadly virus, which has killed more than 400 people since it was first discovered three years ago in Saudi Arabia.
The human body is inhabited by billions of symbiotic bacteria, carrying a diversity that is unique to each individual. The microbiota is involved in many mechanisms, including digestion, vitamin synthesis and host defense. It is well established that a loss of bacterial symbionts promotes the development of allergies. Scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum Munich, at the Technical University of Munich…
During the past 15 years, liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has evolved into a vital technology used to perform routine tests in many clinical laboratories. Historically, LC-MS/MS had been used primarily by research, pharmaceutical, or commercial laboratories; however, advances in the technology, decreasing costs for basic systems, intelligible software, an increased…
Researchers have successfully tested two new potential methods for diagnosing and monitoring diabetes in its standard and gestational forms. These findings, presented at the 2015 AACC Annual Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in Atlanta, may lead to easier, timelier, and more affordable ways of identifying and treating this chronic disease.
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ESCMID Fungal Infection Study Group (EFISG) argues that fungal resistance now represents a huge healthcare threat – with many cases remaining massively undiagnosed even in the developed world – and that there is a rising prevalence of the most invasive and deadly forms. Conversely, in the developing world we are seeing very treatable fungal infections killing huge numbers – half a million…
Noting a paradigm shift among consumers who are seeking greater control over their own healthcare, AACC issued a position statement today on direct-to-consumer laboratory testing, which allows people to order medical tests directly from a lab without having to work with their healthcare provider. The statement emphasizes direct-to-consumer test results must be accurate and easily understood—an…
Dartmouth researchers and their colleagues have carried out the first total syntheses of certain compounds involved in excessive cell death in leukemia.
The field is neither tedious nor monotonous; it’s fascinating every day, Professor Katharina Rentsch emphasises, when explaining the need to attract students to this often overlooked but intreguing and varied discipline.
Zenon's Doc-db is a full-fledged document management system which has been internationally available since 2006.
Wallace Coulter, one of the founders of Beckman Coulter, was motivated by a belief that science should serve humanity. This was the inspiration behind the principle he invented that became the basis for all blood counting solutions. This same drive to keep the science of hematology moving forward is behind Beckman Coulter's new ©Automated Intelligent Morphology© (AIM), a multidimensional,…
Founded in 1968, The Sysmex Corporation has challenged its way past far larger companies to become one of the leading healthcare companies around the world. How? By focusing constantly on one objective: maximising the strength of our people, knowledge and resourcefulness to live up to our mission statement: Shaping the Advancement of Healthcare.
With its previous LCMS-8030, LCMS-8040 and LCMS-8050 triple-quadrupole systems, Shimadzu has set leading standards in terms of speed, sensitivity and functional design. With the introduction of the new LCMS-8060 (Figure 1), the success story of the LCMS-triple-quadrupole family reaches another milestone.
Fostering a collaborative way of working won the UK’s Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust recognition as an elite public sector healthcare employer, recently judged one of the top 100 ‘Best Places to Work’. The trust, led by chief executive Susan Acott, has created an energy-driven, patient-focused culture within the hospital, reflected by staff at all levels. This has been the driving force…
Within 15 years effective antibiotics will run out and, far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, a world in which common infections and minor injuries can kill is a very real possibility for the 21st Century. Geoff Sussman, one of the world’s foremost wound experts has warned that antibiotic resistance is posing the biggest single threat to global health. Report: Mark Nicholls
Researchers at Columbia University have reported a new approach to visualize glucose uptake activity in single living cells by light microscopy with minimum disturbance.
Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute have uncovered a new mechanism for the regulation of blood pressure. Published in Molecular Cell, the study links events at the single-cell level to a system-level effect, showing that blood pressure can drop dramatically if the protein ERAP1 is released from cells and enters the blood stream.
For over one hundred years, scientists have debated the question of the origins of the lymphatic system – a parallel system to the blood vessels that serves as a conduit for everything from immune cells to fat molecules to cancer cells. This issue has now been resolved by Dr. Karina Yaniv of Weizmann Institute’s Biological Regulation Department. In a study reported in Nature, she and her team…
Chemists at Caltech have developed a new sensitive technique capable of detecting colorectal cancer in tissue samples—a method that could one day be used in clinical settings for the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer.
Pathology is the gold standard of prostate diagnostics. Whilst the radiologist makes interpretations based on shadows and grey scale values visible on an image, the pathologist has the ‘fait accompli’ under the microscope. Professor Glen Kristiansen, Director at the Institute for Pathology at the University Hospital Bonn, explains why image-guided biopsies also make sense from the…
American Society of Human Genetics issues recommendations on age-appropriate genetic testing in children and adolescents.
Brain lesions in children can be especially challenging to diagnose, according to a report in the journal Frontiers in Neurology by a multidisciplinary team of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine physicians. Lesions include tumors, abnormal blood vessel formations, and abscesses and inflammation due to infections.
A growing number of clinical tests are being delivered in community hospitals with more patients receiving quicker, accurate diagnoses closer to home, without stays in acute hospital beds. Professor Daniel Lasserson, an Associate Professor in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at Oxford University, shares the opinion that using point-of-caretesting (POCT) to facilitate high…
Digitizing pathology is not just a transformation of technology, the major change and benefits lies in the change to a more efficient workflow – enabled by the new technology.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center have discovered a molecular mechanism that connects breast tissue stiffness to tumor metastasis and poor prognosis. The study may inspire new approaches to predicting patient outcomes and halting tumor metastasis.