A promising outlook for new gentle breast cancer therapies
Targeted medication and gentle surgical procedures are the pillars of modern breast cancer therapy, according to participants at this years German Congress of Senology.
Microbiology
Quicker lab reports saves costs
Beckman Coulter developed a new integrated lab systems: The UniCel DxC880i prototype should deliver efficient disease management services.
Discovered: a new genetic route to skin cancer
UK - A complex chain of molecular triggers involved in the development of malignant melanoma has been unravelled
Appendicitis complicated by chickenpox
Surgeons Sergey V Stonogin, specialist in infectious cases, Eugeny V Dvorovenko, Head of Emergency Surgery, and Vladimir A Chaplin, endoscopy specialist - report on results from their study to assess the most effective, safe combination of antibiotics to treat patients with acute appendicitis complicated by chickenpox
ITALY
Bologna - The University Hospital S.Orsola-Malpighi has 1,800 beds and is one of the largest to install the DNLab management system. With 150 workstations connected to the LIS and over 50 analysers, each day, the two laboratories (central and microbiology) receive almost 3,000 orders and carry out over nine million tests annually. Hospital wards and departments are connected via Web to the LIS…
EU challenge to worldwide BRCA2 gene patent
An unparalleled legal challenge has been underway in the EU regarding the number of human gene patents held by US-based corporation Myriad Genetics.
Pandemic panic sends feathers flying
AIDS, SARS and now H5NI; just a brief beginning or the end? As the virus moves towards Europe, and millions of birds are slaughtered, interest has risen in a Chinese herb, a patent-sharing controversy and drug stockpiling
Clinical immunology
The fundamental role of inflammation in almost all disease processes has been increasingly recognised over several years.
Bacteria die on stainless steel
To establish which materials allow pathogens to survived best, micro-organisms such as bacteria living in wet and dry environments, pathogenic fungi and the bacterium Escherichia coli, have been studied during comparative tests undertaken at the Hygiene Institute of the University of Leipzig.
Advancing individualised therapies
The decoding of the genome has made it possible for molecular biology specialists to detect predispositions for illnesses and treat them accordingly.
Electroporation
The function of cell membrane is to maintain the stability of a cell's interior by regulating the amounts and types of molecules entering or leaving the cell.
SARS no longer deadly threat - But avian flu is
USA - Scientists are confident that the virus that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is no longer circulating in humans, or other animals, according to Professor Kathryn Holmes, a microbiology expert at the University of Colorado, USA.
Food threat to health congress
Globally, about two million people die each year after consuming spoilt food, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Prion filter for red cells
Scientists at biopharm firm Pathogen Removal and Diagnostic Technologies Inc* (PRDT) recently confirmed their identification of lead ligands capable of specifically targeting certain 'challenging' viruses.
Baby food & meningitis
An extensive international study, presented at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in New Orleans, concludes that baby foods contain worrying levels of disease-causing microbes, including Enterobacter sakazakii (linked to some fatal outbreaks of meningitis at children's hospitals in Europe and the USA*).
Biochips
Due to economic pressure, laboratories increasingly consolidate and automate procedures. Further cost reductions could come about through miniaturisation and multi-parameter tests.
Web advisories aid physicians
Monitoring and rapidly introducing new developments into everyday practice is an increasingly difficult task for many doctors. Additionally, patients are more informed due to media medical reports, which raise their expectations that doctors can offer a quick, reliable interpretation of the latest medical data.
Advances in blood group serology
Todays test formats (gel technology, micro test plates), plus laboratory electronic data processing and automation, have changed the classic format of blood group serological examinations significantly - and reduced the danger of life-threatening errors.
Article • Bacterial defense mechanism
Antibiotic resistance: a global threat to healthcare
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is becoming more prevalent around the world, constituting a serious threat to public health. When bacteria acquire resistance against antibiotics, common medical procedures – for example, in surgery – become impossible due to the high infection risk. Keep reading to find out about AMR research, development of new antibiotics and antibiotic alternatives.