NEW DELHI: A global team of about 300 scientists studied over 30,000 brain scans of people from 33 countries and found that eight common genetic mutations are behind the aging of brain. This was the largest collaborative study of the brain to date and its findings could lead to targeted therapies and interventions for Alzheimer's disease, autism and other neurological conditions. The study known as the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis (ENIGMA) Network was led by researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) and involved 190 institutions. The findings are published on Jan 21 in Nature. This is the first high-profile study since the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the US launched its Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) centers of excellence in 2014. "ENIGMA's scientists screen brain scans and genomes worldwide for factors that help or harm the brainthis crowd-sourcing and sheer wealth of data gives us the power to crack the brain's genetic code," said Paul Thompson, professor at Keck School of Medicine and principal investigator of ENIGMA. "Our global team discovered eight genes that may erode or boost brain tissue in people worldwide. Any change in those genes … Continue reading →

In his hour-long State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama spent a few seconds announcing a "Precision Medicine Initiative," but did little to explain what he has in mind. Background materials distributed by the White House show that Obama wants to invest in this "innovative field that provides healthcare professionals with tools, knowledge and treatments to tailor care to a person's unique characteristics--such as their genetic makeup." Here's a primer on "precision medicine," a term you'll doubtless hear more about in years to come. What is precision medicine? Clinically, experts don't even agree on a single term for it. But "individualized," "personalized," and "precision," medicine are all used to convey the same idea, according to Gianrico Farrugia, former director of the Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine: "rather than treating a person as [part of] a group, treat the person as an individual, based on [his or her] own genetic material, to enable us to provide individualized, personalized and precise care." On a grander scale, said Keith Yamamoto, vice-chancellor for research at UC San Francisco, precision medicine envisions collecting enormous amounts of information -- not just from humans, but from other species and from basic science research -- … Continue reading →

The endeavor known as precision medicine, which Obama singled out in his State of the Union Address, may sound futuristic, but its been around long enough for people to have screwed it up, and badly. One of the worst medical scandals this century started with cancer researchers at Duke promising something that sounded a little too good to be true and ended with retracted papers, dashed patient hopes and lawsuits. But precision medicine is obviously moving forward. To learn more about it, and what lessons the past has to offer, I caught up with Keith Baggerly, whose dogged investigations uncovered the problem with the Duke project. Baggerly is a professor in the Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and Division of Quantitative Sciences at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. (He is also a witness in a pending lawsuit filed by patients and their families.) Though precision medicine has different meanings, medical researchers tend to use that term or personalized medicine to refer to the use of individual DNA differences in tailoring treatments to patients. The strategy is being driven by advances in the ability to quickly and cheaply read the sequences of code characters in DNA and by the growing … Continue reading →

Cost of Stem Cells Transplant in Mexico l Placid Answer In this Video you can get the best answers for your questions about Cost of Stem Cells Transplant in Mexico! http://www.placidway.com/answer-detail/1477/What-is-the-cost-of-stem-cells-transplant-... By: placidways … Continue reading →

Biomarkers of Inflammation Biomarkers of Inflammation Dipnarine Maharaj, MB.ChB, M.D., FRCP (Edin.), FRCP (Glas.), FRCPath, FACP presents at the 17th Clinical Applications for Age Management Medicine Confernce. By: AgeManagmentMedicine … Continue reading →

Thursday 01/22: Celebrity Transformations; Stem Cell Therapy Debate; Samantha Harris Health Crisis http://www.thedoctorstv.com Subscribe to The Doctors: http://bit.ly/SubscribeTheDrs LIKE us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/FacebookTheDoctors Follow us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TheDrsTwitter Follow... By: The Doctors … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise UCLA has received grant funding from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to lead a research mission that will send rodents to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission will allow astronauts on the space station and scientists on Earth to test a potential new therapy for accelerating bone growth in humans. The research will be led by Dr. Chia Soo, a UCLA professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery and orthopaedic surgery, who is member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. Soo is also research director for UCLA Operation Mend, which provides medical care for wounded warriors. The study will test the ability of a bone-forming molecule called NELL-1 to direct stem cells to induce bone formation and prevent bone degeneration. Other members of the UCLA research team are Dr. Kang Ting, a professor in dentistry who discovered NELL-1 and is leading efforts to translate NELL-1 therapy to humans, Dr. Ben Wu, a professor of bioengineering who modified the NELL-1 molecule to make useful for treating osteoporosis, and Dr. Jin Hee Kwak, an assistant professor of dentistry who will manage … Continue reading →

By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter TUESDAY, Jan. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A therapy that uses patients' own primitive blood cells may be able to reverse some of the effects of multiple sclerosis, a preliminary study suggests. The findings, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, had experts cautiously optimistic. But they also stressed that the study was small -- with around 150 patients -- and the benefits were limited to people who were in the earlier courses of multiple sclerosis (MS). "This is certainly a positive development," said Bruce Bebo, the executive vice president of research for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. There are numerous so-called "disease-modifying" drugs available to treat MS -- a disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the protective sheath (called myelin) around fibers in the brain and spine, according to the society. Depending on where the damage is, symptoms include muscle weakness, numbness, vision problems and difficulty with balance and coordination. But while those drugs can slow the progression of MS, they can't reverse disability, said Dr. Richard Burt, the lead researcher on the new study and chief of immunotherapy and autoimmune diseases at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine … Continue reading →

UCLA has received grant funding from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to lead a research mission that will send rodents to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission will allow astronauts on the space station and scientists on Earth to test a potential new therapy for accelerating bone growth in humans. The research will be led by Dr. Chia Soo, a UCLA professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery and orthopaedic surgery, who is member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. Soo is also research director for UCLA Operation Mend, which provides medical care for wounded warriors. The study will test the ability of a bone-forming molecule called NELL-1 to direct stem cells to induce bone formation and prevent bone degeneration. Other members of the UCLA research team are Dr. Kang Ting, a professor in dentistry who discovered NELL-1 and is leading efforts to translate NELL-1 therapy to humans, Dr. Ben Wu, a professor of bioengineering who modified the NELL-1 molecule to make useful for treating osteoporosis, and Dr. Jin Hee Kwak, an assistant professor of dentistry who will manage daily operations. Based on results of previous studies … Continue reading →

IMAGE:This is the cover for Bio-inspired Nanomaterials and Applications. view more Credit: World Scientific, 2015 Nanomedicine has been developing rapidly in recent years, particularly in the development of novel nano tools for medical diagnosis and treatment. For instance, a new trend is becoming prevalent in developing nanosystems for simultaneous tumor diagnosis and therapy. This requires high versatility of the nanocarriers with multiple functionalities of cell targeting, drug storage, optical imaging, and effective means of treatment such as magnetic and photothermal hyperthermia, photodynamic therapy, and drug release via various intelligent mechanisms (pH, temperature, and biochemical variations in the tumor environment). A new terminology "theranosics" has been frequently used and applied in pre-clinical research and trials. A nanosystem can simultaneously achieve both cell targeted in vivo imaging and photothermal treatment of cancer. While achieving concurrent high spatial and temporal resolution of the lesions via cell targeting; special non-evasive treatments are implemented at the same time by various means, such as localized drug release, hyperthermia, and photo-thermal therapy. Inspired by these challenging problems in biomedical fields, the development of the nanotechnologies will be the key in addressing some of the critical issues in medicine, especially in early cancer diagnosis and treatment. In this … Continue reading →