VIEW GALLERY The family of brave toddler Margot Martini launched a new bone marrow donor appeal this morning exactly a year after she was diagnosed with leukaemia. Her relatives said the first Team Margot Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Awareness Day would be held in another 12 months, on Wednesday October 7, 2015. The two-year-old underwent a bone marrow transplant in February after her dad, Yaser, from Essington, and mum Vicki launched a desperate appeal for help. Margot Martini with mum Vicky But she relapsed and her parents decided to end her treatment after being told her chances of survival were less than one per cent. The awareness day is designed to promote awareness around the need for more potential stem cell donors to join the UK and worldwide registries. Her family said they hoped mixed race people would sign up to plug a gaping hole on the lists. Just sixty per cent of the 37,000 patients needing a stem cell donor worldwide receives a perfect match. But that figure plunges to barely 20 per cent for those from black, Asian or ethnic minority communities. Read more: Family of Margot Martini launch new stem cell and bone marrow appeal … Continue reading →

In 1985, Ayatollah Kohmeini issued a fatwa in favor of transgender people. Today, Iran's government pays for half of the cost of gender reassignment surgery. (AFP/File) In 2007, when former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejaddeclaredduring a Columbia University appearance, In Iran we dont have homosexuals like in your country, many chuckled. It seemed to verify the average persons preconceptions of the country as being primitive and socially backwards.Ahmadinejad was obviously wrong and his response spotlighted the fact that homophobia is a major issue in Iranian society. The event wasnt meant to facilitate a productive discussion on the Islamic Republics many failings though, it was meant to reassure Columbia students and faculty of their own progressiveness. Ahmadinejad got a podium. The audience got a way to criticize his ideological beliefs. Orientalist thinking like this obviously has consequences in how we discuss and view Iran. It isnt just that we have trouble discussing the many problems that do exist in the country, such as human rights violations. We are also prevented from recognizing when Iran is doing things more or less right. Iran is actually far more progressive than many people realize on a number of issues. This is especially apparent when it comes … Continue reading →

Epilepsy is a disease seen throughout the world that does not have a cure. It costs Americans roughly $15.5 billion a year and two million people in the United States alone have the disease. Thimmasettapp Thippeswamy, professor in biomedical sciences, is joining the fight to help people with epilepsy by constructing his own research project. Thippeswamys research is trying to figure out why not all people that have a seizure are diagnosed as epileptic. He has been working on his research since 2005 and uses mice to replicate seizure-like patterns that can be seen in humans. Although he has not personally been affected by epilepsy, Thippeswamy said his motivation for his research is purely scientific. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological diseases that affects [people] worldwide, and it affects all age groups, Thippeswamy said. Since epilepsy is a nervous system disorder, it can affect animals as well as humans 5 percent of dogs and 3 percent of cats suffer from epilepsy. While only 1 in 10 Americans will experience a seizure in their lifetime, only 3 percent of them will be diagnosed as an epileptic patient by the time they are 80. Humans are at the most risk … Continue reading →

Posted: Oct 6, 2014 3:58 PM by Christina Santiago, KOMU 8 News Updated: Oct 6, 2014 7:15 PM JEFFERSON CITY - Autism specialists from Columbia are training medical professionals and educators from around the country in best practices for autism treatment. "Thanks to the media and campaigns like Autism Speaks, more people have been coming to us to find out if their loved ones fall on the autism spectrum," said Thompson Center Director Dr. Stephen M. Kanne. "So with the increase in awareness, we need more people trained in how to work with people with autism." Kanne said more than 8,000 families visited the University of Missouri Thompson Center for diagnoses last year. He said his center currently treats more than 450 autism patients regularly. MU's center for autism and neurodevelopmental disorders hosted the two-day autism conference, starting Monday, at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City. 168 medical professionals, teachers and researchers attended the event. Workshops addressed new treatment techniques, helping autistic people transition from adolescence to adulthood, up-to-date research on autism, and training for non-specialists. Anna Laakman, a Thompson Center autism treatment trainer, said, "Between Kansas City and St. Louis, there are a lot of rural towns in … Continue reading →

At the first sign of a stroke, time is of the essence. For every minute of delay in treatment, people typically lose almost two million brain cells. Yet a new study presented at the Canadian Stroke Congress reveals that those delays -- in getting the right tests and the right drugs -- can be longer when people experience a stroke in a hospital. Investigators from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and the University Health Network looked at data from acute care facilities in Ontario over nine years. They examined stroke care delivery and outcomes for two groups: those who had a stroke in the community (about 32,000 people), and those who had a stroke while already hospitalized for another reason (just over 1,000 cases), such as, for example, a hip replacement. The results were surprising. "Intuitively, you would imagine that having a stroke in the hospital is the best place possible, and that is just not the case," says Dr. Alexandra Saltman, a third year internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, and one of the authors of the Code Stroke on the Ward study. Compared to the patients brought … Continue reading →