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Popular Articles

Deep Brain Stimulation Shows Promising Results For Some Patients With Cerebral Palsy
Deep brain stimulation improves movement skills and quality of life in some patients with a subtype of cerebral palsy (CP) (dystonia-choreoathetosis CP)*, and could be an effective treatment option for these patients, finds an Article published Online first and in the July edition of The Lancet Neurology.

Critics Escalate Attacks On Health Care Overhaul
Tensions are showing as health reform continues to be center stage on the President"s and Congress" domestic policy agenda. The Associated Press reports that "President Barack Obama has learned the lessons of Bill Clinton"s failed bid to overhaul the nation"s health care system. Too well, in fact, say fellow Democrats angry over [Obama"s] refusal to intervene while a conservative proposal advances in the Senate," feel Obama has "over-learned the lessons of 1993 and is bending over too far to attract GOP support in the Senate." Obama supports a public option for health insurance, but "wants to avoid issuing nonnegotiable demands early in the legislative process," say White House aides. "Insurance companies oppose the public option proposal. Their cause was hurt this week when congressional investigators said two-thirds of the U.S. health insurance industry used a faulty database that overcharged patients for seeing doctors outside their insurance network, costing Americans billions of dollars in inflated medical bills" (Babington, 6/26).
News of the day
Zuma, Branson Collaborate To Establish Disease Control Center In South Africa
South African President Jacob Zuma and Virgin Group founder and chair Richard Branson "intend [on] establishing a disease control centre in South Africa as soon as next year," SAPA/The Times reports. "Branson said the initiative, expected to be launched by March, would be 50 percent private and 50 percent government funded," the news service writes (7/22).
Medical Devices

Biological Warfare In Bacteria Offers Hope For New Antibiotics

Scientists are to study a group of proteins that are highly effective at killing bacteria and which could hold the key to developing new types of antibiotics. Researchers from the Universities of York and Leeds have been awarded ÷£3.3m from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to find out how a family of proteins known as colicins force their way into bacterial cells before destroying them. The team, led by Professor Colin Kleanthous, from the University of York"s Department of Biology, will develop earlier research that suggests colicins use decoys to mimic key parts of the cells" own protein machinery to evade their defences. Professor Kleanthous said: "Colicins are the weapon used in the biological warfare that takes place between competing bacteria. Understanding how this group of proteins work could help scientists develop new drug delivery methods to target the bacteria that cause diseases in people." "It"s as though the colicins are carrying the equivalent of hand grenades which they can deploy without harming themselves," said Professor Sheena Radford of the University of Leeds" Faculty of Biological Sciences. The five year programme of research aims to discover how colicins specifically penetrate Gram-negative bacteria which are protected by two membrane barriers. It will involve collaboration between six groups of scientists from the Departments of Biology and Chemistry at the University of York and the Astbury Centre for Structural and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, at the University of Leeds. York University


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