Researchers in Egypt have developed a technique to compress DNA sequences of the kind used in medical research so that they take up a lot less space in a computer database but without loss of information. The approach is described in detail in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications. Molecular sequence databases, such as those at EMBL, GenBank, ...

New software is under development that doctors hope will help them identify brain tumours in children that will grow aggressively. Some brain tumours in children remain benign and doctors choose not to operate. But a small percentage of those will suddenly start to grow aggressively. Doctors have not identified what triggers that aggressive tumour growth, despite the vast array of data they hold o...

Japanese researchers have developed a computer program which may be able tell from an emergency call if you are about to die. Research published in the open access journal BMC Emergency Medicine shows that a computer algorithm is able to predict the patient`s risk of dying at the time of the emergency call. Kenji Ohshige and a team of researchers from the Yokohama City University School of Medicin...

Researchers at Oregon State University and other institutions have developed a new "plasmonic nanorod metamaterial" using extraordinarily tiny rods of gold that will have important applications in medical, biological and chemical sensors. The new device is at least 10 times more sensitive than existing technology, researchers say, can be tuned to sense different types of materials and is...

The anticipated onset of a second wave of the H1N1 influenza pandemic could present a host of thorny medical ethics issues best considered well in advance, according to the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, which today released nine papers for public discussion. Topics include duty of health care workers to work during a serious flu pandemic; government restrictions on individual f...

Scientists have copied the natural glue secreted by a tiny sea creature called the sandcastle worm in an effort to develop a long-sought medical adhesive needed to repair bones shattered in battlefield injuries, car crashes and other accidents. They reported on the adhesive here today at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). "This synthetic glue is based on comple...

A majority of medical schools surveyed report they have experienced incidents of students posting unprofessional content online, including incidents involving violation of patient confidentiality, with few schools having policies to address these types of postings, according to a study in the September 23/30 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on medical education. Internet applications built around user...

Poor communication of the outcomes of medical tests whose results are pending at the time of a patient`s hospital discharge is common and can lead to serious medical errors in post-hospitalization medical treatment. A new study by researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine has found that hospital discharge summaries are grossly inadequate at documentin...

The first findings from a one-of-a-kind, patient-driven effort to provide lung tissue for research might help doctors predict when patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are becoming dangerously ill and also could point the way to interventions that could sustain them until life-saving transplants can be performed. According to senior author Naftali Kaminski, M.D., associate professor o...

Treatment with the angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab improved hearing and alleviated other symptoms in patients with neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). In a paper to appear in the July 23 New England Journal of Medicine, which is receiving early online release, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report that bevacizumab treatment successfully shrank characteristic tumors in a smal...