Doc Blog

Physicians and policy-makers know that drugs are frequently prescribed to treat certain diseases despite a lack of FDA approval - a practice known as off-label prescribing. Yet they say the problem is so big they don’t know how to begin tackling it. But a potential game plan now exists. In a paper to be published [...]

MorphoSys AG and the University of Melbourne announced today that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) has confirmed that it will issue U.S. Patent No. 7,455,836, covering key uses of antibodies against GM-CSF. The patent stems from a provisional patent application filed in the USPTO in 2000 by the University of Melbourne. In [...]

Australian scientists have discovered a bacteria which could stop meningitis - the scientists at the University of Western Australia believe their discovery will help researchers understand how the meningitis bacteria infects cells and could lead to the prevention of infections such as meningitis. The bacteria Neisseria meningitidis which causes the disease in humans is [...]

According to new research from Australia patients who have suffered traumatic brain injuries can benefit from being re-educated in important social communication skills. Many who suffer severe brain injuries lose the vital ability to interpret emotions which are crucial for successful social communication, but new research has found that these skills can be retrieved [...]

The latest advice to women going through the menopause is eat less, get more active and consider wearing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) skin patches. The advice from Australian scientists follows research and discussions on the factors which lead to women gaining weight during menopause, and suggestions on how it might be avoided. At a conference [...]

According to researchers in the U.S. the loss of potassium experienced from taking blood pressure drugs may explain higher risk of adult diabetes. The researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine say they have discovered that a drop in blood potassium levels caused by diuretics commonly prescribed for high blood pressure, could be the [...]

According to researchers in Norway mammograms may detect some cancers that would have otherwise regressed. There has been a significant increase in breast cancer rates in some parts of Norway since women there began undergoing mammography every two years and the rates among regularly screened women have remained higher than rates among women of the [...]

Once hailed as a miracle weight-loss drug, Fen-phen was removed from the market more than a decade ago for inducing life-threatening side effects, including heart valve lesions. Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center are trying to understand how Fen-phen behaves in the brain in order to develop safer anti-obesity drugs with fewer side effects. [...]

Many scientists like to discuss how each form of cancer is a distinct disease with its own causes and its own treatments. But researcher Hartmut “Hucky” Land, Ph.D., takes the opposite approach: He is hunting for the most basic rules that all cancers share to make good cells go bad. His unique, far-reaching effort to [...]

Although its been over a decade since endothelial progenitor cells or EPCs, cells that circulate in the blood repairing and replacing the cells that line blood vessels, were identified, the field is still evolving. EPCs are now being studied as biomarkers to assess the risk of future cardiovascular disease and as potential agents for vascular [...]