http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Transplanted embryonic stem cells are recognized as a potential treatment for patients suffering from the effects of spinal cord injury (SCI). However, in studies using embryonic stem cells transplanted into SCI laboratory animals, a serious drawback has been the development of tumors following transplantation. http://www.physorg.com/news161267482.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 May 2009 13:31:51 EST news161267482 Tiny zebrafish could hold the key to stem cell treatments for motor neurone disease. http://www.physorg.com/news160217899.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:58:56 EST news160217899 Physicians teaching at medical schools and doctors who have just completed their first year out of medical school disagree about which procedures are necessary to learn before graduating, according to a new survey done by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news160056379.html Medicine & Health Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:06:58 EST news160056379 (AP) -- The American Academy of Pediatrics wants doctors to stop using the term "shaken baby syndrome" in favor of something more scientific. http://www.physorg.com/news160031354.html Medicine & Health Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:09:52 EST news160031354 (AP) -- Surprising new research says nearly 1.3 million Americans are living with a spinal-cord injury, five times more than previous estimates. http://www.physorg.com/news159520294.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:12:00 EST news159520294 (PhysOrg.com) -- In early April, Adam Wilson posted a status update on the social networking Web site Twitter -- just by thinking about it. http://www.physorg.com/news159453062.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:31:52 EST news159453062 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Alberta are looking to the tiny zebrafish for a way to regenerate damaged nerve cells in people. http://www.physorg.com/news159194818.html Medicine & Health Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:48:06 EST news159194818 (AP) -- When President Barack Obama eased limits on taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research, the big question became how far scientists could go. Friday, the government answered: They must use cells culled from fertility clinic embryos that otherwise would be thrown away. http://www.physorg.com/news159194009.html Biology Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:34:07 EST news159194009 Scientists from the University of Wisconsin, USA, report in the journal Development the successful generation from human embryonic stem cells of a type of cell that can make myelin, a finding that opens up new possibilities for both basic and clinical research. http://www.physorg.com/news158475622.html Biology Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:00:51 EST news158475622 Caused by a mutation of the SMN gene, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an infantile and juvenile neurodegenerative disorder where motor neuron loss causes progressive paralysis. A new study published in the open access journal BMC Medicine details the first research focused on human muscle tissue atrophied due to a genetic condition, and sheds light on two distinct mechanisms at work in different forms of SMA. http://www.physorg.com/news158303237.html Medicine & Health Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:07:49 EST news158303237 A simple and inexpensive method of assessing pain, developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers, is better than currently used techniques for distinguishing neuropathic pain - pain caused by damage to the nervous system - from other types of chronic back pain. Being able to more precisely determine the underlying nature of the pain is essential to choosing the best treatment. The report appears in the April 7 issue of the open-access journal PLoS Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news158302881.html Medicine & Health Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:02:27 EST news158302881 For the first time, researchers have clearly shown regeneration of a critical type of nerve fiber that travels between the brain and the spinal cord and which is required for voluntary movement. The regeneration was accomplished in a brain injury site in rats by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and is described in a study to be published in the April 6th early on-line edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://www.physorg.com/news158258501.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:42:36 EST news158258501 (AP) -- Scratch an itch and you get ... aaaaaah. Now scientists have watched spinal nerves transmit that relief signal to the brain in monkeys, a possible step toward finding new treatments for persistent itching in people. http://www.physorg.com/news158236044.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:28:00 EST news158236044 Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) have been able to speed recovery and substantially reduce damage resulting from spinal cord injury in preclinical studies. http://www.physorg.com/news157718167.html Medicine & Health Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:36:42 EST news157718167 February's brutal chimpanzee attack, during which a pet chimp inflicted devastating injuries on a Connecticut woman, was a stark reminder that chimps are much stronger than humans -as much as four-times stronger, some researchers believe. But what is it that makes our closest primate cousins so much stronger than we are? One possible explanation is that great apes simply have more powerful muscles. Indeed, biologists have uncovered differences in muscle architecture between chimpanzees and humans. But evolutionary biologist Alan Walker, a professor at Penn State University, thinks muscles may only be part of the story. http://www.physorg.com/news157653323.html Biology Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:38:03 EST news157653323 Recognition of the benefits of cooling strategies to protect the brain and spinal cord after traumatic injury has led to a wealth of cutting edge research, prime examples of which are featured in a special hypothermia issue of Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. http://www.physorg.com/news156707776.html Medicine & Health Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:57:33 EST news156707776 A novel stimulation method, the first potential therapy to target the spinal cord instead of the brain, may offer an effective and less invasive approach for Parkinson's disease treatment, according to pre-clinical data published in the journal Science by researchers at Duke University Medical Center. http://www.physorg.com/news156693095.html Medicine & Health Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:52:25 EST news156693095 Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have learned that a protein called Shp2 plays a critical role in the pathways that control decisions for differentiation or self-renewal in both human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). http://www.physorg.com/news156619552.html Biology Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:26:24 EST news156619552 An X-ray-guided spinal tap procedure fails more than half of the time in young infants and should be used sparingly, if at all, for those patients, according to a new study done by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news156619188.html Medicine & Health Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:20:21 EST news156619188 A newly identified molecular pathway that directs stem cells to produce glial cells yields insights into the neurobiology of Down's syndrome and a number of central nervous system disorders characterized by too many glial cells, according to a recent study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. http://www.physorg.com/news156174646.html Biology Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:51:52 EST news156174646 Researchers from DaVinci Biosciences, Costa Mesa, California, in collaboration with Hospital Luis Vernaza in Ecuador, have determined that injecting a patient's own bone marrow-derived stem cells (autologous BMCs) directly into the spinal column using multiple routes can be an effective treatment for spinal cord injury (SCI) that returns some quality of life for SCI patients without serious adverse events. http://www.physorg.com/news156091469.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:45:05 EST news156091469 (PhysOrg.com) -- As a high school sophomore, Asad Moten read a news story about engineering new organs for patients waiting for a transplant, and decided to start his own tissue-engineering project. http://www.physorg.com/news155489423.html Chemistry Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:32:25 EST news155489423 Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Connecticut have pinpointed the source of immature cells that spur misplaced bone growth. Unexpectedly, the major repository of bone-forming cells originates in blood vessels deep within skeletal muscle and other connective tissues, not from muscle stem cells themselves. The work also shows that cells important in the inflammatory response to injury trigger skeleton-stimulating proteins to transform muscle tissue into bone. http://www.physorg.com/news155315646.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:14:38 EST news155315646 Spine surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and other U.S. centers are reporting that artificial disc replacement works as well and often better than spinal fusion surgery. The two procedures are performed on patients with damaged discs in the neck. http://www.physorg.com/news154960289.html Medicine & Health Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:32:15 EST news154960289 A new review article published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons should help convince many patients with low back pain to consider physical therapy as a first line of treatment for their condition, according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). The review, published in February 2009, recommends that in most cases of symptomatic lumbar degenerative disc disease, a common cause of low back pain (LBP), the most effective treatment is physical therapy combined with anti-inflammatory medications. Approximately 75 to 85 percent of adults will be affected by low back pain during their lifetimes.1 http://www.physorg.com/news154780395.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:33:41 EST news154780395 Back pain, a hallmark of degenerative disc disease, sends millions of people to their doctor. In fact, more than 80 percent of patients who undergo spine surgery do so because of disc degeneration. And part of the answer may be as close as a patient`s medicine cabinet. http://www.physorg.com/news154623082.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:52:38 EST news154623082 A case report published in this week's issue of the open-access general medical journal, PLoS Medicine, describes a rare side effect of human fetal stem cell therapy. Ninette Amariglio and Gideon Rechavi from the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel, and colleagues report the case of a boy with a rare genetic disease, Ataxia Telangiectasia, who underwent human fetal stem cell therapy at an unrelated clinic in Moscow and who, four years after the therapy began, was shown to have abnormal growths in his brain and spinal cord. http://www.physorg.com/news154161352.html Medicine & Health Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:36:21 EST news154161352 Researchers in the laboratory of Samuel I. Stupp at Northwestern University have an interesting approach for tackling some major health problems: gather raw materials and then let them self-assemble into structures that can address a multitude of medical needs. http://www.physorg.com/news153832994.html Nanotechnology Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:23:55 EST news153832994 A team of researchers at Keio University has succeeded in improving spinal cord damage in mice by transplanting into them neural stem cells produced with human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, they said. http://www.physorg.com/news153063228.html Medicine & Health Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:34:05 EST news153063228 A new study has found that transplantation of stem cells from the lining of the spinal cord, called ependymal stem cells, reverses paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in laboratory tests. The findings show that the population of these cells after spinal cord injury was many times greater than comparable cells from healthy animal subjects. The results open a new window on spinal cord regenerative strategies. The study is published in the journal Stem Cells. http://www.physorg.com/news152382970.html Medicine & Health Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:36:32 EST news152382970