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| Scientists hail breakthrough in embryonic-like stem cells Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 11:02 PM PST  By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - In experiments that could open a new era in stem cell biology, scientists have found a simple way to reprogram mature animal cells back into an embryonic-like state that allows them to generate many types of tissue. Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London, who was not involved in the work, said its approach in mice was "the most simple, lowest-cost and quickest method" to generate so-called pluripotent cells - able to develop into many different cell types - from mature cells. The researchers took skin and blood cells, let them multiply, then subjected them to stress "almost to the point of death", they explained, by exposing them to various events including trauma, low oxygen levels and acidic environments. Within days, the scientists found that the cells had not only survived but had also recovered by naturally reverting into a state similar to that of an embryonic stem cell. Full Story | Top |
| Planned Parenthood in Alaska sues state official over abortion Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 10:23 PM PST By Chris Francescani NEW YORK (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood in Alaska sued the state health commissioner on Wednesday over new regulations that prevent state Medicaid from covering elective abortions. The new regulations, set to go into effect on Sunday, require abortion doctors who receive Medicaid payments to certify that a procedure is "medically necessary" to prevent serious risk to the woman's health, or that the patient is a victim of rape and incest. The group, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, is seeking to have the regulations struck down as an unconstitutional violation of equal protection, said Planned Parenthood spokesman Joshua Decker. Full Story | Top |
| Missouri executes killer after top court denies appeals Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 09:57 PM PST  Missouri late on Wednesday executed a man convicted of killing a jewelry store owner during a 1991 robbery after the U.S. Supreme Court denied last-minute appeals that in part challenged the drug used in the execution. "After the United States Supreme Court vacated three separate stays of execution on January 29, 2014, Herbert Smulls was executed for the 1991 murder of Stephen Honickman," Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statement. Smulls, 56, was pronounced dead at 10:20 p.m. local time at a state prison in Bonne Terre after receiving a lethal dose of pentobarbital, a fast-acting barbiturate, Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman Mike O'Connell said. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted a temporary stay of execution for Smulls, denying last-minute appeals. Full Story | Top |
| J&J chooses Yale to review requests for clinical drug data Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 09:10 PM PST (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson has selected the Yale School of Medicine to review requests from investigators and physicians looking for access to clinical trial data involving the diversified healthcare company's pharmaceuticals. Under the agreement, the "Yale Open Data Access Project," will independently review and make final decisions regarding all requests for information on the company's drug clinical trials, including anonymous patient data. The action comes amid growing pressure from outside scientists for access to raw data from clinical trials, reflecting general concerns that too many studies cannot be independently confirmed and may well be wrong. Britain's GlaxoSmithkline Plc has set up an online system to provide researchers with access to anonymous patient-level data about its medicines. Full Story | Top |
| University of Missouri president wants probe of rape claim response Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 04:00 PM PST By Kevin Murphy KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - The University of Missouri's president called on Wednesday for an independent counsel to investigate how school officials responded to the alleged 2010 rape of a student on the female swim team who later committed suicide. The Missouri case comes in the wake of growing concern about sexual assaults in schools and in the military. Last week, President Barack Obama announced the creation of a White House task force to look into the problem of sexual assaults on campus. University president Tim Wolfe said at a news conference that he wants to determine if the university acted properly in matters related to Sasha Menu Courey. Full Story | Top |
| Wisconsin man sentenced for starving, imprisoning daughter Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 03:56 PM PST By Brendan O'Brien MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - A Wisconsin man was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison for imprisoning his teenage daughter in a basement for six years and forcing her to eat her own excrement, a local prosecutor said. Chad Chritton, 42, was also sentenced in Dane County Circuit Court to an additional five years of extended supervision after a jury found him guilty in November of four felonies, including child abuse and neglecting a child, according to district attorney Ismael Ozanne. His wife Melinda Drabek-Chritton, 44, was sentenced to five years in prison in July on similar charges. Prosecutors had accused the Madison couple of holding the girl in the basement of their home for about six years. Full Story | Top |
| Off reeking cruise ship in NJ, passengers recall nightmare trip Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 03:09 PM PST  By Victoria Cavaliere BAYONNE, New Jersey (Reuters) - Passengers staggered off a Royal Caribbean ship reeking of vomit and diarrhea at its home port on Wednesday after their cruise was cut short by an apparent stomach bug that felled nearly 700 vacationers and crew. Cheers erupted from the Explorer of the Seas as the vessel pulled into Bayonne, New Jersey, in New York Harbor. Passengers disembarking soon afterward recalled the nightmare of falling ill during the Caribbean cruise, being quarantined in their rooms, and putting everything they touched into biohazard bags. "I had three days of sickness and quarantine," recalled Susan Rogutski of Catawissa, Pennsylvania, who came down with gastrointestinal symptoms so severe the first day of the trip that she had to be physically dragged to the sick bay. Full Story | Top |
| KaloBios Pharma pulls plug on asthma drug, shares plunge Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 03:04 PM PST (Reuters) - Shares of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc fell nearly 50 percent in extended trade after the company said it would stop developing an asthma drug that failed in a mid-stage study. The drug, KB003, failed to bring about a clinically meaningful improvement in the pulmonary function of patients with severe asthma when tested against a placebo in 160 patients. The San Francisco-based company said it would focus on developing other treatments in its pipeline, which include a drug for cancer and another to prevent a common gram negative bacterium. KaloBios shares fell to a low of $2.65 in extended trading. Full Story | Top |
| Brahimi says no substantive progress on Syria but hopeful Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 02:36 PM PST  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Mariam Karouny GENEVA (Reuters) - International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Wednesday that he does not expect to achieve anything substantive in the first round of Syria talks ending on Friday, but hoped for a more productive second round starting about a week later. "We talked about the TGB (Transitional Governing Body), but of course it is a very, very preliminary discussion and more generally of what each side expects," Brahimi told reporters. Opposition and government sides said they agreed to use the "Geneva communiqué", a document endorsed by world powers at a conference in June 2012, and which sets out the stages needed to end the fighting and agree on a political transition. "We have agreed that Geneva 1 is the basis of the talks," opposition spokesman Louay al-Safi told reporters. Full Story | Top |
| Being overweight in kindergarten sets stage for later obesity Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 02:09 PM PST By Gene Emery NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who are overweight when they start school are far more likely to be obese by the time they become teenagers, according to a new study of nearly 8,000 children. Overweight five-year-olds were four times more likely to be obese by age 14 than children who started kindergarten at a healthy weight. "Half of childhood obesity occurred among children who had become overweight during the preschool years," researchers led by Solveig Cunningham of Emory University in Atlanta wrote. "If we're just focused on improving weight when kids are adolescents, it may not have as much of an impact as focusing on the preschool-age years," Cunningham told Reuters Health. Full Story | Top |
| ADHD tied to more traffic accidents; medication may help Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 01:22 PM PST By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to be in a serious traffic accident, but medication may counteract that risk for some, according to a new study from Sweden. Researchers found that people with ADHD are about 50 percent more likely to be in serious traffic accidents, compared to people without the condition. But taking medication to control some of the symptoms may help reduce that increased risk - at least among men, according to the study's lead author. "It has been known for a while that ADHD is associated with traffic accidents and traffic violations," Zheng Chang said. Full Story | Top |
| Lilly CEO: 'It's time to go back on offense' Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 01:21 PM PST  After three years of seeing major drugs like Zyprexa for schizophrenia lose patent protection and wipe away billions of dollars in revenue, Eli Lilly and Co Chief Executive Officer John Lechleiter wants to change the game plan. "It's time to go back on offense," Lechleiter said in a recent interview. New treatments for diabetes and cancer now awaiting approval and increased sales of animal-health products and drugs in China and Japan are some of the aggressive moves he has in mind. "We're on the cusp of launching products in cancer and diabetes, two therapeutic areas where we're well established and where we have built out the infrastructure we need," Lechleiter said. Full Story | Top |
| Passengers stagger off cruise ship reeking of vomit at NJ dock Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 01:15 PM PST  By Victoria Cavaliere BAYONNE, New Jersey (Reuters) - Cheers erupted aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship reeking of vomit and diarrhea as it pulled into its home port in New Jersey on Wednesday, ending a trip cut short because illness felled more than 600 people. Passengers disembarking the "Explorer of the Seas" recalled the nightmare of getting sick during the Caribbean cruise, being quarantined in their rooms, and putting everything they touched into bio-hazard bags. "I had three days of sickness and quarantine," recalled Susan Rogutski of Catawissa, Pennsylvania, who came down with gastrointestinal symptoms so severe the first day of the trip that she had to be physically dragged to the sick bay. Carl Kern of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, said the ship's hallways smelled of diarrhea and vomit. Full Story | Top |
| Fourth Canadian farm hit by pig killing virus: Ontario official Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 11:34 AM PST (Reuters) - The piglet killing Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus has spread to a fourth farm in the Canadian province of Ontario, the provincial government said on Wednesday, despite the hog industry's efforts to stop it by disinfecting delivery trucks and clothing used on farms. The virus has killed more than 1 million piglets in the United States but it has so far been contained within Canada to southern Ontario farms. The fourth case has been confirmed in Norfolk County along the north shore of Lake Erie, said Mark Cripps, a spokesman for Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. Ontario confirmed the first Canadian case last week. Full Story | Top |
| Modern humans more Neanderthal than once thought, studies suggest Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014 11:13 AM PST  Although Neanderthals became extinct 28,000 years ago in Europe, as much as one-fifth of their DNA has survived in human genomes due to interbreeding tens of thousands of years ago, one of the studies found, although any one individual has only about 2 percent of caveman DNA. "The 2 percent of your Neanderthal DNA might be different than my 2 percent of Neanderthal DNA, and it's found at different places in the genome," said geneticist Joshua Akey, who led one of the studies. Put it all together in a study of hundreds of people, and "you can recover a substantial proportion of the Neanderthal genome." Both studies confirmed earlier findings that the genomes of east Asians harbor more Neanderthal DNA than those of Europeans. According to the paper by geneticists at Harvard Medical School, published in Nature, about 1.4 percent of the genomes of Han Chinese in Beijing and south China, as well as Japanese in Tokyo come from Neanderthals, compared to 1.1 percent of the genomes of Europeans. Full Story | Top |
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