Medicine Interviews

Malaria Vaccines, Looking but Seeing and Nanoscale Electric Cars!

A new target for Malaria vaccines, How seeing and paying attention to things uses separate parts of the brain and the world's smallest electric car...Julian Rayner, Sanger Institute; Masataka Watanabe, University of Tokyo; Paul Weiss UCLA; Karen Williams, Staunton-on-Wye Endowed Primary School

New Targets for Cancer Drugs

Madhusudan Srinivasan discusses a new target for cancer drugs - blocking the repair of DNA...Madhusudan Srinivasan, University of Nottingham

Imaging Cancer

The science surrounding cancer is multifaceted. It involves clinicians, chemists, geneticists, and even physicists. The essential work of developing new treatments and clinical approaches is backed up by developments in imaging technology that allow us to detect and observe tumours with ever increasing fidelity...Professor Martin Leach, Co-director of the CRUK and EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre

Ras, Raf, Mek, Erk: cell signalling and the future for cancer treatment?

Professor Chris Marshall discusses research on the Ras pathway and his hopes for personalised medicine making it to the cancer clinic in the next decade.Professor Chris Marshall from the Institute for Cancer Research in London

Clearing Old Cells Prevents Old Age Diseases

Most cell types in our body are being constantly replenished, but we still get old. A sub population of cells are said to undergo senescence – chemical controls kick in and stop them from dividing to produce new cells. When we’re young, these are then cleared out by the immune system, but as we age they start to build up in our tissues. Now, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester suggest that these cells may play an important role in diseases of old age...Dr Jan van Deursen, Mayo Clinic

Drug Addiction, Polluted Cyclones and Roaring Lions

This week's NewsFlash explores how smoking could pave the way for cocaine use, how our skin sees sunlight in order to protect us and the secret of being a roaring success...Amir Levine, Columbia University; Amato Evans, Virginia University; Elena Oancea, Brown University; Sarah Klemuk, University of Utah

Treating Respiratory Disorders with Gene Therapy

Maria Limberis explores how respiratory disorders such as Cystic Fibrosis can be targeted by gene therapy...Maria Limberis, University of Pennsylvania

Targeted Gene Therapy for Haemophilia

Kathy High explains how changing the expression of genes can help treat diseases such as Haemophilia...Kathy High, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Living With Haemophilia

Haemophilia is a disorder of blood clotting factors, leading to excessive bleeding in patients. To find out what it's like to live with the condition, Meera Senthilingam met Adam Jones...Adam Jones, University of Sunderland

Gene Therapy for Inherited Blindness

Rob MacLaren explores how we can manipulate genes to restore vision in patients with inherited blindness...Robert MacLaren, University of Oxford

A Virus to Combat Cancer

Iain McNeish discusses how adenoviruses could be used to find and kill cancerous cells within the body...Iain McNeish, University College London

Foetal Gene Therapy

Simon Waddington explains how you could use gene therapy to treat certain disorders as early as in the womb...Simon Waddington, University College London

The French Teaching Kitchen

Scientists have brought language and computer science to the kitchen to teach you a language whilst you're cooking your dinner...Paul Seedhouse, Dan Jackson, Jurgen Wager; Newcastle University

Insect Recruitment to keep Pests at Bay

John Pickett discusses how plants can recruit insects to keep other pests at bay...Professor John Pickett, Rothamsted Research

Late summer browning with Leaf Miners

Emily Seward takes you on a trip to find leaf miners...and they appear to be everywhere.Emily Seward

DNA Scalpel Fixes Mutations; Leaves No Scars

A new technique to repair errors in DNA while leaving no trace has been reported in the journal Nature. The researchers have corrected an error that leads to an untreatable liver disease, and this technique could eventually lead to treatments for an extremely wide range of genetic illnesses...Professor David Lomas, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research

Fighting Infections and Mimicking Muscles

We find out why Vitamin D can keep Tuberculosis at bay, how muscles can be mimicked with nanotubes, how prosthetic can be controlled using brain signals and another reason to eat your greens...Robert Modlin, UCLA; Andrew Schwartz, University of Pittsburgh; Ray Baughman, University of Dallas at Texas; Marc Vendhoen, Babraham Institute

Monitoring Moods with Twitter

An analysis of over half a billion tweets worldwide has confirmed that regardless of country or culture, we’re all in a better mood in the morning. Scientists at Cornell University have analysed the messages posted on Twitter by 2.4 million people from 84 different countries to find out more... Michael Macy, Cornell University

Speedy Neutrinos, Hydrogen Cells and Promiscuous Females.

A roundup of the week's science news including neutrinos moving faster than light, anti-virals from sharks, limitless Hydrogen supplies and the benefits of female promiscuity... James Gillies, CERN; Michael Zasloff, Georgetown University; Bruce Logan, Pennsylvania State University; Matthew Gage, University of East Anglia

Controlling Cooling to Preserve Organs

New advances in preserving organs so that they are healthy for transplantation...Barry Fuller, UCL