A new research report by The George Institute for International Health, in collaboration with Auckland City Hospital and The University of Auckland, has revealed a 40% decline in the number of deaths after stroke in the total population of Auckland, New Zealand over the past 25 years. The study attributes the improved survival rate to health care factors associated with an increase in hospital admission and brain imaging during the most severe phase of the illness.

By discovering a mutant mouse that is highly susceptible to mammary tumors, Cornell researchers have found a novel potential link between genetic defects in DNA replication (copying) and breast cancer.

While hybrids -- the result of the mating of two different species -- may offer interesting and beneficial traits, they are usually sterile or unable to survive. For example, a mule, the result of the mating of a horse and a donkey, is sterile.

Columbia University announces today that it recently executed an exclusive license agreement for a next generation DNA sequencing technology to Intelligent Bio-Systems (IBS), Inc. This innovative DNA-sequencing technology was invented by Dr. Jingyue Ju, professor of Chemical Engineering and head of DNA Sequencing and Chemical Biology at the Judith P. Sulzberger, M.D. Columbia Genome Center at Columbia University. The fundamentals of this new technology are being published on-line today by in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). This research paper describes the details of the Sequencing by Synthesis Chemistry and how the approach overcomes accuracy limitations of other next generation DNA sequencing systems.

Having recently identified the molecular signature of these epidermal neural crest stem cells in the mouse, their research resolves conflicting scientific opinions by showing that these cells are distinctly different from other types of skin-resident stem cells/progenitors. Their work provides a valuable resource for future mouse neural crest stem cell research.

Scientists have identified the first biochemical marker linked to sleep loss, an enzyme in saliva known as amylase, which increases in activity when sleep deprivation is prolonged.

In a groundbreaking study at the University of Minnesota, Extension food scientist Joellen Feirtag has been experimenting since April with a water-based electrochemical activation system that disinfects, cleans food and wipes out E. coli.

A monoclonal antibody developed by researchers at the University at Buffalo has been shown to extend significantly the survival of mice with human breast-cancer tumors and to inhibit the cancer's spread to the lungs in the animals by more than 50 percent.

A Pittsburgh-based research team has used an innovative inkjet system to print unique "bio-ink" patterns that directed adult muscle-derived stem cells from mice to differentiate into both muscle cells and bone cells.

Insulin is a hormone known primarily for regulating sugar levels in the blood, yet researchers at the University of California, Riverside, recently found that applying insulin directly to skin wounds significantly enhanced the healing process.