http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Many scientists dream of making a single discovery that provides fundamental insight into nature, may be used to help save human lives, and can assist in the preservation of an endangered species. In new research reported in the journal Cell, a Japanese team is on the verge of accomplishing this nearly impossible feat. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-fluorescent-protein-eel-revolutionizes-key.html Medical research Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:25:45 EST news290363135 Genetics researchers have identified 25 additional copy number variations (CNVs)—missing or duplicated stretches of DNA—that occur in some patients with autism. These CNVs, say the researchers, are "high impact": although individually rare, each has a strong effect in raising an individual's risk for autism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-autism-related-gene-variants.html Genetics Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:00:05 EST news277381059 For the very first time researchers have streamed braille patterns directly into a blind patient's retina, allowing him to read four-letter words accurately and quickly with an ocular neuroprosthetic device. The device, the Argus II, has been implanted in over 50 patients, many of who can now see color, movement and objects. It uses a small camera mounted on a pair of glasses, a portable processor to translate the signal from the camera into electrical stimulation, and a microchip with electrodes implanted directly on the retina. The study was authored by researchers at Second Sight, the company who developed the device, and has been published in Frontiers in Neuroprosthetics on November 22. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-patient-words-retina.html Neuroscience Thu, 22 Nov 2012 02:00:01 EST news272744273 Scientists from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and their colleagues have found a genetic marker that predicts which aggressive "triple negative" breast cancers and certain ovarian cancers will likely respond to platinum-based chemotherapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-dna-marker-platinum-drug-response.html Cancer Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:48:26 EST news251632099 Researchers in the United States have shown, for the first time, that it is possible to screen cancer patients for a broad range of cancer-causing genetic mutations as part of normal clinical practice. By identifying patients' individual genotypes within a relatively short time frame, doctors are able to target tumours with the most appropriate therapy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-screen-broad-range-cancer-causing-genetic.html Cancer Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:49:31 EST news240036554