The News Review:
- Exam row hits UKZN
- Fourth session of Hamdan Award for Medical Sciences concludes…
- Single Protein Can Determine Severity Of Toxoplasma Infections
- The difficulties of conception
- Exforge(R) Receives US Regulatory Approval As A New And Highly…
- AFMC setting up Asia’s biggest stem cell research centre
Exam row hits UKZN
Independent Online - Dec 24, 2006
The academics say the unprocedural move by Sturm and the executive of the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine would jeopardise the minimum competency required for students to function as interns, as set out by the Health Professionals Council of South Africa. “The faculty of medicine has accepted the results of the examinations conducted in the department of medicine and has acknowledged that the examinations were credible in all respects. “Despite this, the department of medicine has been directed to prepare and conduct an extraordinary examination for the students who failed medicine, simply for uniformity with other departments,” said Assounga. He requested that Uys rescind the directive. “The department of medicine seeks to ensure that the attainment of the clinical competence remains a primary goal of undergraduate education (a principle espoused by the Health Professionals Council of South Africa). “It is the opinion of the academic staff in the department of medicine that the unprecedented and unprocedural action taken by the faculty executive both erodes the standard of the MBChB degree and places the staff of the department… are the original exam repeated in identical format and at identical academic level. So far these have not been held in the final year at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine. Therefore I called these ‘extra-ordinary’, not because supplementary exams are “extra-ordinary” in nature. “As a matter of fact, they are held as long as I can recall in other years of study. ”
Sturm said he was disillusioned by the fact that there were still staff members that seemed to see it as their goal in life to leak internal letters to the press in an obvious attempt to derail and bad-mouth their own institution. “This does not mean I have anything to hide, and if the press had approached me based on rumours, I would have answered in the same vein as I have done now. ”
A group of registered medical practitioners and specialist physicians with the Health Professionals Council of South Africa, who are also full time staff members at the medical school, on Friday also wrote to the council seeking guidance in the matter and expressed concern at Sturm’s directive.
Fourth session of Hamdan Award for Medical Sciences concludes…
AME Info - Dec 24, 2006
Mirza Al Sayegh also stated that His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum acknowledged the participation of Dr. Abdel Fattah Al Awaisi and Prof. Duncan Rice from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Dundee and the Faculty of Medicine in Scotland and the officials from the Al Maktoum Charity Foundation and the Medical College of Dundee. They took part in the celebrations of the Award and the conference, emphasizing the need for coordination and cooperation in all fields and the exchange of visits between the representatives of the Award and the Board to coordinate their activities. In conclusion of the Fourth term of the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences, all speakers and attendees thanked H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of UAE and H… The Award will also support new groups of researches in the near future. Dr Najib explained that one of the biggest accomplishments of this session was the establishment of the ‘SHAMS, Journal of Medical Sciences’ the medical sciences magazine. It is sure to have a big influence in the local and international fields and also will influence the thinking of Editors of important international magazines like ‘The Scientist’ and Nature Genetics. ‘ They have expressed their interest and readiness to cooperate in publishing articles in ‘SHAMS, Journal of Medical Sciences. ‘
It is worth mentioning that H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum was one of the first to congratulate this magazine.
Single Protein Can Determine Severity Of Toxoplasma Infections
Medical News Today - Dec 24, 2006
Now, a team of Stanford University School of Medicine researchers, led by John Boothroyd, PhD, has shown for the first time how Toxoplasma manages to be so effective: They documented how it injects a particular protein into the cell it infects and how that protein then travels to the cell’s nucleus - where it blocks the cell’s normal response to invasion. Never before have researchers offered such insight into the way this type of parasite can hijack a host cell’s genetic machinery for its own benefit. And the discovery has wide-ranging implications for a number of diseases caused by other parasites in this class, which reproduce only inside of cells, including the parasite that causes malaria. The results will be published in the Dec. 20 edition of Nature… And the discovery has wide-ranging implications for a number of diseases caused by other parasites in this class, which reproduce only inside of cells, including the parasite that causes malaria. The results will be published in the Dec. 20 edition of Nature. They come on the heels of another paper from Boothroyd’s lab, published earlier in December in the journal Science, identifying two proteins that can determine how much damage the parasite Toxoplasma can inflict on an animal. Boothroyd is a professor of microbiology and immunology at the School of Medicine. The latest findings reveal a new mechanism for how an intracellular pathogen can interact with its host, and they may help to explain important differences in how various Toxoplasma strains have evolved to exploit this interaction, said Susan Coller, PhD, one of the study’s lead authors who was a postdoctoral scholar in Boothroyd’s lab when the work was done. What shocked the researchers was that a single protein was responsible for the dramatic differences between the strains; they had expected it to be much more complex.
The difficulties of conception
Telegraph.co.uk - Dec 24, 2006
Neatly laid out are all the players in a very contemporary tragedy: Sarah, the infertile wife, eventually granted by God a late baby; Isaac the longed-for child, traumatised by his father’s single-minded preparedness to murder this child he loves; Rebecca, Isaac’s wife, long infertile before the very painful pregnancy and delivery of the twins Jacob and Esau; Jacob’s first wife Leah, initially fertile but, after four children, afflicted with secondary infertility, while the beloved Rachel remains unremittingly barren. For as Winston is keen to remind us, the Bible’s injunction is not just to ‘fill the Earth’, but also to ’subdue it’. Rooting his authority here, Winston sees our duty as using our intelligence to control and improve nature’s mechanisms… For as Winston is keen to remind us, the Bible’s injunction is not just to ‘fill the Earth’, but also to ’subdue it’. Rooting his authority here, Winston sees our duty as using our intelligence to control and improve nature’s mechanisms. As Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College London and Director of NHS Research and Development for Hammersmith Hospital, Professor (Lord) Winston has not only led the field in fertility medicine, but has been a sage and steadying voice in the debate on embryo research and genetic engineering. In this book, written to accompany a BBC television series, he traces the awesome history of reproductive medicine from myth to the latest breakthroughs in stem-cell research and DNA manipulation. Sprinkled with anecdote, his account is magisterial in its unfolding of the science for a lay audience. He reminds us of how dazzlingly difficult it is to conceive a human child – a truth admittedly not easy to reconcile with rising teenage pregnancies and the population crises of developing countries. He dramatises his own role in this absorbing story (the drink-fuelled breakthroughs, the much-wanted babies created ‘against all odds’, the clumsy dropping of vital test-tubes, the intellectual and moral U-turns) but also dispenses credit generously and blame judiciously.
Exforge(R) Receives US Regulatory Approval As A New And Highly…
Medical News Today - Dec 24, 2006
Exforge is not indicated for initial therapy. An extensive clinical trial program involving more than 5,000 patients showed that Exforge significantly lowered blood pressure compared to placebo, or amlodipine besylate or valsartan alone. In the Exforge clinical trials, adverse events were generally mild and transient in nature. Side effects that occurred more frequently with Exforge than placebo in clinical trials were peripheral edema, nasopharyngitis, upper respiratory tract infections, and dizziness. Exforge has not been shown to reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease resulting from high blood pressure. When used in pregnancy during the second and third trimesters, drugs that act directly on the renin-angiotensin system can cause injury and even death to the developing fetus. When pregnancy is detected, Exforge (amlodipine and valsartan) should be discontinued as soon as possible… Our goal is to discover, develop and successfully market innovative products to treat patients, ease suffering and enhance the quality of life. Novartis is the only company with leadership positions in both patented and generic pharmaceuticals. We are strengthening our medicine-based portfolio, which is focused on strategic growth platforms in innovation-driven pharmaceuticals, high-quality and low- cost generics, human vaccines and leading self-medication OTC brands. In 2005, the Group’s businesses achieved net sales of USD 32. 2 billion and net income of USD 6. Approximately USD 4.
AFMC setting up Asia’s biggest stem cell research centre
Hindu - Dec 24, 2006
) and military and defence establishments will be engaged. A separate funding mechanism would be created for the centre and there will be no upper limit for the funds for research to be carried out at the institute which is marked to be made into Asia’s biggest, Singh added. “Stem cell therapy, which is a natural phenomenon, is on the verge of revolutionising medicine. It was set to replace drug therapy and surgery, the current practice of symptomatic treatment of various diseases. By going back to nature through stem cell therapy, cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, eye and muscle diseases can be cured. Besides The life span of a human being too could be increased”, Singh said after his keynote address at a two-day conference on Stem Cell.
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