At the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Anthony Atala’s lab is the largest in the world “manufacturing” body parts. We’re not talking about prosthetics here, and not robotics – this is growing new, living organs – and they are yours – made up of identical tissue found in the rest of your body. Growing a finger from the ground up: layering cartilage, bone, then muscle. A beating, engineered heart valve that’s learning how to pump blood before it’s implanted. It’s regenerative medicine and the goal is to help the tens of thousands of people worldwide waiting for organ transplants. In Pittsburgh, Dr. Steven Badylak has discovered a compound that tricks the body into repairing itself, much like the body knows how to do when it’s in the womb. The U.S. military has invested $250 million in regenerative research aimed at helping soldiers with severe battle injuries, regrowing muscle and skin for burn injuries, as well as transplant technology for lost limbs.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Could virtual sex be the Kinect’s killer app? (NSFW)

Once open source drivers for Microsoft’s Kinect were created, it was inevitable the device would be put to use in a virtual sex game. With it around a month since such drivers started appearing, ThriXXX, a company responsible for a range of 3D sex games that are already compatible with a number of sex toy peripherals, has now produced a video demo of a Kinect being used to virtually fondle a number of computer generated ladies. Read More

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

uncovered

MRI scans show a woman’s brain lights up like a Christmas tree during an orgasm.

Scientists have observed for the first time what goes on inside a woman’s brain during orgasm, and it is as complicated as many men suspected.

Neuroscientists in New Jersey have used MRI scanners to discover that 30 different parts of a woman’s brain fire up during orgasm and the pleasure is so great it can stop the lucky lady from feeling pain. This is due to parts of her nervous system shutting down, making the woman less aware of pain sensations.

Volunteers brought themselves to orgasm inside an MRI machine, which scanned the brain during the process. For some this took 20 minutes, while most achieved their goal in under five.

Brain areas responsible for emotion, touch, satisfaction and memory are involved.

Perth based clinical psychologist and sex therapist Danielle Hannington said she was not surprised by the findings.

She said female sexuality was incredibly complex, with at least one in seven women unable to climax.

“For women to orgasm it’s like we need a series of catalysts to get us over the mountain,” she said.

“There are a lot of women who experience difficulty with orgasm. It doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy sex, though.”

Orgasm always involved the mind, and having an orgasm did not necessarily mean a woman was enjoying sex, she said.

“For us as women it’s not the goal of orgasm, it’s the goal of pleasure or a connection.”

The notion that orgasm could stifle pain was not new, with orgasm during child birth something that researchers were interested in.

There are hopes the research may lead to developments in treatment of libido problems and sexual dysfunction.

The researchers have said they plan to move on to men in a follow-up study.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Glaxo’s cervical cancer vaccine

faces US battle

New studies show the vaccine Cervarix blocks the virus that causes cervical cancer, but if it wins approval for U.S. sales, it will face an uphill battle against Gardasil, which has owned the market  for three years.

Cervarix, Glaxo’s vaccine against human papilloma virus or HPV, already is approved in more than 90 other countries, but has been held up by delays in the United States. Several years ago, the British drugmaker was in a neck-and-neck race with rival Merck & Co., Gardasil’s maker, to be first on the U.S. market, but it lost when Gardasil got approved in June 2006.

Late in 2007, U.S. regulators said they wouldn’t approve Cervarix without additional data. from n extensive  study still in progress at the time.

Final results from that 18,000-women study and two others are being presented this weekend at a conference in Sweden on papillomavirus. The data was submitted to the Food and Drug Administration on March 30, and FDA is expected to decide whether to approve Cervarix within several months.

If it does, analyst Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan‘s Ross School of Business, said doctors who have prescribed Gardasil for a few years may see no reason to switch – unless GlaxoSmithKline convinces them its product is much more effective or has fewer side effects.

Both vaccines target the two types of HPV that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers, types 16 and 18, and data indicate both are about 98 percent effective. But Merck also has data showing Gardasil blocks two other HPV types that cause most cases of genital warts that Cervarix does not target.

That will be a key factor for doctors, experts said.

“All else being equal, it’s a no-brainer for the doctor, (who) wants to give the most efficacious treatment,” Gordon said.

Despite Merck owning the U.S. market, Gardasil racked up only $262 million in global sales in the most recent quarter, versus $320 million for Cervarix, which has won more contracts from government health programs in other countries.

Partial results of the new Cervarix studies released to The Associated Press indicate it also offers good protection against 12 other HPV types.

One of the studies, which looked at looked at levels of antibodies to some HPV types after study participants were vaccinated with Cervarix or Gardasil, found higher antibody levels induced by Cervarix. But Dr. Gary Dubin, head of one of Glaxo’s clinical development centers, said that doesn’t prove Cervarix is more effective.

New data will be presented at the same conference on Gardasil, indicating it blocks HPV 16 for at least 9 1/2 years, according to Merck. Glaxo has followed women for up to 7 1/2 years and continues to test some to see if they develop cervical lesions or cancer.

Dr. Cynthia Rand, a researcher, pediatrician and associate professor at the University of Rochester Medical School, said Cervarix appears to be effective. But she said the higher antibody levels triggered by Cervarix, compared with Gardasil, might be meaningless. She said doctors don’t know if they will have to give booster shots years from now for either vaccine.

“It won’t change my practice” of giving Gardasil and likely won’t do so for other doctors, said Rand, whose university has patent claims and receives some royalties related to both vaccines. “Pediatricians prefer in general to also protect against genital warts.“

Associated Press

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 9th May 2009

How about 4,000 lethal chemicals?

New poster puts smoking hazards gives you a realty check.

So you think smoking is OK. Think again. Facts now revealed.

A global information design consultancy, has created “Put It Out,” an illustrated poster showing in no uncertain terms the lethal chemicals — including arsenic, methane and formaldehyde — ingested from each cigarette and what some of the harsh health facts are surrounding smoking. The 11×17? poster can be viewed and downloaded at www.xplane.com/4000.

DO NOT SMOKE POSTER

Created by a team of world-class graphic designers, the poster is intended to educate, inform and create a dialogue amongst the general public relating to the ongoing issues associated with smoking. Released under the Creative Commons 3.0 Unported License, the poster can be downloaded and used by health organizations and other individuals wishing to spread the word about what harmfull substances go into each cigarette.

Sourced and Published by Henry Sapiecha 24th March 2009