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By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Telegraph.co.uk 31 Jul 2008 *Many people think stem cells are all derived from controversial sources, but this is not so *See also Skin cells could help with treatment of Alzheimer's in the Guardian Scientists have made a significant advance in a stem cell technique that could pave the way to finding treatments for dozens of genetic diseases. The development could help them to find a way of tackling conditions such as Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease. For the first time a research team has managed to take human skin cells from a patient with a genetic condition and transform them into nerve cells. It means they will now be able to create limitless numbers of the diseased cells to help them carry out research in the hope of finding a way to treat the illness. The research has been carried out by an American team. ( >>Read on ) | ||||||||||
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UK Reuters 12 July 2008 HOUSTON, July 12 (Reuters) - Surgeon Michael DeBakey, whose ground-breaking heart transplants and coronary bypass operations made him one of the giants of 20th century medicine, has died at age 99.  The Baylor College of Medicine and Methodist Hospital said DeBakey died on Friday of natural causes. Methodist Hospital in Houston was his primary surgical hospital for many years.In a career that spanned more than seven decades, DeBakey developed a number of new surgical procedures that now are standard in treating heart ailments and led many to consider him the father of modern cardiovascular surgery. His best known innovation was the now-common coronary bypass operation for clogged arteries, which he first performed in 1964, using leg veins to bypass blocked or damaged areas between the aorta and coronary arteries. "He has improved the human condition and touched the lives of generations to come," said Ron Girotto, president of the Methodist Hospital system. DeBakey, the Louisiana-born son of Lebanese immigrants, was still a student at Tulane University in New Orleans in 1932 when he created the roller pump, which would be a critical component of the heart-lung machine that helped make open-heart surgery possible. During World War Two, DeBakey served in the Surgeon General's office and was credited with developing the mobile Army surgical hospitals -- MASH units -- that moved medical care closer to the battle lines and hastened treatment of wounded soldiers. In 1953, using his wife's sewing machine, he fashioned out of Dacron the first artificial artery for repairing damaged arteries in a surgery he pioneered. ( >>Read on ) | ||||||||||
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Machine's computer will help surgeons get a perfect fit for new joint Denis Campbell, Health Correspondent The Observer Sunday June 15, 2008 British doctors have helped to create a surgical robot that will revolutionise treatment for the 160,000 people a year who are given a new knee or hip. The Sculptor robot enables surgeons to install replacement joints in exactly the right place and removes the risk of them not fitting properly. Ill-fitting joints can cause patients pain and force them to undergo corrective operations. Sensors in the positioning arm of the Sculptor tell the computer where the surgeon is cutting away bone. The machine stops surgeons from making a mistake while they are removing the old, worn bone in an arthritic knee by disabling their mechanised cutting tool if they stray outside the area shown in a model of the knee in its computer. It is the first orthopaedic surgical tool to use this 'actively constraining' technology, which has been developed after 15 years of research by a team of engineers, computer scientists and doctors at Imperial College London. The team was led by Professor Justin Cobb and Professor Brian Davies. ( >>Read on ) | ||||||||||
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