Proposals to accelerate the development of tuberculosis (TB) drugs were outlined today at the conclusion of a two-day symposium titled “No Time to Wait,” convened in New York this week by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontires (MSF) with the support of Howard P. Milstein and Weill Cornell Medical College’s Abby and Howard P. Milstein Program in Chemical Biology. [click link for full article]

Canada’s New Government is launching on-line consultations to hear Canadians’ opinions on the proposal to establish a mental health commission in Canada. [click link for full article]

Scientists at Rice University and pediatric specialists at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered a new way to use Rice’s famed buckyball nanoparticles as passkeys that allows drugs to enter cancer cells.The research appears in the Jan. 21 issue of the journal Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry.All living cells defend themselves by walling off the outside world. [click link for full article]

Michael Stern’s latest research into the formation of neurofibromatosis tumors reads something like a federal racketeering indictment, except that Stern’s tracing proteins instead of laundered money, and he’s looking not at offshore accounts but at biochemical paths of cause and effect.The research, which appears in the Jan. [click link for full article]

University of Central Florida and University of California Riverside professors are a step closer to being able to deliver life-saving drugs through tiny molecules that would travel through the bloodstream and destroy only cancer-ridden cells.In a paper published Jan. 18 in Science Express, the scientists describe how they got an adsorbate molecule (anthraquinone) to pick up two carbon dioxide atoms and carry them in a specific direction on a flat copper surface. [click link for full article]

According to the guidelines of the American Cancer Society, 11-12 year-old girls should receive the new vaccine that protects females from the human papillomavirus (HPV) strains that are responsible for the majority of cervical cancers. These guidelines are supported by the vast majority of scientific and medical organizations. Approximately 11,000 women develop cervical cancer, and over 3,500 die from it, in the USA each year. [click link for full article]

During his State of the Union address, January 23rd, President George Bush will propose that people of lower incomes who purchase private health insurance, rather than having a company plan, receive a tax benefit. The benefit will be similar to the what people currently enjoy for the interest paid on mortgages.The President said “The current tax code encourages home ownership by allowing you to deduct the interest on your mortgage from your taxes. [click link for full article]

Women who took more control over choosing their breast cancer surgeon were more likely to be treated by more experienced breast surgeons and at a hospital affiliated with an accredited cancer program, compared to women who were referred by another doctor or their health plan, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. [click link for full article]

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have demonstrated that low-dose carbon monoxide administered in conjunction with oxygen therapy markedly inhibits oxygen-induced damage to lung cells. These findings, being reported in the Jan. 19 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, have significant implications for the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, according to the study’s authors. [click link for full article]

Women with breast cancer who are obese or less educated are twice as likely to get reduced doses of chemotherapy than doctors recommended, jeopardizing survival, according to scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center. The results will be published in the Jan. 20 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology.The research focused on 764 women enrolled in the Awareness of Neutropenia in Chemotherapy Study Group Registry, which is based at Rochester’s James P. [click link for full article]