The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) announced that The Garvan Institute of Medical Research would receive over $15.7 million in various Research Fellowships, Project Grants, Equipment Grants, Infrastructure Grants and a large Program Grant, alone worth over $3 million. [click link for full article]

The Diabetes Specialist Services Liaison Group (DSSLG) has produced a booklet that looks at the challenges diabetes poses for the NHS and how specialist services can help overcome them. ‘Diabetes in the NHS: Commissioning and providing specialist services’ highlights the vital role that consultants play in leading, supporting and mentoring specialist teams at all levels within the National Health Service. [click link for full article]

Dr. Jimmy Devins, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, addressed the Irish Deaf Society’s launch of the Irish Sign Language awareness week. [click link for full article]

Anna Cataldi, who served as UN Messenger of Peace from 1998 to 2007, has joined the global fight against tuberculosis (TB). Ms Cataldi, who was appointed as an Ambassador of the Stop TB Partnership, will raise awareness worldwide about the unfair burden of TB on refugees, migrants, people living in poverty and other disadvantaged groups. [click link for full article]

Diabetes is a growing global problem with over 240 million people living with the condition worldwide, including 2.2million people in the UK. Currently there are few, if any, early predictors of diabetes and once detected it cannot be cured. In a bid to make this a reality, Johnson & Johnson, a worldwide healthcare technology company and the South East England Regional Development Agency (SEEDA) are establishing a fund designed to provide grant awards of up to £125,000. [click link for full article]

Quality of life after treatment for endometrial cancer can be significantly improved by the use of vaginal brachytherapy, where radiotherapy is delivered internally using a vaginal cylinder, the European Cancer Conference (ECCO 14) heard recently. Dr. [click link for full article]

A way of predicting which patients will respond well to treatment with a common chemotherapy drug used in breast cancer was unveiled at the European Cancer Conference (ECCO 14). Dr Iain Brown, from the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, told the conference that he and his colleague, Dr Andrew Schofield, had identified two genes that could identify which cells would be resistant and which would respond to docetaxel. [click link for full article]

Some people are caught in a cycle of violence, perhaps beginning with their own abuse as a child and continuing into perpetration or victimization as an adult. To interrupt this cycle, it is important to understand how childhood experiences are related to behavior later in life. [click link for full article]

A new survey has revealed that the vast majority of smokers in England have been complying with the new smoking legislation since its introduction in July. 75 per cent of people said the ban had been good for their health while 97 per cent of adults said they were either not smoking where it is banned or were giving up smoking completely. [click link for full article]

A new study by the Health protection Agency estimates at least 10% of young women in England have been infected with one or more strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) by the age of 16. The study will be discussed on the last day of the Health Protection Agency annual conference in Warwick. The study, the first of its kind in England , investigated the proportion of women aged 10-29 years who had antibodies indicating they had been infected with HPV. [click link for full article]