MIT researchers have devised a novel way to create tiny colonies of living human liver cells that model the full-sized organ. The work could allow better screening of new drugs that are potentially harmful to the liver and reduce the costs associated with their development. Liver toxicity is one of the main reasons pharmaceutical companies pull drugs off the market. These dangerous drugs slip through approval processes due in part to the shortcomings of liver toxicity tests. [click link for full article]

GP services need to be made more attractive to teenagers who have mental health problems, according to a study in the latest Medical Journal of Australia. Professor Anthony Jorm and his co-authors from ORYGEN Research Centre at The University of Melbourne found that family was the main source of help for adolescents, while only a small minority nominated GPs. [click link for full article]

The recent cases of children suffering GHB poisoning after ingesting the toy product, Bindeez beads, has highlighted the important role of poison centres, according to an article published online by the Medical Journal of Australia. [click link for full article]

The American Urological Association (AUA) is pleased to announce the release of a new Guideline for the Management of Ureteral Calculi prepared as a collaborative effort with the European Association of Urology (EAU). This is the first international guideline on this topic, and the first time the two organizations have partnered to release information of mutual benefit to both urologists in the United States and in Europe. [click link for full article]

Chemical compounds specially designed to neutralize proteins that would otherwise allow tumor cells to cheat death have been recognized for some time by scientists as a promising new avenue for cancer therapy. Now, two studies in the journal Cell, a publication of Cell Press, provide insight into just how these antagonists of the anti-death — so-called Inhibitor-of-Apoptosis (IAP) — proteins work to fight tumors. [click link for full article]

Roche announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Mircera (methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta) for the treatment of anaemia associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients on dialysis and patients not on dialysis. Mircera is the only FDA-approved ESA to provide correction of anemia with once-every-two-week dosing. [click link for full article]