If identical twins eat and exercise equally, must they have the same body weight? By analyzing the fundamental equations of body weight change, NIH investigators Carson Chow and Kevin Hall find that identical twins with identical lifestyles can have different body weights and different amounts of body fat.

Advanced Cancer Therapeutics (ACT), a for-profit private company dedicated to bringing new anti-cancer therapies to market, announced that it has signed an exclusive license to develop and market 4-IPP and its related compounds, discovered by scientists at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center (Brown Cancer Center). Brown Cancer Center researchers Dr. Robert Mitchell and Dr.

Boehringer Ingelheim announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation of the novel, oral direct thrombin inhibitor, Pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate) in all 27 EU member states. It is anticipated that Pradaxa® will be launched in Germany and the United Kingdom in the coming weeks. Pradaxa® is approved for the prevention of venous thromboembolic events in adults who have undergone elective total hip or total knee replacement surgery.

Dr Jimmy Devins, T.D., Minister for State at the Department of Health and Children with special responsibility for disability and mental health, today (Thursday, 27th March 2008) launched Console’s National Snowdrop Day to raise funds to support their professional counselling, support and helpline services. The Minister said “Providing hope to those who have been bereaved as a result of suicide is an invaluable gift.

“Transitioning to Medicare Before Age 65,” Health Affairs: According to the study by Pamela Farley Short of Penn State University and France Weaver of the

The Medicare hospital insurance trust fund will become insolvent by 2019, the estimate given last year, according to a report released on Tuesday by the board of trustees for Medicare and Social Security, the New York Times reports (Pear, New York Times, 3/26). The trustees projected that Medicare spending will increase from 3.

The fate of the Anne Arundel County, Md., Healthy Start program, which seeks to reduce the county’s infant mortality rate, is “unclear” after the loss of $610,000 in federal funding, the Annapolis Capital reports.

A recent CDC study that found that about 25% of female teenagers ages 14 to 19 have at least one common sexually transmitted infection should “reinvigorate” the debate over requiring human papillomavirus vaccines for school admission, a

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday said that an impending 10% reduction in Medi-Cal reimbursements to physicians is “unconscionable” and discussed details of a potential lawsuit to block the cut, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid program.

Fewer physicians in Ohio are listing obstetrics and gynecology as their primary specialty despite a law enacted in 2003 that aims to reduce malpractice insurance rates, the AP/Coshocton Tribune reports. According to an Associated Press analysis of data from the