Proteomics: Is There a Role for Clinical Labs Now?
from American Association for Clinical Chemistry
Proteomics, one of the many "omics"buzzwords today, is loosely defined as the systematic analysis of the proteins in a biological sample, especially proteins expressed during a disease state. As such, clinical proteomics is nothing new to clinical chemists who have been measuring proteins in biological samples for years. What has changed in the last 10 years, however, is the ability to simultaneously measure multiple proteins in a biological sample. This change has been fueled by the rapid advances in mass spectrometry that began in the mid-1980s and continues today. More

Cure for the Common Cold? Not Yet, but Possible
from The New York Times
Curing the common cold, one of medicine’s most elusive goals, may now be in the realm of the possible. Researchers said that they had decoded the genomes of the 99 strains of common cold virus and developed a catalog of its vulnerabilities. More

Legionella Bacteria Found in Atlanta Hospital Water
from The Associated Press
Atlanta's largest hospital has found the bacteria that causes Legionnaire's disease in patients' rooms, and officials said it likely sickened four people who were treated there. Lab tests showed legionella bacteria in water samples taken from Grady Memorial Hospital rooms on two floors where the patients came down with the disease since Jan. 1, said Dr. Leon Haley, the hospital's deputy chief of staff. Eighty beds are off limits, while the hospital tests and flushes the water system with hyperchlorinated water. More

Hib Infection in Children Makes a Deadly Return
from USA Today
When a very sick toddler was brought into a Minneapolis-area hospital last winter, doctors immediately suspected meningitis. The baby, 15 months old, was lethargic, had a fever of 104 degrees and was increasingly unresponsive. Within days, test results were in. William Pomputius, an infectious-disease specialist at Children's of Minnesota, was shocked to learn that the girl had Haemophilis influenzae type B, or Hib infection, a disease that has been nearly wiped out by routine vaccination. More

Herpesvirus: To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate?
from Infection Control Today
A research team at the Trudeau Institute have followed up on a report published in the journal Nature, showing that mice persistently infected with certain forms of herpesvirus, which can establish lifelong latent infections, are resistant to infection with bacterial pathogens. Although herpesvirus infections are generally considered undesirable and can be associated with declining immune function in the elderly or the development of a variety of tumors later in life, the Virgin report raised the unexpected possibility that they may also be beneficial. More

Autism Ruling Fails to Convince Many Vaccine-link Believers
from CNN
A special court's ruling that no proven link exists between autism and certain early childhood vaccines seems to have done little to change the sometimes-passionate opinion fueling the debate. Amanda Guyton, a mother of a 6-year-old boy with autism, was "incredibly happy" with the decision and said it reaffirmed her belief that her son's autism has nothing to do with vaccines. More

Comparing Avian Flu with a Notorious Killer From the Past
from Science Daily
In the waning months of the First World War, a lethal virus known as the Spanish flu, swept the United States, Europe and Asia in three convulsive waves. The year was 1918. The ensuing pandemic claimed up to 100 million victims. In a new study, researchers compared the recent avian strain known in the scientific community as H5N1, with genetic resultants of the 1918 virus—source of the most severe influenza pandemic in recorded history. More

Two Genes Play Crucial Role in Breast Cancer - Blocking Genes Prevent Metastasis
from Medical News Today
Scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered the role of two recently identified genes in promoting breast cancer metastasis. They believe their findings are important for patients, who die more often from late-stage cancer that spreads to other organs and tissues, than from their primary breast tumor. More

First U.S. case of Marburg Fever Treated in Denver
from The Denver Post
Exempla Lutheran Medical Center treated a patient in January 2008 who was sick with the nation's first case of Marburg fever. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has informed the hospital it has confirmed that a patient who got sick during a trip to Uganda had the tropical disease. More