Futurity.org » University of Southampton

Block fat enzymes to free blood flow

Andrew Duff-Southampton — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:10:57 +0000

U. SOUTHAMPTON (UK) — The discovery of a process that controls the arteries’ ability to regulate blood pressure could lead to new treatments for cardiovascular disease.

Arteries are able to control blood pressure by relaxing and constricting. In healthy people, the ability of arteries to relax or constrict is kept in balance.

In UK, alcohol could kill 210,000 in 20 years

Andrew Duff-Southampton — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:47:11 +0000

U. SOUTHAMPTON (UK) — Failure to reform alcohol laws in the UK may result in 210,000 avoidable deaths in the next 20 years, new research shows.

The government should move from the voluntary “responsibility deal” with alcohol retailers, which encourages them to reduce alcohol consumption, to imposing lawful measures on the drinks industry, such as banning special offers or instituting a minimum price per unit of alcohol, says Nick Sheron, head of clinical hepatology at the University of Southampton.

Vitamin B6 may beat malaria pathogen

Andrew Duff-Southampton — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:13:26 +0000

U. SOUTHAMPTON (UK) — New research on vitamin B6 could lead to drugs that target the pathogen that causes malaria.

The University of Southampton research will enable scientists to learn more about the nature of the enzymes required for vitamin biosynthesis by the malaria-causing pathogen Plasmodium.

Carbon dioxide: The global heat dial?

Elizabeth Gardner-Purdue — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:00:41 +0000

PURDUE / YALE (US) — A drop in carbon dioxide appears to be the driving force that led to the Antarctic ice sheet’s formation, according to a recent study of molecules from ancient algae found in deep-sea core samples.

The key role of the greenhouse gas in one of the biggest climate events in Earth’s history supports carbon dioxide’s importance in past climate change and implicates it as a significant force in present and future climate.

Aspirin cuts some cancer risk 60 percent

Andrew Duff-Southampton — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:21:10 +0000

U. SOUTHAMPTON (UK) — Taking a regular dose of aspirin reduces the long-term risk of cancer by around 60 percent in people with a family history of the disease.

Evidence of the benefits of aspirin has been accumulating for more than 20 years, but new results published in The Lancet are the first from a randomized controlled trial.

Gas ‘bullets’ shoot from giant black hole

Andrew Duff-Southampton — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:34:06 +0000

SOUTHAMPTON (UK) — Astronomers have uncovered some striking features in the gases emitted from the regions close to one of the brightest supermassive black holes known to exist.

The results are published in the latest issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics journal.

Nanopits boost stem cell therapy

Andrew Duff-Southampton — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:21:39 +0000

U. SOUTHAMPTON (UK) — A process similar to the one used to manufacture blu-ray discs offers a new way to culture adult stem cells. The discovery could lead to new therapies for conditions such as arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease.

When adult stem cells are harvested from a patient, they are cultured in the laboratory to increase the initial yield of cells and create a batch of sufficient volume to kick-start the process of cellular regeneration when they are reintroduced back into the patient.

The process of culturing is difficult because of spontaneous stem cell differentiation, where stem cells grown on standard plastic tissue culture surfaces don’t expand to create new stem cells but instead create other cells which are of no use in therapy.

Pollen fossils unearth climate history

Jade Boyd-Rice — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:07:50 +0000

RICE U. (US) — The Antarctic Peninsula gave up its vegetation about 12 million years ago, succumbing to ice during a prolonged period of global cooling.

A new study, published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contains the most detailed reconstruction to date of the climatic history of the area, which has warmed significantly in recent decades.

Midwives could save 3 million lives

Sophie Docker-Southampton — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:48:52 +0000

U. SOUTHAMPTON (UK) — Each year, 358,000 women die while pregnant or giving birth, two million newborns die within the first 24 hours, and there are 2.6 million stillbirths, all because of inadequate healthcare.

If midwifery services are upgraded in 58 developing countries by 2015, a new study says as many as 3.6 million lives could be saved.

Stiff sediment caused killer tsunami

Tim Green-U. Texas — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:59:59 +0000

U. TEXAS-AUSTIN (US)/U. SOUTHAMPTON (UK) — A thick plateau of hard, compacted sediment was a major factor in the 2004 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra that spawned the deadliest tsunami in recorded history.

Once the fault snapped, the rupture was able to spread up from tens of kilometers below the seafloor to just a few kilometers below the seafloor, much farther than weak sediments would have permitted—allowing it to move a greater column of seawater above it, unleashing much larger tsunami waves.