News by Subject Medicine & Health

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have demonstrated the use of stem-cell-derived 'mini-brains' to detect harmful side effects of a common drug on the developing brain. Mini-brains are miniature human brain models, developed with human cells and barely visible to the human eye, whose cellular mechanisms mimic those of the developing human brain.

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have completed a cross-sectional human study that compares biomarkers and metal concentrations in the urine of e-cigarette users, nonsmokers, and cigarette smokers. They found that the biomarkers, which reflect exposure, effect, and potential harm, are both elevated in e-cigarette users compared to the other groups and linked to metal exposure and oxidative DNA damage.

Exposure in the womb to phthalates, a group of endocrine-disrupting chemicals present in cosmetics and other common household products, was associated with autistic traits in boys, ages 3 and 4, but not in girls, according to a new study led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst environmental epidemiologist.

A team of researchers from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine has identified a novel protein that would prevent the development of neuropathy, a major side effect of chemotherapy, in cancer patients.

One of the world's most horrific environmental disasters--the 1950 and 60s mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan--may have been caused by a previously unstudied form of mercury discharged directly from a chemical factory, research by the University of Saskatchewan (USask) has found.

The landmark Food Quality Protection Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to protect children's health by applying an extra margin of safety to legal limits for pesticides in food. But an investigation by EWG, published this week in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, found that the EPA has failed to add the mandated children's health safety factor to the allowable limits for almost 90 percent of the most common pesticides.

Synthetic chemicals that were released into the environment for the first time 80 years ago have been linked to harmful health effects, and more of them are migrating slowly from the soil, according to University of Arizona research.