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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 – Two subset analyses from the landmark HORIZONS-AMI trial show that the anticoagulant bivalirudin lowers major bleeding and cardiac death versus the combination of heparin and a GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor in patients with ST-segment myocardial infarction (STEMI) who have disease of the left anterior descending artery (LAD), while in STEMI patients at highest risk for death, bivalirudin also confers the greatest mortality benefit.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Immune therapies have been explored as a way to treat cancer after it develops. But a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center suggests that genetic risk of prostate cancer can be reduced by rescuing critical immune system cells.

The study was done in mice and would need further validation and extensive testing in the lab before being available for humans. But the results are promising for people with a strong family history of cancer or known cancer genes.

Berlin, Germany: A group of scientists from Hamburg may have taken a big step towards more effective cancer drug development, Europe's largest cancer congress, ECCO 15 – ESMO 34 [1], heard today (Wednesday 23 September). Dr Ilona Schonn, Director of Cell Culture Research at Indivumed GmbH, told the conference that they had developed a preclinical drug test platform that would enable researchers to analyse tumour tissue for individual patient drug responses on the molecular level.

Berlin, Germany: Researchers have made significant advances in the treatment of metastatic malignant melanoma – one of the most difficult cancers to treat successfully once it has started to spread – according to a study to be presented at Europe's largest cancer congress, ECCO 15 – ESMO 34 [1], in Berlin on Thursday.

Active tuberculosis can be rapidly identified in patients with negative sputum tests by a new method, according to European researchers. Active tuberculosis (TB) is the seventh-leading cause of death worldwide, and while the diagnosis of active TB can be rapidly established when the bacteria can be identified on sputum microscopy, in about half of all cases, the TB bacterium cannot be detected, making another diagnostic option critical in efforts to control the spread of TB.

Inventing a useful new tool for creating chemical reactions between single molecules, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have employed microfluidics—the manipulation of fluids at the microscopic scale—to make microdroplets that contain single molecules of interest.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a new ruler, and even for an organization that routinely deals in superlatives, it sets some records. Designed to be the most accurate commercially available "meter stick" for the nano world, the new measuring tool—a calibration standard for X-ray diffraction—boasts uncertainties below a femtometer. That's 0.000 000 000 000 001 meter, or roughly the size of a neutron.