Nathan Seppa
Biomedical Writer (retired September 2015)
 
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All Stories by Nathan Seppa
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineNobel prize: Physiology or medicineThe 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to three researchers who pioneered work in cell division. 
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- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineVitamin relative may aid stroke repairDehydroascorbic acid, a precursor of vitamin C, may help stroke patients retain use of parts of their brain at risk from the blood shut-off caused by strokes. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineDetecting cancer risk with a chipResearchers can use microcantilevers studded with antibodies that react to prostate specific antigen, or PSA, to analyze blood samples for signs of prostate cancer. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineChemical Neutralizes Anthrax ToxinScientists have created a synthetic compound that, when tested in rats, disables the toxin that makes anthrax lethal. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineAcacia-tree extract fights cancer in miceCompounds called avicins extracted from Acacia victoriae, an Australian desert tree, inhibit inflammation and cancer in test-tube and mouse studies. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineDrugs slow diabetes patients’ kidney damageTwo drugs normally prescribed for high blood pressure help forestall kidney damage in people with type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineConstipation might signal Parkinson’sMen who are constipated are more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than men who are not. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineObesity linked to pancreatic cancerPeople who are obese or who have led sedentary lives with little exercise are more likely than others to develop pancreatic cancer. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineTwo drugs may enhance recovery from strokeTwo drugs, levodopa and dextroamphetamine, may help stroke patients to recover the ability to move and speak. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineGene implicated in deadly influenzaA strain of influenza virus that struck in Hong Kong in 1997 got some of its lethality from a mutation in the gene encoding an enzyme called PB2. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineHindering glutamate slows rat brain cancerCompounds that inhibit the amino acid glutamate impede a form of brain cancer called glioma in rats.