Nathan Seppa

Biomedical Writer (retired September 2015)

All Stories by Nathan Seppa

  1. Health & Medicine

    Nobel prize: Physiology or medicine

    The 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to three researchers who pioneered work in cell division.

  2. Humans

    Nobel prizes mark 100th anniversary

    This year the Nobel prizes are a century old.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Vitamin relative may aid stroke repair

    Dehydroascorbic 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.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Detecting cancer risk with a chip

    Researchers can use microcantilevers studded with antibodies that react to prostate specific antigen, or PSA, to analyze blood samples for signs of prostate cancer.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Chemical Neutralizes Anthrax Toxin

    Scientists have created a synthetic compound that, when tested in rats, disables the toxin that makes anthrax lethal.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Acacia-tree extract fights cancer in mice

    Compounds called avicins extracted from Acacia victoriae, an Australian desert tree, inhibit inflammation and cancer in test-tube and mouse studies.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Drugs slow diabetes patients’ kidney damage

    Two drugs normally prescribed for high blood pressure help forestall kidney damage in people with type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Constipation might signal Parkinson’s

    Men who are constipated are more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than men who are not.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Obesity linked to pancreatic cancer

    People who are obese or who have led sedentary lives with little exercise are more likely than others to develop pancreatic cancer.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Two drugs may enhance recovery from stroke

    Two drugs, levodopa and dextroamphetamine, may help stroke patients to recover the ability to move and speak.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Gene implicated in deadly influenza

    A 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.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Hindering glutamate slows rat brain cancer

    Compounds that inhibit the amino acid glutamate impede a form of brain cancer called glioma in rats.