Nathan Seppa
Biomedical Writer (retired September 2015)
 
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All Stories by Nathan Seppa
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineAffairs of the Heartburn: Drugs for stomach acid may hike pneumonia riskAcid-blocking drugs seem to boost a person's chances of getting pneumonia. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineDrug aids destruction of lymphoma cellsThe drug rituximab, when added to chemotherapy, boosts survival rates in people with diffuse B-cell lymphoma, a kind of cancer. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineCOX-2 inhibitor pulled off marketMerck's recall of rofecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor drug for arthritis, raises the question of whether similar drugs might also increase the risk of heart attack. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineA Problem of Adhesion: More evidence of sickle-cell stickinessInterrupted blood flow in people with sickle-cell disease might arise from stickiness inherent in the unusual red blood cells these individuals have. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineVaccine protects monkeys from Ebola virusA combination of a DNA vaccine and a vaccine based on a genetically modified common cold virus enables monkeys to resist Ebola virus, the first evidence that an Ebola vaccine works in primates. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineDormant Cancer: Lack of a protein sends tumor cells to bedExcess amounts of a protein called Myc triggers cancer in mice, but ratcheting back this supply sends the malignant cells into dormancy. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineCarotid Overhaul: Stents and surgery go neck and neckMesh cylinders called stents work as well as or slightly better than surgery in opening blocked carotid arteries in high-risk patients. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineTurmeric component kills cancer cellsCurcumin, the component of turmeric that makes the spice yellow, shows anticancer effects in lab-dish tests and in experiments on mice. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineAdopted protein might be MS culpritA protein called syncytin might play a role in causing degradation of the fatty myelin sheath that insulates nerves, damage that leads to multiple sclerosis. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineHepatitis B vaccine linked to MSPeople who develop multiple sclerosis are more likely than others to have received a hepatitis B vaccination in recent years. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineTapping an Unlikely Source: Scientists use mouth membrane to construct corneal-surface transplantsUsing membranes taken from the inside of the mouth, researchers have fashioned transplants that act as replacement outer layers for corneas in people with damaged vision. 
- 			 Health & Medicine Health & MedicineLiver transplants succeed in many hepatitis C patientsPeople who receive liver transplants for hepatitis C infections fare about as well as people getting such transplants for other diseases.