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Go to http://www.thestreet.com/story/10921534/1/human-genome-fda-panel-live-blog.html to view the live blog of the event.

Addressing rumors that have circulated about her health, Lady Gaga told CNN's Larry King this week that she doesn't have lupus, but has tested "borderline positive" for the condition. It may sound contradictory, but doctors say this can occur with lupus. Like many autoimmune diseases, lupus is a mystifying condition. It's often hard to diagnose because of its vague and varying symptoms. No two cases are alike, according to medical experts. The disease can come and go without explanation, and its severity varies from mild discomfort to death.

Researchers from Human Genome Sciences have announced positive test results on their drug Benlysta to treat the debilitating and often deadly disease lupus. Lupus is a complicated spectrum of autoimmune diseases that afflicts an approximated 1.5 million Americans and 5 million people globally, the large majority of them women between age 15 and 45. It gets its name from the Latin word for wolf because, in 1851, a doctor saw a patient with red marks on her face that looked like wolf bites. Lupus has not had a new drug approved to treat it in more than 20 years. Researchers...

The young British schoolgirl who was the inspiration for John Lennon's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is facing a stormy future as she battles an incurable disease. Now the slain Beatle's oldest son, Julian Lennon, has come to the aid of Lucy O'Donnell Vodden, a girl he had played with at nursery school and whom he had drawn a picture with stars around her head. Julian showed the picture to his dad, saying, "That's Lucy in the sky with diamonds." It prompted Lennon to pen the hit song. O'Donnell, 46, is suffering from lupus, a painful autoimmune disease. When...

They can help save money and the environment, but some say energy saving light bulbs are making them sick. The new compact fluorescent bulbs have become exceedingly more popular over the past few years—they use less energy and last up to 10 times longer. So Connie Hall, of Stacy, also decided to invest in them, too. But a week later, Hall developed a severe rash on her arm and neck. "I was kind of horrified really," she said. Already super sensitive to light, a symptom of her Lupus, Hall also became weak, tired and her blood pressure was high. But...

I know you all as a deeply faithful people, so this request...the daughter of one of our backbone church members is having a terrible medical crisis. She has been in and out of high fever for weeks, and they have decided it is Lupus. At the moment she's flirting with blindness, and at this moment they are taking her by ambulance to "the Cleveland Clinc", whatever that may be. Please, prayers from your kin and if you can, your congregation. Chrissy is a bright and promising girl, in seminary to be a youth leader, a gamer, and a Christian improve...

London, Dec 3 (ANI): Researchers have identified a key gene involved in the disease Lupus. Lupus, or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), is an autoimmune disease, which frequently causes skin rash, joint pains and malaise, but can also lead to inflammation of the kidneys and other internal organs...

With increasing frequency, American citizens and others from around the globe are experiencing newfound freedom from disease, affliction, and infirmity. Individuals' lives are forever changed with the strengthened faith and renewed hope that arise from healed bodies and physical restoration. These seemingly miraculous cures are the result of adult stem cell treatments. Yet the debates in the popular media tend to ignore and obscure the medical breakthroughs made by adult stem cell research--success that has conspicuously eluded embryonic stem cell treatments.[1]  Adult stem cells (or, more accurately, tissue stem cells) are regenerative cells of the human body that possess the...

Body reveals its inflammation 'off switch' 18:00 01 October 2006 NewScientist.com news service Deb MacKenzie Researchers have shed light on how the body switches off its immune response, a key step towards understanding autoimmune diseases and controlling inflammation. When immune cells die, they transform into “sponges” that soak up the molecules responsible for causing inflammation, researchers have discovered. The new information may lead to better drugs to treat inflammatory disorders, such as eczema. Inflammation is characterised by a red, painful swelling around a wound caused by blood fluids, proteins and immune cells flooding into an area of the body in...

EVANSTON, Ill. -- A recent Northwestern University study found that a new treatment using stem cells might extend the lives of patients with lupus. Stem cell treatments could help patients with severe cases who have not responded to other options, according to a study published in the Feb. 1 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Lupus is a disease that causes patients' immune systems to become unable to distinguish between foreign substances and normal parts of the body. This causes the immune system to attack the patient's own cells and tissues instead of protecting them. Researchers, including...

Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect various parts of the body, especially the skin, joints, blood, and kidneys. The body's immune system normally makes proteins called antibodies to protect the body against viruses, bacteria and other foreign materials. In lupus, these antibodies mistake normal cells in the body’s tissues for foreign bodies and attack them. For most people, lupus is a mild disease affecting only a few organs. For others, it may cause serious and even life-threatening problems. The exact cause of lupus is unknown. More than 16,000 Americans develop lupus each year. According to the Lupus...

Before seeking out Dr. Richard Burt of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Kathy Hammons could barely care for her children as a result of the effects of lupus, an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks itself. She had been on oxygen for two years, was constantly fatigued, and was overweight from the steroids used to control her disease. "I would say before this option, they [lupus patients] hit a brick wall," Burt said. "They had nothing more, no further treatments." Burt's pioneering research, however, offered a new option. His breakthrough procedure uses a patient's stem cells to treat extremely severe cases...

Associated Press CHICAGO — For all of her 20s, when Edjuana Ross should have been relishing the thrill of early adulthood, she was instead in and out of hospitals, battling a disease that attacked her skin, brain and heart. Now, at 33, she has her life back, thanks to a stem-cell transplant from her own bone marrow, a drastic, experimental treatment that could be promising for patients with severe lupus. Ross' illness is in remission for the first time since her diagnosis shortly after high-school graduation. "I'm just trying to get used to being well, and it's a very weird...

A bright star suddenly appears on April 30, 1006 near the star Beta Lupi in the constellation Lupus. This bright star is yellowish-white in color. The star gets brighter, bright to a point, it is brighter than Venus and half Moon. It has a magnitude of -9 at its peak. The star was visible for a year and it disappeared afterwards. The bright star was a supernova. Supernovas are when a star explodes. The Supernova is recorded in Korea, China, Japan, Mesopotamia, and Europe, often by astrologers. The supernova was seen as an omen. The remnants of the 1006 Supernova...

ROXANNE PEREZ had never really been sick in her life until, at age 27, the roof began falling in. During a Fourth of July weekend at the beach in 2000, she was rushed to an emergency room suffering from convulsions. In the months after, she had blood transfusions and her spleen removed. Then, in 2001, she suffered a heart attack that left her heart permanently weakened. Ms. Perez, who lives in San Antonio, had to give up her job, her home and car and move in with her parents. Now 32, she suffers from frequent fatigue, made worse when she...

It’s a Lie, but Is It Fraud? By Reason McLucus Congress should investigate the false claims being made by advocates of embryonic stem cell research, particularly in light of the recent statement by Ronald D.G. McKay of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: “To start with, people need a fairy tale. Maybe that’s unfair, but they need a story line that’s relatively simple to understand.” McKay’s statement implies that embryonic stem cell researchers are deliberately lying about the value of their research in order to take money away from other areas of research that offer more promise for...

Curing Chronic Illness Can Be Used To Destroy Either Political Party Ladies and Gentlemen: I present to you the world's longest running, and greatest, medical blunder, the cures for incurable diseases, and the Second Coming of Christ. There are 120 million American's with chronic illness. In 1997, researchers at Yale University were studying the clustering of autoimmune disorders in 84 families with Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome (APLA). They stated then that if they knew what caused APLA they would know a lot more about many of the other chronic illnesses. At the same time, I was searching the Internet for information...

22-year-old Army reservist who died in April may have succumbed to a combination of vaccinations, including those for smallpox and anthrax, the Pentagon said yesterday. But an Army medical expert, calling the death "a rare and tragic case," said the military's vaccination policies would not be changed. The soldier, Specialist Rachel Lacy, a reservist at Fort McCoy, Wis., died of "a complicated illness, diagnosed as `like lupus,' " said the expert, Col. John D. Grabenstein of the Army surgeon general's office. A month earlier, Specialist Lacy had received five shots to protect her against smallpox, anthrax, hepatitis B, typhoid, measles,...

Astronomy Picture of the DayDiscover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 March 28 1006 AD: Supernova in the Sky Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel Explanation: A new star, likely the brightest supernova in recorded human history, appeared in planet Earth's sky in the year 1006 AD. The expanding debris cloud from the stellar explosion is still visible to modern astronomers, but what did the supernova look like in 1006? Astronomer Tunç Tezel offers this suggestion, based on a photograph...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 March 17 SN 1006: History's Brightest Supernova Credit: Frank Winkler (Middlebury College et al., AURA, NOAO, NSF Explanation: Suddenly, in the year 1006 AD, a new star appeared in the sky. Over the course of just a few days, the rogue star became brighter than the planet Venus. The star, likely the talk of everyone who could see it, was recorded by people who lived in areas...