Free Republic

A research team found that a subset of artificial heart patients can regenerate heart muscle, which may open the door to new ways to treat and perhaps someday cure heart failure. There is no cure for heart failure, though medications can slow its progression. The only treatment for advanced heart failure, other than a transplant, is pump replacement through an artificial heart, called a left ventricular assist device. Said Hesham Sadek, MD, Ph.D., "When a heart muscle is injured, it doesn't grow back. We have nothing to reverse heart muscle loss." Sadek led a collaboration between international experts to investigate...

Study demonstrates that mice can regrow hair follicles at wound sites; the finding could lead to treatment for human hair lossAside from a few, fleeting empirical observations in the 1950s, adult mammals appear to be lacking regenerative abilities. Just ask anyone whose hair follicles have died—the result is baldness. But there is a glimmer of hope for the hair-challenged among us. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania report that new hair follicles formed on the backs of mice that had suffered open skin wounds. The finding could pave the way for use in regenerating human hair. In fact, that possibility...

Profs. Susan Braunhut and Kenneth Marx have teamed up to pursue a “mind-blowing” innovation—to cause a limb to re-grow in an adult mammal.The UMass Lowell research group has joined groups from five other institutions and secured funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The UMass Lowell portion of the DARPA grant is $1.2 million for the first two years, with an anticipated continuation of $1.4 million for the next two years. The research groups expect that by working together they will gain a more complete understanding of the cellular and molecular processes that allow certain creatures, such as...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Once feared for its deadly suicide attacks in Israel, the Islamic militant group Hamas these days is but a shadow on Palestinian streets it once ruled with Kalashnikovs and the Quran. Its key leaders are dead, slain by Israeli missiles. Its fighters are on the run from Israeli armor and infantry. Once capable of devastating attacks, it's been reduced to lobbing crude, homemade rockets at Jewish towns and settlements around the Gaza Strip. But Hamas is likely to regenerate, because the underlying reasons for its popularity haven't changed. The absence of peace negotiations and a...