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Researchers have found an alternative method for obstetric care that leads not only to healthier newborns, but better outcomes for moms as well. The method maximizes the chance for vaginal delivery, as opposed to C-sections, which are potentially harmful and increasing in trend.

The advertising of alcohol, the marketing of alcoholic products, peer pressure and parental influence all play a part in the level of alcohol consumption among young people. Researchers found that advertising seems to be most effective in the case of alcopops and cider.

A new approach to treating vision loss caused by Type 1 Usher syndrome (USH1), the most common condition affecting both sight and hearing, has been developed. Preliminary results using a class of drugs called aminoglycosides, commonly used as antibiotics, had had promising effects in vitro and in cell culture.

Kicking the habit may soon become easier for the nation's 45 million smokers. For the first time, researchers have identified patterns of genes that appear to influence how well individuals respond to specific smoking cessation treatments.

Researchers have uncovered a brain pathway that shuts down seizures. They found that an acid-activated ion channel in the brain reacts to a drop in pH (increased acid) in a way that shuts down seizure activity. The link between low pH in the brain and seizure termination was first hinted at nearly 80 years ago when clinical experiments showed that breathing carbon dioxide, which makes brain tissue more acidic, helps stop epileptic seizures.

Researchers have modified a common chemotherapy drug to create a new probe for Positron Emission Tomography, an advance that will allow them to model and measure the immune system in action and monitor response to new therapies.

Scientists have isolated a new bacterium in pigs' stomachs thanks to a pioneering technique, offering hope of new treatments to people who suffer with stomach ulcers, according to research in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

Researchers have developed a new approach to identify molecular changes in the fluid bathing the central nervous system and used it to obtain insight into the mechanisms of central nervous system damage in a monkey model of the dementia and encephalitis (acute inflammation of the brain) that can occur during the late stages of HIV/AIDS. It is hoped that similar approaches could be used to provide new information about other neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders.

Heart transplants save the lives of more than 2,100 Americans every year. But many more patients are still waiting for a new heart to become available, and hundreds will die without ever getting a second chance at life. Meanwhile, tens of thousands more people aren't sick enough to need a transplant, but struggle every day with severe heart failure that limits all aspects of their lives.

B cells, precursors of autoantibody-secreting cells, have emerged as promising new therapeutic targets in autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis.