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Merseyside Nurse Jailed For 9 Months For Fraud
A nurse has been sentenced to 9 months" imprisonment at Liverpool Crown Court (15th June, 2009) for obtaining an NHS bursary and then employment in a private nursing home using forged documents, after overstaying his leave to remain in the UK. The conviction follows an investigation by NHS Counter Fraud.

Researchers Id Brain-Protecting Protein
Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a novel protein that can protect brain cells by interrupting a naturally occurring "stress cascade" resulting in cell death.
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Vitamin D Repletion Does Not Alter Urinary Calcium Excretion In Healthy Postmenopausal Women
UroToday.com - Vitamin D needs, especially in the northern latitudes where direct sunlight is unavailable for much of the year, are currently under scrutiny by members of both the scientific and medical communities. Vitamin D primarily plays a role in regulating calcium absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. However, epidemiologic and laboratory studies support the notion that vitamin D might play a role in chemoprevention - particularly of cancers of the colon, breast, ovarian, and prostate (Garland et al., Am J Public Health 2006;96:252-61) - immune modulation and prevention of certain autoimmune disorders (Cantorna et al., Exp Biol Med 2004;229:1136-1142), promoting bone integrity and preserving muscle mass (Montero-Odasso et al., Mol Aspects Med 2005;26:203-19), cardiovascular disease prevention (Wang et al., Circulation 2008;117:503-11), and prevention of all-cause mortality (Melamed et al., Arch Intern Med 2008;168:1629-37).
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The Development Of Mechanosensitivity

Researchers of the Max DelbrÃøck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have gained crucial insight into how mechanosensitivity arises. By measuring electrical impulses in the sensory neurons of mice, the neurobiologists and pain researchers Dr. Stefan G. Lechner and Professor Gary Lewin were able to directly elucidate, for the first time, the emergence of mechanosensitivity. At the same time they were able to show that neurons develop their sensitivity to touch and pain during different developmental phases but always coincidentally with the growth of the neuronal pathways. (EMBO Journal, 2009, doi:10.1038/emboj.2009.73).* The sensory neurons, which are sensitive to touch and pain, are located in the dorsal root ganglia between the intervertebral discs. The neurons receive the stimulus and convert it into electrical signals that are conveyed to the brain. Signal transduction has been investigated very thoroughly, which has led to the development of drugs that block the transduction of pain signals to the brain. Very little, however, is known about how stimulus sensitivity actually emerges. Using the patch-clamp technique in isolated cells of mouse embryos, the MDC researchers succeeded in measuring tiny electrical currents in the cell membranes after a mechanosensory stimulus. "These measurements are extremely difficult," Dr. Lechner explained, "which is why only very few laboratories in the world are specialized in this area." The researchers in Berlin-Buch were able to show that the sensory neurons in the mouse embryo have already fully developed their mechanosensitivity competence on embryonic day 13. That corresponds to about the end of the sixth month of pregnancy in humans. For this development the neurons do not require any nerve growth factor, which is why the researchers suspect that this process is driven by a genetic program. In contrast, the competence to sense pain in the sensory neurons can only develop with the aid of nerve growth factor (NGF). It takes place at a later stage in embryonic development and even after birth. *Developmental waves of mechanosensitivity acquisition in sensory neuron subtypes during embryonic development Stefan G Lechner, Henning Frenzel1, Rui Wang1 and Gary R Lewin* Department of Neuroscience, Max DelbrÃøck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin-Buch, Germany *Corresponding author Barbara Bachtler Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres


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