Featured Research: Health

Lecture

‘A hitchhikers guide to the galaxy of brain/body dialogues’

The title of Prof Millar’s lecture was ‘A hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy of brain/body dialogues’. He spoke about peptide hormones that regulate all aspects of body functions, including growth, energy metabolism and appetite, water and salt balance, stress and reproduction. These hormones are the target for a vast array of drugs that have found application in treating a wide range of...

Stories

UP’s Maxillofacial Prosthodontics Project: Restoring faces and changing lives

Patients who have suffered traumatic injuries to the facial area as a result of for example gunshot wounds, motor vehicle accidents or fires, often require prostheses to replace missing areas of bone or tissue.

Story

First-in-human anti-cancer procedure brings hope

Cancer affects the lives of thousands of people every day. Cancer cells that break off from a primary tumour and enter the bloodstream or lymph vessels can reach nearly all tissues of the body.

Story

Alzheimer's disease - Old friends and new promises

Having trouble remembering a name or a word, or occasionally not being able to think clearly, can be normal parts of life. But when these problems start to interfere with one’s ability to perform basic daily tasks such as working or preparing meals, they could be signs of a condition known as dementia.

Story

Phytomedicine - fighting parasites for healthier animals and people

Phytomedicine is an area of pharmacology in which plant materials are used for both preventive and therapeutic treatments. With the increasing resistance of parasites and micro-organisms to commercially available anti-parasitic and antimicrobial drugs, the need to find treatments that improve animal and human health directly, and improve food security indirectly, is becoming an essential area...

Story

Satellites to aid in the fight against Malaria

The earth is continually orbited and observed by a multitude of satellites. Popular films portray them as watching our every move and sniffing out arch villains from on high.