Latest STANFORD Stories

A widely used combination of two common medications may cause unexpected increases in blood glucose levels, according to a study conducted at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University and Harvard Medical School. Researchers were surprised at the finding because neither of the two drugs "” one, an antidepressant marketed as Paxil, and the other, a cholesterol-lowering medication called Pravachol "” has a similar effect alone.The increase is more pronounced in people...

By Louis Bergeron, StanfordThe magnitude 9 earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 were like a one-two punch "“ first violently shaking, then swamping the islands "“ causing tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. Now Stanford researchers have discovered the catastrophe was caused by a sequence of unusual geologic events never before seen so clearly."It was not appreciated before this earthquake that this size of earthquake...

RIVERDALE, Md., May 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Broken Switch Studios has launched their new iOS title Bubble Trolls on the Apple App Store(TM). iPhone and iPod touch versions are 99c; the iPad version is $1.99. Also, a free Lite version is available. Bubble Trolls is a physics-based arcade-style game where the player must help a Troll travel downstream to his home via a Bubble Taxi. The player creates ripples by tapping the water to move the bubble past a myriad of hazards determined to pop...

Scientists at the University of Toronto, Stanford and Columbia Universities have developed a way to measure the action and function of candidate prescription drugs on human cells, including the response of individual cells, more quickly and on a larger scale than ever before.The researchers say their "mass cytometry" technology has the potential to transform the understanding of a variety of diseases and biologic actions, and will provide a better tool to understand how a healthy...

On land, being small and lurking at the bottom of the food chain is a far better strategy for species survival than being big, fierce and perched on top, at least when humans are after you "“ just ask the mice and grizzly bears.But talk to sharks and anchovies and they'll tell you a different story, according to a new study of fisheries collapses led by Stanford researchers.Analyzing over 200 scientific assessments of fisheries around the globe, the team found that populations of small fish...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and STANFORD, Calif., April 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Stanford University School of Medicine and SanBio Inc. today announced the initiation of a Phase 1/2a clinical trial testing the safety and efficacy of a novel allogeneic cell therapy product, SB623, on patients suffering from stable deficits resulting from previous stroke injuries. For details regarding this clinical trial, please refer to the Clinicaltials.gov website...

An expensive blood-clotting drug that is intended only for hemophilia patients is being used in hospitals predominantly to treat patients without this disorder, despite evidence suggesting that it could harm them, according to a pair of studies from the Stanford University School of Medicine.In fact, the studies estimate that only 4 percent of the powerful drug's use in U.S. hospitals from 2000 through 2008 was for treating hemophilia patients, while an enormous 96 percent involved cases of...

MCLEAN, Va., April 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF), an official NCAA® Corporate Champion, announced today the official winter standings for the Capital One Cup, a program rewarding NCAA Division I athletics programs for their cumulative on-field performance across multiple men's and women's sports. Following a highly competitive winter championship season that featured eight championships and saw 30 men's and women's athletics programs earn their...

People who use in vitro fertilization to conceive children often have leftover embryos and must decide whether to store them, dispose of them or possibly donate them for research. A new process developed by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine allows these people to make this decision in the privacy of their own homes "” without any interaction with clinic personnel or scientists who might benefit from the research."There is concern that conflicts of interest and...

March of Dimes and Stanford University School of Medicine Launch Research Center to Understand and Prevent Prematurity STANFORD, Calif., March 30, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The March of Dimes and Stanford University School of Medicine today launched the nation's first transdisciplinary research center dedicated to identifying the causes of premature birth. Prematurity is the number one reason for newborn death in the United States today, yet in nearly half of the cases of premature...