Recent Stories
- Unborn babies 'practise' facial expressions in the womb
- Lancaster leads the way in cyber security bursary scheme
- Physicists gain insight into the UK's biggest killer
- Engineering students make finals of national start-up business competition
- Social media plagued by privacy problems, say researchers
- Lancaster Environment Centre conducts roadside pollution research for BBC
- Lancaster set to receive funding boost to stimulate UK's economy
- Billion-year-old water could hold clues to life on Earth and Mars
- How do we find out about cyber criminals?
- First, carbon footprints... now you can calculate your 'nitrogen footprint'
Lancaster Scientists Contribute to Hydrocephalus Research
Story supplied by LU Press Office
A team of British scientists at Manchester and Lancaster Universities has turned established thinking on its head in a bid to understand the serious and often deadly condition, hydrocephalus, commonly known as 'water on the brain'.
A simple dietary supplement taken during pregnancy could prevent the brain defect resulting from hydrocephalus, revolutionary research suggests.
"Fetal-onset hydrocephalus results in a blockage in brain development which everyone has always thought was brain damage due to fluid accumulation," said Dr Jaleel Miyan, the University of Manchester scientist leading the research.
"There is currently no unequivocal prenatal diagnosis test or satisfactory treatment other than surgical diversion of the fluid through a tube, known as a shunt, from the brain to the abdomen or heart. Shunts are permanent and prone to infection and blockage so that patients may require several operations during their lifetime.
"This procedure is based on the established clinical view that this fluid is nothing more than a mechanical support system within the skull with little, if any, physiological properties and that hydrocephalus is simply a build up of excess cerebrospinal fluid in the brain.
"But our studies have shown that the condition may in fact cause a change in the composition of the fluid and that it is this chemical change that prevents normal cell division resulting in arrested brain development.
"We have also been excited by the results of tests that have shown it may be possible to 'unlock' the potential brain in fetuses with hydrocephalus using a simple dietary supplement during pregnancy."
Working with Dr Miyan will be Dr Jane Owen-Lynch, from Lancaster the University, Professor Carys Bannister, retired neurosurgeon and visiting Professor in Manchester's Faculty of Life Sciences and Miss Sarah Cains an MRC funded postgraduate student working on this project in Manchester.
Mon 28 November 2005
Associated Links
- Biological Sciences - Department of Biological Sciences home page
- Eat your way to a better brain for your baby - LU News article
Latest News
Unborn babies 'practise' facial expressions in the womb
Researchers from Durham and Lancaster Universities suggest that a foetus's ability to show a "pain" facial expression is a developmental process which could potentially give doctors another index of the health of a foetus.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Mon 17 June 2013
Lancaster leads the way in cyber security bursary scheme
Lancaster is one of four UK universities selected to take part in an 'industry first' sponsorship initiative encouraging students to take up Masters-level cyber security degrees.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Mon 10 June 2013
Physicists gain insight into the UK's biggest killer
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the UK, accounting for a third of all fatalities through illnesses such as stroke and heart disease.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Wed 29 May 2013
Engineering students make finals of national start-up business competition
Engineering students Scott Nash, Daniel Richardson and Aaron Aboshio have won the northern heat of the Youth Entrepreneurs Scheme 'Engineering YES' competition for their spin-out renewable energy company Atlantis.
Thu 23 May 2013