| Cleft palate in fetal mice prevented by treating
STANFORD, Calif. -- Mice engineered to have cleft palates can be rescued in utero by injecting the mothers with a small molecule to correct the defect, say scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. In addition to shedding light on the biology of cleft palate, the research raises hopes that it may one day be possible to prevent many types of human birth defects by using a similar vaccination-type technique in pregnant women likely to have affected fetuses. "This is a really important baby step that opens the door to the development of fetal therapies," said pediatric craniofacial surgeon Michael Longaker, MD. "Our hope and expectation is that patients at Packard Children's and other institutions will benefit as this basic advance is translated into something that will eventually make a significant difference for this and other birth defects." Longaker is the senior author of the study, which will be published in the Feb.
Casting a new hook adds sass to catching bass
Don't you know the pros aren't supposed to get in the face of the bass they catch and shout ``Who's your daddy?'' or start break dancing on the weigh-in stand like you do? Don't you realize you're supposed to play country music, not hip-hop, to get psyched for a day of tournament fishing? And that when you go ballistic after catching a bass while the ESPN cameras are rolling, some viewers don't know what to think? Come on, Mikey, don't you know this isn't Philadelphia anymore? ``When I first came up, I tried to fit in,'' said Iaconelli, 34, who has made an unlikely climb to the top of the bass fishing world. ``I really tried to look at what was the norm in fishing, everything from the way the pros dressed to how they presented themselves. ``I tried the humble, `aw, shucks' routine.
Let them eat pancakesi
Not too many years ago, the intersection of Church and 30th streets had a distinctly end-of-the-line, Hooterville flavor. It was there that Muni's J-Church streetcars ran out of track and had to turn themselves around for the voyage back to Market Street. The restaurants were a motley crew too, a helter-skelter bouquet of old, dimly lit places Italian, Burmese and a few brash arrivistes, such as Valentine's and Café J. .
STEFANI'S BABY GETS HIS OWN TOURBUS
GWEN STEFANI's baby son KINGSTON has landed his own tourbus, thanks to US TV chat show host ELLEN DEGENERES. Ellen presented the singer with a mini-tourbus, complete with a baby bed and playthings, when Stefani was a guest on her show last week (09FEB07) to promote her upcoming US tour. The HOLLABACK GIRL singer was thrilled with the rocking gift, but wasn't sure she'd actually be able to find space for the mini-bus. She giggled, "That is ridiculous... Where am I gonna put this?"
12/02/2007 01:59
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GWEN STEFANI
ELLEN DEGENERES
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