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Agency Publishes 2012 Salt Reduction Targets
As part of its continued drive to reduce people"s risk of developing coronary heart disease, the Food Standards Agency has today published revised, voluntary salt reduction targets for industry to meet by 2012.

Availability Of IVF Treatment In UK Still Poor Compared With Rest Of Europe
Commenting on the news announced today by ESHRE"s European IVF monitoring consortium on the improvements in the quality, safety and efficacy of ART, Clare Lewis-Jones MBE, Chief Executive of Infertility Network UK said "We are angry that although the UK pioneered infertility treatment, we are still among the lowest providers in Europe of NHS treatment, and these figures show that availability in the UK is less than one third of that in Denmark. Recent measures announced by the Government to encourage implementation of the NICE Guideline have led to an improvement in the provision in some areas but more needs to be done by Primary Care Trusts in England to ensure that patients have equal and timely access to the full range of treatment recommended by NICE, and to tackle the ongoing variations in provision that exist across the country.
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Premier Healthcare Alliance Acquires Phase 2 Consulting To Expand Its Performance Improvement Offerings To Its Member Hospitals Nationwide
The Premier healthcare alliance has acquired Phase 2 Consulting (P2C), a leading provider of consulting services to hospitals and health systems.
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Rampant Helper Syndrome Methane-producing Molecule Can Also Repair DNA

Catalysts assist in chemical reactions without undergoing any alteration of their own. In the cells of living organisms, proteins perform this important function. They carry out the metabolism fundamental to all living processes. Proteins are instrumental in cellular respiration, they for instance reduce oxygen to water and oxidize food into carbon dioxide. This releases the energy that makes life possible at all. Proteins cannot perform these functions on their own. They depend on small helper molecules. Such molecules are stored inside special pockets in the proteins and carry out essential metabolic functions. The living organism itself produces many of these helpers. Others like vitamins must be obtained from food. Severe vitamin deficiencies are a harsh reminder of how essential these molecules are. Methanogenic bacteria have quite an exceptional task to accomplish: They have to produce methane. In terms of chemistry, this is no mean feat. Methane production is currently one of the most hotly pursued goals for the purposes of renewable energy. It is also a serious greenhouse gas. Enzymatic methane production involves the tiny molecule deazaflavin, known as cofactor F0 or cofactor F420. This cofactor is stored inside special proteins of methanogenic bacteria, and is essential for methane biosynthesis. Cofactor F0/F420 is a small molecule that, until now, has only been found in methanogenic bacteria. It is regarded as the signature molecule for such species. "We have now shown that this picture is not entirely true," Carell says. "This cofactor is significantly more widespread in the biosphere than previously assumed. Most importantly, it also occurs in higher organisms, the so-called eukaryotes. But in these, it performs a completely different task." As the researchers were able to demonstrate, the cofactor is involved in DNA repair processes. Specifically, repair of UV damage to the DNA molecule. Plants and many other organisms that are exposed to intense sunlight must cope with an enormous degree of damage to their genes. To repair those mutations, they need the help of complex enzymes. These photolyases in turn require cofactor FAD aka vitamin B2 to accomplish this function. It has long been suspected that these crucial enzymes require yet another cofactor to provide the energy that DNA repair requires. "We have now shown that, in many organisms, this cofactor is F0/F420," Carell reports. "This molecule has been conclusively detected in DNA repair enzymes of Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly. Not long ago, another research group even postulated that F0/F420 is co-responsible for DNA repair in plants. Our view of cofactor F420 as a signature molecule for methanogenic species has therefore radically changed: this cofactor is widespread and it is essential for both methane synthesis and for DNA repair." Professor Thomas Carell is speaker of the "Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich (CiPSM)" center of excellence which supported this research. (suwe) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen


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