A recently published paper in Genome Research suggests that the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine (photograph courtesy of the BBC), which actually looked much more like a dog and was in fact a marsupial, may have died out partly because of a lack of genetic diversity.  The hair of two specimens held in museums (the last captive animal died in 1936) has shown that the animals had practically identical DNA.  Whilst there is no denying that it was hunting which finally eliminated the wild population of thylacines in the early 1900s, it is likely that the lack of genetic diversity would have made the remaining population extremely vulnerable to disease.  The team who have analysed the DNA are hoping to understand more about why large mammals become extinct, and are now looking at the DNA of the Tasmanian devil which is threatened by a transmissible facial cancer in the hope that genetic diversity could be increased through a selective breeding programme.

The Hot Topic for January 2009 from Intute: Health and Life Sciences is on Neurodegenerative Diseases, including Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, motor neurone disease and related conditions. Follow the “Hot Topic” link to see this document, which features selected relevant websites.

During January users of Intute: Health and Life Sciences will notice a change in the presentation of subject headings on the Home Page.  The Bioresearch and Natural History headings will be combined into a single new heading: Biological Sciences.  The content of the two subgateways has been combined and is cross searchable, but the browse structure will remain basically unchanged, though with a few minor modifications.  These changes have been informed by user feedback and an Advisory Group of experts in the subject area.  The content of the Biological Sciences area has also been improved by the addition of hundreds of new resources. 

The changes will take place on Tuesday 13th January 2009 and the new URL for Biological Sciences will be:

http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/biologicalsciences/ 

The old URLs:

 http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/bioresearch/ 

 http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/nature/

will be redirected to the new address.

If you know anyone who might be interested in these changes, please let them know.

Thank you.

Currently on at the Natural History Museum in London, the Darwin Big Idea exhibition claims to be the largest ever held about Charles Darwin and celebrates the 200th anniversary of his birth.  Some of the exhibits are on display for the first time, and are used to illustrate the ideas which fundamentally changed our understanding of the world, as well as helping to understand the man himself.  The exhibition is on until April and details can be found on the website of the Natural History Museum.

For more information use Intute: Health and Life Sciences to find resources on Darwin or on Evolution.

Justice has finally arrived, very belatedly, in the case of Rachel Nickell, murdered on Wimbledon Common in 1992. As so often happens with media reports of sensational events, there is a background of medical and scientific terminology. It may be that the general public, as well as media writers, would like sometimes to find out more about some of the terms that get bandied about, in which case Intute: Health and Life Sciences can be a good place to start. Many such cases involve a reference to forensic science, about which Intute has more than 100 references. The real murderer of Rachel Nickell was trapped by advances in DNA profiling, and information on these techniques can also be found via Intute, as can information on the condition from which he was suffering, schizophrenia.

On a lighter note, we may perhaps recall some happier residents of Wimbledon Common, namely The Wombles. I encountered them earlier this week in the Town Hall Square in Leicester, and I would recommend anyone with children, or anyone who is still a child at heart and lives within striking distance of Leicester, to go and take a look at them among the Christmas festivities there. Humorous, eco-friendly, socially responsible creatures they are: role models for us all. Season’s Greetings to all our readers.

Stem cell research and treatments receive an enormous amount of news coverage and we have recently evaluated several teaching resources on stem cells and added them to our biological research section.

However, we haven’t come across many veterinary  teaching resources on this subject, but two resources I have looked at this week do focus on stem cells and regenerative medicine in horses.

The first is a Royal Veterinary College Podcast on equine stem cells, where Roger Smith, Professor of Equine Surgery at the RVC describes how stem cell research can be used in order to improve the treatment of tendon disease in horses.

The second resource is a freely available full-text publication produced by the Center for Equine Health, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. ‘Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine in Horses’ is a special issue of the ‘Horse Report’ dedicated entirely to this subject. It describes in detail the potential uses for stem cells in equine medicine and includes a veterinary case study presented to the UC Davis teaching hospital of a mare with a severe fracture of her right front long pastern bone.

Our Hot Topic for December focuses on Down’s syndrome. A selection of Web resources have been chosen to complement this topic, and they include tutorials, lectures, the NHS Screening Programme, and organisations and charities that conduct research in this area. There are resources of interest for those who have Down’s syndrome, parents, carers, students, and health care professionals.

The ‘War and Medicine’ exhibition is a free exhibition which will run from 22 November 2008 until 15 February 2009 at Wellcome Collection, London. The exhibition focuses on modern conflict through the personal experiences of surgeons, soldiers, civilians, nurses, writers and artists.

The exhibition has an online presence which has some fascinating features, which includes:

• Image Galleries - containing war-related images
• Video Collection - a collection of videos of people who have witnessed war first-hand
• A place for anyone to share their memories of war - ‘Remembering War - Your memories’

Further information on the exhibition and its programme of discussions, debates, film screenings and tours can be found on the exhibition website.

Why not browse the Intute collection of evaluated Web resources on the topic of war and medicine - let us know if you have a resource that you would like us to add to our collection.

I attended the launch of WikiVet last month - a fascinating project that aims to be an authoritative educational information resource for veterinary students, nurses, and graduates. WikiVet is a collaborative project that includes content relating specifically to the veterinary curriculum. Further project details can be found from the Higher Education Academy press release.

This started to make me think about some of the other interesting and interactive educational resources which have recently been made available for veterinary and animal health students, researchers, and practitioners. Here are some of my favourites, all are freely available and in the public domain:

RVC Podcasts - Veterinary Science on the Move - a collection of Podcasts on a range of animal health topics

Veterinary Nurse Training Online (VNTO) -  an online module focusing on MRSA and infection control

The Drost Project Visual Guides to to Theriogenology (Animal Reproduction) - contains visual guides to reproduction in six different species

Looking for available courses and career guidance in animal and veterinary education? Why not try CAVE, a searchable database of courses in animal and veterinary education devised by the VETNET Lifelong Learning Network, the National Lifelong Learning Network for the veterinary and animal related industries.

If you have any veterinary and animal health Web resources that you would like to see in Intute: Veterinary, then please do submit it to our collection of evaluated Web resources.

Our November Hot Topic considers the ethics of medical research in developing countries. Key issues covered include ‘The World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki’, informed consent, and many of the core ethical concerns over medical research in developing countries. This Hot Topic was compiled by our colleagues at the Wellcome Trust.