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Pioneer Surgical Technology, Inc. announced, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to proceed to IDE Pivotal Study of the NuBac(R) Nucleus Replacement Device for the spine. Pioneer's CEO and Chairman of the Board, Matthew N. Songer, MD, MBA says, "This is a huge milestone and accomplishment for Pioneer to be the first to receive FDA approval to start the IDE pivotal study for nucleus replacement.

Sensory neurons have always put on a good show. But now, it turns out, they'll be sharing the credit. In groundbreaking research to appear in the October 31 issue of Science, Rockefeller University scientists show that while neurons play the lead role in detecting sensory information, a second type of cell, the glial cell, pulls the strings behind the scenes.

Researchers at the Indiana University School of medicine report that the anti-cancer drug Gleevec holds out promise to become the first effective treatment for neurofibromatosis, a genetic disease that has resisted treatments until now. The research team is conducting clinical tests of the drug following successful laboratory tests and a "compassionate use" of the drug that showed dramatic results in a three-year-old girl at Riley hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

A study has found that people who facially express pain in a more intense way are not exaggerating if their perception of a painful stimulation is controlled. The study conducted by Miriam Kunz is published in the November issue of Pain. The study was conducted on 20 men and 20 women between the ages of 18 and 30. Kunz placed a heating device on their leg to provoke the painful stimulus.

Tumors that grow around nerves in a rare genetic disease need cooperation from cells from the immune system in order to grow, reports a team of scientists, including researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center. Treating mice with a drug that attacks the immune cells not the tumor greatly reduced the size and metabolism of the tumors, the scientists reported. A clinical trial of the treatment in humans has begun.

BOSTON (MedPage Today) -- Gene variations not previously known to be associated with Alzheimer's disease may heighten risk for the most common form of the illness, researchers here said.