Health Issue: BOON FOR MOTHERS

Goats bioengineered to provide human milk Moscow: Russia has bred transgenic goats which give milk identical to human milk and coould be used as an alternative to breast feeding as it contains the human protein known as lactoferrin, absent in daity animals, according to a report.        lactoferrin protein, present in human milk, protects a newborn baby against viruses and bacteria until the baby's own immunity system becomes resistant enough.        "The first two kids with a human genome in their DNA were raised back in 2007 in the village of Goltsovo, outside Moscow, and were named Lac-1 and Lac-2, after lactoferrin , "RIA Novosti reported.             These two goats and their offspring became part of a joint Russian-Belarus BelRos Transgen researchproject, aimed at studying the properties of goat milk containg lactoferrin.                 Experiments to obtain goat milk with lactoferrin have been going on in russia and Belarus for the last five years. Scientists chose the goat as a "supplier" of the human milk protein because this animal is easy to keep and is not susceptible to disease. More importantly, goat milk cause no allergic reactions in infants.

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New Way To Detect Viral Infection

New way to detect viral infections gives homeopathy a boost Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier, who discovered the link between HIV and AIDS, has suggested a method for detection viral infections which bears close parallels to the basic tenets of homeopathy.       A Nobel laureate who discovered thelink between HIV and AIDS has suggested there could be a firm scientific foundation for homeopathy.       Professor Luc Montagnler, a French virologist, stunned his colleagues at a prestigious international conference when he presented a new method for detecting viral infections which bore close parallels to the basic, tenets of homeopathy. Al though fellow Nobel prize winners - who view homeopathy as quackery - were left shaking their heads, Montagnier's comments were rapidly embraced by homeopaths in UK eager for greater credibility.      Montagnier told the conference last week that solutions containing DNA of pathogenic bacteria and viruses, including HIV, "could emit low frequency radio waves" that induced surrounding water molecules to become arranged into "nanostructures" These water molecules, he said, could also emit radio waves. He suggested that water could retain such properties even after the original solutions were massively diluted, to the point where the original DNA had effectively vanished. In this way, he suggested, water could retain the "memory" of substances with which it had been in contact and doctors could use the ecisslons to detect disease.       For the lay person such claims may sound technical but uncontroversial. For scientists they are highly provocative because they embody principles which are extremely similar to those said to underpin homeopathy. Homeopathic medicines work on the principle that a toxic. substance taken in minute amounts will cure same symptoms that it would cause if it were taken in large amounts.        Montagnier's claims come at a sensitive time,with the British Medical Association's annual conference last week calling for the National Health Service to stop spending pounds 4m a year on homeopathy.

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Joha Abaham and Bipasha Invite Pary for Dhoni

John-Bips to host party for Dhoni        After the action in Dehradun over the weekend, the excitement is going to shift to Mumbai. And, TOI has it that John Abraham and Bipasha Basu, who are Mahendra singh Dhoni's closest freinds in Mumbai, are going to be holding a party for the newly-married Team India captain at John's duplex penthouse apartment in Sea Glimpse building, Bandra Bandstand. This prty, a sort of reception for Dhoni and his new bride Sakshi, may happen on Wednesday, July?, which is also the crickets birthday.        Bipasha, who was shooting in Dlu for Priyadarshan's "Aakrosh' on Saturday, could not accompany John to Dehradun for the wedding, because the couple (like everybody else, including Dhoni's cricketing teammates) got short notice. John himself, who spoke to TOI from the Dehradun airport, "Had no idea that he was heading for the ceremony. I just got a call from Mahi saying, Bro, please come... and I rushed off," said the Bollywood hunk who did not find the time to even pick up a gift for his buddy. Bipasha was attending to that.       She and John are both returning to Mumbai on Monday, he has to report on the sets of Vishal Bharadwaj's 'Saat khoon Maaf', and Dhoni and Sakshi are slated to come to the city on Wednesday after a brief stopover in Delhi. As towho will be invited to the party at John's home, according to Bipasha, only people close to them with whom Dhoni is comfortable. Apparently, the swashbuckling cricketer is a very private and reticent man, he doesn't know too many people in Mumbai. But he is a big fan of Ajay Devgn, revealed Bips.      The Bollywood couple have beenon foursome dates with Dhoni and Sakshi before and are pleased at the marriage. John gave his friend's choice a thumbs up. "Sakshi is a nice girl, very sweet... damn cute and pretty, a small-town girl with good middle-class values, she is perfect for Dhoni. In our industry, he'd be devoured, he's such a wonderful and amazing person." said John. While Bips added from Diu, "I'm over the moon. I can't tell you how happy I am that Mahi and Sakshi are getting married."

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