Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are harnessing two new, non-invasive techniques to look more closely inside the working lungs - leading to early detection of diseases, like emphysema, before it becomes evident in other modes of imaging.

Although scientists know about basic voice production-the two "vocal folds" in the larynx vibrate and pulsate airflow from the lungs-the larynx is one of the body's least understood organs.

It makes for bobbing balloons and squeaky voices, but now helium is also helping people with severe respiratory problems breathe easier.

A respiratory pathogen common in newborns may be passed on to the lungs following initial infection in the eye say researchers from the University of South Alabama, College of Medicine. They report their findings in the January 2007 issue of the Journal of Virology.

In a study of non-human primates infected with the influenza virus that killed 50 million people in 1918, an international team of scientists has found a critical clue to how the virus killed so quickly and efficiently.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic autoimmune disorder marked by early skin lesions and the progressive tissue fibrosis. More than skin deep, this thickening and hardening of connective tissue affects the blood capillaries, the gastrointestinal tract, the lungs, and the heart.

Human rhinovirus (HRV), the leading cause of most common colds, struck two immunosuppressed lung transplant patients, leading to progressive respiratory failure, graft dysfunction and death.

A monoclonal antibody developed by researchers at the University at Buffalo has been shown to extend significantly the survival of mice with human breast-cancer tumors and to inhibit the cancer's spread to the lungs in the animals by more than 50 percent.