Testing for health conditions usually involves needles, X-rays and other invasive or uncomfortable measures. To make diagnostics less burdensome for patients, scientists are developing alternatives, looking for disease markers in urine—and even spit. Now a study, appearing in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, demonstrates for the first time that individuals may have saliva "fingerprints." The finding suggests that identifying changes in these baseline fingerprints could someday be a reliable wa...

Each year in the United States, nearly 800,000 people suffer a stroke, or a brain attack. This occurs when an artery that supplies blood to part of the brain becomes blocked or ruptures and leads to bleeding in the brain. In ischemic strokes, a blood clot is the triggering event, while the remaining 10 percent of strokes are called hemorrhagic and a burst blood vessel or aneurysm is typically the cause. Strokes occur frequently: Once every 40 seconds, while every four minutes an American dies...