Deborah Kelly, a biologist at Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, has developed a "microchip-based toolkit" to watch the breast cancer affiliated BRCA1 gene act inside a human breast cancer cell. This new technology allows scientists to watch cancer cells in action at unprecedented resolution. They can now peer closely into the world of cells and molecules within a native, liquid environment. Kelly and colleagues have developed a way to isolate biological specimens in a flowing, liquid en...

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) principal faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have established a highly efficient method for making kidney structures from stem cells derived from skin taken from patients. The kidney structures formed could be used to study abnormalities of kidney development, chronic kidney disease, and the effects of toxic drugs, and could be incorporated into bioengineered devices to treat patients with acute and chronic kidney injury. In the longer term, these me...

A potential drug target has been discovered that could help scientists develop radical new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Blocking activity of the protein, known as GPR3, results in toxic deposits thought to play a key role in the disease clearing away from the brain. Laboratory mice suffering from Alzheimer’s-like symptoms showed improvements in learning, memory and social skills when they lacked GPR3, according to research published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Further t...

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Copenhagen have discovered a new way to 'fence in' a tumor and help stop cancer cells from spreading. Tumors cause cells called fibroblasts to stiffen the surrounding tissue so that cancer cells can grip it, allowing them to tunnel through to the blood stream and spread around the body. They showed that adding experimental drugs, reprogrammed fibroblasts helped in stopping them from 'stiffening' the tissue around tumors. This he...

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have created nanoparticles that resemble blood platelets that can be used to speed up the healing process and create clots faster to decrease blood loss from an injury. They have turned to the human body’s own mechanisms for inspiration in dealing with the necessary and complicated process of coagulation. By creating nanoparticles that mimic the shape, flexibility and surface biology of the body’s own platelets, they are able to accelera...

Cornell University researchers have developed a new lightweight and stretchable material with the consistency of memory foam that has potential for use in prosthetic body parts, artificial organs and soft robotics. The foam is unique because it can be formed and has connected pores that allow fluids to be pumped through it. The foam starts as a liquid, so researchers can pour it into a 3D printed mould in order to form the heart, adding appropriate valves to the finished structure. This means...

An enzyme called telomerase plays a significant role in aging and most cancers, but until recently many aspects of the enzyme’s structure could not be clearly seen. Scientists from UCLA and UC Berkeley have produced images of telomerase in much higher resolution than ever before, giving them major new insights about the enzyme. Their findings, could ultimately lead to new directions for treating cancer and preventing premature aging. “Many details we could only guess at before, we can now see...

Researchers from Stanford University have improved artificial hands by attaching some flexible sensors on the fingertips, which can generate some electrical signals that can communicate with our brain directly instead of via a processor or a computer to translate back the signals to our brain. Engineers have built a flexible sensor that detects touch and, just like skin, produces electrical pulses that get faster when the pressure increases. They have also used those pulses to drive neuronal ...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a predictive model that can provide doctors with an "invasiveness index" for cancer based on blood samples from individual patients, according to a new study. The test is based on chemical expression by specific cells in the body that help cancer move from the breast to other parts of the body. We want women to have more information to make a personal decision beyond the averages calculated for an entire population," said Manu ...

University of Illinois researchers developed a new approach, dubbed COMPASS that points directly to a protein’s likely structure using a combination of advanced molecular spectroscopy techniques, predictive protein-folding algorithms and image recognition software. Led by U. of I. chemistry professor Chad Rienstra, the team published its results in the journal Structure. “We’ve taken a process that would take months and brought it down to hours,” said Joseph Courtney, an Illinois graduate studen...

Danish scientists who were working on ways to fight malaria in pregnant women have accidentally discovered that the malaria protein they were using in their vaccine, when armed with a toxin, could kill cancer cells. The test was conducted on mice, and showed that the malaria protein first attached itself to the carbohydrate of the cancer cell, which later was killed off by the toxin. They hope to be able to begin tests on humans in the next four years. For decades, scientists have been search...

Researchers have imaged in unprecedented detail the three-dimensional structure of supercoiled DNA, revealing that its shape is much more dynamic than the well-known double helix. As reported online today in the journal Nature Communications, the simulations also show the dynamic nature of DNA, which constantly wiggles and morphs into different shapes, a far cry from the commonly held idea of a rigid and static double helix. Improving our understanding of what DNA looks like when it is in the...

Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have developed novel theoretical approach to reduce antibiotic resistance. The increasing rate of antibiotic resistance and slowing discovery of novel antibiotic treatments presents a growing threat to public health. It is estimated that each year in the United States 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to one or more types of antibiotics, and at least 23,000 people will die because of these infections. This problem is being exacerb...

Pig organs could soon be transplanted into patients after Harvard University scientists discovered a way to genetically modify pig DNA so it is more compatible with humans. Scientists have spent decades trying to engineer pig tissue so that it would not be rejected by the human body, but the immune system has always prevented success. A major hurdle in transplanting pig organs into humans has been overcome by the scientists. All pig DNA carries the porcine endogenous retrovirus which infects ...

Rhesus monkeys were completely protected from the deadly Ebola virus when treated three days after infection with a compound that blocks the virus's ability to replicate. These encouraging preclinical results suggest the compound, known as GS-5734, should be further developed as a potential treatment, according to research findings to be presented tomorrow at the IDWeek conference. Travis Warren, Ph.D., a principal investigator at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease...

Three researchers who unraveled the mechanism behind a molecular kiss of death, a tag that marks proteins for destruction, have been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Irwin Rose of the University of California, together with Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko from the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, transformed cell biology during the early 1980s through their studies of how proteins are broken down inside cells. Their work sparked new ideas about how cells regulate themsel...

The first clinical trial injecting fetal stem cells into babies in the womb will start in January and will be led by Sweden's Karolinska Institute and in the UK by Great Ormond Street Hospital. The stem cells will come from terminated pregnancies. It is hoped the cells, which are able to transform into a range of tissues, will lessen symptoms of incurable brittle bone disease. Severe brittle bone disease is rare but can be so devastating that many women decide to end their pregnancy on being ...

Neurologists at Yale University have discovered that it is possible to identify an individual's unique identity by mapping brain activity. Unlike a fingerprint, which is based on the physical structure of a finger or thumb, a brain profile is based on brain activity, which is similarly unique. The research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, used data obtained through functional MRI (fMRI) scans to build an individual's connectivity profile. Neuroscientists have found that they can...

Harvard scientists have had coffee under the microscope for years, and last year announced the discovery of six new human genes that relate to coffee, reconfirming existence of two others previously identified. The long-running Harvard Nurses Health Study has found that coffee has protective qualities against type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and investigators are revisiting a 2001 study finding that it can also protect against Parkinson’s disease. Powell notes that this research at Ha...

CRISPR is able to circumvent the genetic mutation that causes sickle cell disease. The latest Sickle Cell Research from Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center is that they have found that changes to a small stretch of DNA may circumvent the genetic defect behind sickle cell disease. They are developing gene-editing approaches to treat the disease and other hemoglobin disorders. This stretch of DNA, called an enhancer, controls a molecular switch that determines whe...

A Nigerian product design engineering graduate from the University of Derby in the United Kingdom (UK), Jaiyeola Oduyoye, has created a mobile medical battery back-up system that aids the growth of surgeries taking place in developing countries. Oduyoye, has created a product that provides temporary backup electricity to operate in theatres in developing countries, countries that have difficulty in accessing 24/7 electricity, so that they are able to perform surgeries in their country, rather th...

Stanford researchers Beth Pruitt and Alexandre Ribeiro have discovered that a heart cell matured from stem cells in the lab looks and behaves like a normal adult heart cell when grown in a long, thin shape and on a surface that provides some tension. Pruitt and her colleagues at the Stanford University School of Medicine began working on the problem of how to develop more normal looking heart cells through a Stanford Bio-X grant in 2010. At the time, their goal was to find ways of probing the me...

Scientists at the University of British Columbia have developed a self-propelled powder capable of delivering coagulants to hard-to-reach severe bleeding sites, like a ruptured uterus or severed aorta. Kastrup and his research partners developed gas-generating calcium carbonate micro-particles, which can bind with tranexamic acid, a clotting agent, and deliver it to internal bleeding sources. UBC researchers have created the first self-propelled particles capable of delivering coagulants agai...

Miniature human kidneys have been grown in a Petri dish using stem cells as the starting point, report scientists in Australia. The mini-kidneys, measuring up to 1cm, were the equivalent of the developing organ in a 13-week-old foetus. The team say the findings, published in the journal Nature, could lead to new ways of testing drugs and eventually a way of replacing damaged kidneys. Experts said there was still a long way to go. The scientists were mimicking the process that takes place insi...

FDA approved WATCHMAN Left Atrial Appendage Closure Device is a first-of-its-kind, proven alternative to long-term warfarin therapy for stroke risk reduction in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. The WATCHMAN™ LAAC Device is designed specifically for the left atrial appendage. Featuring an intra-LAA design to avoid contact with the left atrial wall, the WATCHMAN device is engineered to conform to the unique anatomy of the LAA to reduce embolization risk. The device offers a new stro...

Fovista is a promising new treatment for wet AMD is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials. It is designed to target platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) in combination with anti-VEGF drugs to disrupt the formation of abnormal new blood vessels in wet AMD. Patients with wet AMD are helped by drugs that block the growth and leakage of abnormal blood vessels. Currently, the most frequently used drugs that are injected into the eye are Eylea®, Lucentis®, or Avastin®. On average, patients who rece...

MIT researchers team up with Boston Medical Center and Philips to test a noninvasive way to measure intracranial pressure. Current methods to check for increased pressure in a patient’s brain are invasive. One widely used technique is to drill a hole in the skull to insert a catheter or sensor into the brain tissue. Because of the risk of brain injury and infection, doctors typically only measure intracranial pressure or ICP when a patient is very sick, even though knowledge of this pressure cou...

The latest technique that coats anticancer drugs in membranes made from a patient’s own platelets has been discovered. It allows the drugs to last longer in the body and attack both primary cancer tumors and the circulating tumor cells that can cause a cancer to metastasize .The work was tested successfully in an animal model. “There are two key advantages to using platelet membranes to coat anticancer drugs,” says Zhen Gu, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor i...

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a novel prosthetic heart valve, known as VeloX, which can be implanted through a small incision for the treatment of a serious heart valve disorder called mitral regurgitation. This is a condition in which the mitral valve on the left side of the heart does not close properly. The device is particularly beneficial to patients who are of high surgical risk or are unsuitable for existing clinical interventions. ...

Kinsa's new, second-generation Smart Ear Thermometer is a wireless thermometer designed to take accurate, instantaneous temperature readings from the ear without the hassles of an attached smartphone or keeping a probe under the tongue. It is designed to read temperatures from the ear, track illness symptoms, and help people take actionable steps Kinsa Smart Ear Thermometer features one-button activation and a screen that displays temperature, battery life, connectivity, and smiley/ frowny faces...