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 ...

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...

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. ...

Scientists have discovered that HIV has a voracious sweet tooth, which may be its Achilles’ heel, reports a new study from Northwestern Medicine and collaborators. After the virus invades an activated immune cell, it craves sugar and nutrients from the cell to replicate and fuel its wild growth throughout the body. Teams from Northwestern University and Vanderbilt University have reportedly discovered a way to block the virus from feasting on the glucose in an infected patient’s bloodstream. ...

Olivia Hallisey of Greenwich, won the top prize for her Ebola test kit in the fifth annual Google Science Fair, which honored nine students aged 13 to 18 from all over the world last week. The Connecticut-based sophomore from Greenwich High School invented the much needed "novel temperature-dependent, rapid, simple and inexpensive Ebola detection platform." It could soon be much easier to diagnose Ebola thanks to this student’s new invention. Aid workers in Ebola-stricken regions could soon b...