How flu viruses gain the ability to spread

Posted on September 30, 2015 by

New study reveals the soft palate is a key site for evolution of airborne transmissibility. Researchers from MIT and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) made the surprising finding on Flu virus, while examining the H1N1 flu strain, which caused a 2009 pandemic that killed more than 250,000 people Scientists have discovered that the soft palate which is the soft tissue at the back of the roof of the mouth, plays a key role in viruses’ ability to travel through ...

Cheaper, Faster, More Accurate Test to Identify Gene Defects in Heart Patients

Posted on September 30, 2015 by

Stanford researchers have designed a new technique to test cardiac patients for any genes that might be causing problems. This new technique could eventually enable doctors to diagnose genetic heart diseases by rapidly scanning more than 85 genes known to cause cardiac anomalies. For the subset of heart patients whose illness isn’t caused by a lifetime of cigarettes, trans fats or high glycemic foods, a new genetic test developed at the Stanford University School of Medicine may be able to...

Telomere Changes Predict Cancer

Posted on September 30, 2015 by

A simple blood test may be able to predict cancer years before a diagnosis. A distinct pattern in the changing length of blood telomeres, the protective end caps on our DNA strands, can predict cancer many years before actual diagnosis, according to a new study from Northwestern Medicine in collaboration with Harvard University. "Understanding this pattern of telomere growth may mean it can be a predictive biomarker for cancer," Dr. Lifang Hou, the lead study author and a professor of prev...

Penn scientists make breakthrough in Alzheimer’s disease research

Posted on September 29, 2015 by

Scientists reveal a cure for Alzheimer's disease may be closer than we thought. University of Pennsylvania researchers have made some exciting strides in the fight against Alzheimer's and they hope the discoveries will lead to a delay in the onset of the disease. Alzheimer's disease is a heartbreaking condition for both patients and their family members. Almost half the people who live to be 85 years old will develop Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Lee and Dr. John Trojanowski have lead the wa...

Scientists produce cancer drug from rare plant in lab

Posted on September 29, 2015 by

Stanford scientists produce cancer drug from rare plant in lab to benefit human health. Elizabeth Sattely, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Stanford, and her graduate student Warren Lau have isolated the machinery for making a widely used cancer-fighting drug from an endangered plant. Many of the drugs we take today to treat pain, fight cancer or other diseases were originally identified in plants, some of which are endangered or hard to grow. In many cases, those plants a...

A revolutionary way to treat acne with nanoparticles

Posted on September 29, 2015 by

Lauric acid – a natural product found in coconut oil and human breast milk -- shines as a possible new acne treatment. A revolutionary and Innovative system of using ‘nano- bombs’ to treat acne has been developed by Dissaya Nu Pornpattananangkul, a doctoral bioengineering student at the University of California San Diego . Common acne also known as "acne vulgaris," afflicts more than 85 percent of teenagers and over 40 million people in the United States and current treatments have undesir...

Israeli Mini-Scanner Can Tell The Difference Between Food, Drink or Pills

Posted on September 29, 2015 by

An Israeli start-up has launched a pocket device which analyses instantly the composition of food, drink, medication or other objects. It is the first molecular sensor that fits in the palm of your hand. The process it uses is simple. Its SCiO tool sends data on the chemical makeup of a substance to the user's smartphone, where a variety of applications will present the results. The SCiO does not need physical contact with the substance being tested because it uses a beam of light in wh...

Personalized heart models for surgical planning

Posted on September 29, 2015 by

A new system can convert MRI scans into 3D-printed, physical models in a few hours. Researchers at MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital have developed a system that can take MRI scans of a patient’s heart and, in a matter of hours, convert them into a tangible, physical model that surgeons can use to plan surgery. The models could provide a more intuitive way for surgeons to assess and prepare for the anatomical idiosyncrasies of individual patients. MRI data consist of a series of cross ...

Aspirin’s disease-fighting abilities

Posted on September 28, 2015 by

A new study provides key insights into aspirin's disease-fighting abilities. A recent study led by researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) shows that salicylic acid, an active metabolite of aspirin, blocks HMGB1, an inflammatory protein associated with a wide variety of diseases. Aspirin is one of the oldest and most commonly used medicines, but many of its beneficial health effects have been hard for scientists and physicians to explain. Researchers have identified a key targ...

Drug disarms deadly C. difficile bacteria without destroying healthy gut flora

Posted on September 28, 2015 by

Scientists find way to disarm deadly bacteria without destroying the good ones in your gut. The new discovery of a drug that blocks the intestinal pathogen without killing resident, beneficial microbes may prove superior to antibiotics, currently the front-line treatment for infection. Nearly half a million Americans get infected in a single year by Clostridium difficile, a dangerous bacteria that causes life-threatening diarrhea. It kills 15,000 people a year. It's the most common cause o...

Building a brain from the inside out

Posted on September 28, 2015 by

Researchers at UC San Francisco have succeeded in mapping the genetic signature of a unique group of stem cells in the human brain that seem to generate most of the neurons in our massive cerebral cortex. The human cerebral cortex contains 16 billion neurons, wired together into arcane, layered circuits responsible for everything from our ability to walk and talk to our sense of nostalgia and drive to dream of the future. In the course of human evolution, the cortex has expanded as much as...

Paralyzed man walks again after cell transplant

Posted on September 28, 2015 by

The world's first cell transplant enables paralyzed man to walk. A ground-breaking cell transplant, the world's first, was carried out by surgeons in Poland in collaboration with scientists in London on Darek Fidyka who was paralyzed from the chest down after a brutal knife attack in 2010 left with an 8mm gap in his spinal column. He showed no sign of recovery despite many months of intensive physiotherapy. Darek's injuries were so severe that no level of therapy could give him feeling bac...

Genetic investigation of Blood Pressure Regulation

Posted on September 28, 2015 by

A new study pinpoints several gene networks closely linked to the regulation of blood pressure. Framingham Heart Study launched a major initiative to identify and study the genes underlying cardiovascular and other chronic diseases in individuals as this research could lead to new treatments and better strategies for disease prevention. The study, which takes a close look at networks of blood pressure-related genes is published in the journal Molecular Systems Biology. More than one bil...

Kidney Transplant Breakthrough

Posted on September 28, 2015September 28, 2015 by

Yokoo and his team who have found a way to grow a full-sized kidney using stem cells. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 61,000 new cases of kidney cancer in the United States this year. About 14,000 Americans will die from the disease in 2015. Kidney cancer is rare in people under the age of 45. The average age in the United States for diagnosis is 64. Still, there are more than 100,000 people in the United States awaiting kidney transplants, according to the National Kidney...

Liver grown in lab

Posted on September 20, 2015September 20, 2015 by 41629066

Stem cell biologist Takanori Takebe of Yokohama City University in Japan, and his colleagues have created human livers in a dish. After transplantation into mice, the liver cells hooked up to blood vessels and behaved like human liver. Similarly, researchers Dr. Colin McGucklin, Professor of Regenerative Medicineat Newcastle University, and Dr. Nico Forraz, Senior Research Associate and Clinical Sciences Business Manager at Newcastle University have successfully grown liver in lab using stem...

Human brain grown in lab

Posted on September 19, 2015 by 41629066

An almost fully-formed human brain has been grown in a lab for the first time at Ohio State University. Though not conscious the miniature brain, which resembles that of a five-week-old foetus, could potentially be useful for scientists who want to study the progression of developmental diseases. It could also be used to test drugs for conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, since the regions they affect are in place during an early stage of brain development. The brain, which is a...

Live Human ‘Mini Heart’ Made in Lab

Posted on September 19, 2015September 19, 2015 by 41629066

Living "mini hearts" — structures that resemble tiny, primitive, beating hearts — can be created from human stem cells. These miniature heart like structures could help scientists test heart drugs for safety, and learn more about how the heart develops in order to help prevent defects. Dr. Bruce Conklin, a stem cell biologist at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco, along with colleagues developed these tiny hearts using stem cells derived from skin tissue. Th...

Ultra-Flexible Devices to Monitor the Brain

Posted on September 14, 2015 by

Brain activity can be monitored with tiny flexible electronics which could roll up to fit in a pocket. Charles Lieber, a nanoscientist and nanotechnologist at Harvard University, has designed latest ultra-thin electronics flexible enough to get stuffed into the needle of a syringe with a diameter as small as the average width of a human hair. Currently available flexible electronics are usually flat sheets, designed to lie on surfaces. They help to monitor and manipulate living tissue but ...

OncoSec’s novel intratumoral therapies

Posted on September 14, 2015 by

OncoSec Medical Incorporated ("OncoSec") has designed "smart" catheter-based devices to perform minimally invasive intratumoral immunotherapy. The new catheter-based electrodes are designed to be compatible with standard medical instruments which can access deep visceral tumors and are capable of treating the tumor. These all-in-one devices have the ability to inject a DNA-based agent while deploying electrodes to perform electroporation in a single procedure. They have an adjustable ne...

Facial replacement via 3D printing

Posted on September 14, 2015 by

Amazing innovative technology was created to rebuild the human face with 3D printing in silicone. English chemist Frederick Kipping did his pioneering work on the study of the organic compounds of silicon which led to synthetic rubber and silicone-based lubricants used to enhance the decollete of dancers, seal fish tanks and now rebuild the human face. Industrial designer Tom Fripp was contacted by researchers at the University of Sheffield and asked if it would be possible to print struct...

Rubber That Can Use Energy from body movements to Generate Power

Posted on September 13, 2015 by

Power-generating rubber material could harness walking and other movement to charge electronic devices. Researchers at Princeton University have recently invented a new energy-harvesting rubber material composed of ceramic nanoribbons that could harvest energy from your breathing and walking. This material is composed of ceramic nanoribbons embedded onto silicone rubber sheets which generates electricity when flexed and is highly efficient at converting mechanical energy to electrical ener...

Live imaging reveals how wound healing influences cancer

Posted on September 12, 2015 by

"See-through" larvae of zebrafish reveal how wound healing leads to skin cancer. Genetically modified larvae of zebrafish were studied by the researchers in the United Kingdom and Denmark to watch the relationship between wound-associated inflammation and melanoma. The cellular events and changes were observed by live imaging with a special confocal laser-scanning microscope. The experiments showed that neutrophils, the protective inflammatory cells of the body's immune system, gets d...

Smart Pills for collecting data inside the body

Posted on September 10, 2015October 31, 2026 by

Imagine if a vitamin sized pill could collect medical data from your body. Companies such as SmartPill have come out with wireless devices contained in tiny capsules to collect information from inside the body. The SmartPill capsule includes miniaturized sensors or cameras, a printed circuit board and tiny batteries that work to collect medical data as it makes its way through a person's gastrointestinal tract. Once swallowed, the device collects the required information, stores the data a...

Contacts lenses that changes color when sugar levels change in the blood

Posted on September 10, 2015 by

Smart contact lens, created by a University of Western Ontario professor, help measure blood glucose levels for people with diabetes. An ongoing innovative research of a new Smart Lens by Jin Shang, a professor of biochemical engineering at the University of Western Ontario is a contact lens that changes color when sugar levels change in the blood. Diabetes is a huge and growing problem affecting one in every 19 people on the planet. It is a daily struggle for people with diabetes to keep ...

Ultra-flexible, Ultra-Thin Devices Developed to Monitor the Brain

Posted on September 10, 2015September 10, 2015 by

Brain activity can be monitored with tiny flexible electronics which could roll up to fit in a pocket. Charles Lieber, a nanoscientist and nanotechnologist at Harvard University, has designed latest ultra-thin electronics flexible enough to get stuffed into the needle of a syringe with a diameter as small as the average width of a human hair. Traditional electronics are rigid and the procedures to measure brain activity would involve surgery; surgeons would make an opening equal to the siz...

Revolutionary Invention Created to Build Human Organs

Posted on September 10, 2015September 10, 2015 by

A new technology that uses three dimensional human tissues to build organs. Organovo is an early-stage medical laboratory and research company which designs and develops three dimensional human tissue for medical research and therapeutic applications. The latest science invention from Organovo is a technology (novogen) which allows living tissue cells to be assembled into patterns and complex structures such as organs. Organovo has partnered with Invetech., a company based in Australia to...

A Novel Stethoscope Save Costs and Save Lives

Posted on September 9, 2015 by

A new cardiac stethoscope funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) helps doctors detect heart failure more effectively than ever before. Despite advances in medicine that make many heart conditions treatable, the absence of effective, early diagnosis often leads to sudden, unexpected deaths. Annually more than one million patients are hospitalized due to heart failure and the cost of health care services, medications to treat heart failure etc. are tremendous. Furthermore most of the p...

Amazing Water Drop Lenses

Posted on September 8, 2015 by

A new discovery has led to the creation of liquid optical lenses. Bruno Berge, physicist and inventor, has created liquid optical lens by a process known as electro-wetting. In this process, a water drop is deposited on a metal substrate and covered by a thin insulating layer. When a voltage is applied to the metal, it modifies the angle of the liquid drop. The liquid lens is comprised of two liquids, water and oil; one is a conductor while the other is an insulator. A variation in the ...

Atmospheric Water Generators that Make Water from Air

Posted on September 8, 2015 by

The WaterMill WM-200 is unlike any other water collection device. It is an intelligent system that can regulate itself to produce pure water for a healthy family and environment. Johathan Ritchey has invented this novel device, which is essentially an atmospheric water collection device that condenses water vapor and purifies it. Originally designed for areas that do not have clean drinking water, the Watermill is for households that need an eco-friendly, cost effective alternative to bot...

Stick-on Micro-Electric Medical Tattoo Invented

Posted on September 8, 2015 by

A novel stick on tattoo has been developed that can effectively measure data about the human heart, brain waves and muscle activity. The latest in medical invention is new type of ultra-thin, self-adhesive electronic device that can effectively measure the aforementioned vital signs without the use of bulky equipment, conductive fluids, or glues. This product is in the form of a tattoo which has to be applied to the skin like any ink transfer tattoo. It is made from a rubbery polymer subst...