Posts tagged "medical"

• DARPA Blast Gauge Quantifies Blast Exposure, Leads to Advancements in Countering TBI →

  

  Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the signature wound of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Conservative estimates put the number of U.S. warfighters who have experienced TBI at more than 200,000. Battlefield medical personnel today rely on visual signs and the personal accounts of patients to alert them to the possibility of TBI. The DARPA Blast Gauge provides a quantitative means for measuring blast related exposure, thus providing a mechanism for medical personnel to better identify those at risk for TBI. The gauge collects quantitative data to provide medics with a screening tool and data for uncovering the mechanisms of TBI.

  DARPA military medical research future
  2 days ago reblog like 3 notes
• Scientists discover marker to identify, attack breast cancer stem cells →

  Breast cancer stem cells wear a cell surface protein that is part nametag and part bull’s eye, identifying them as potent tumor-generating cells and flagging their vulnerability to a drug, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report online in Journal of Clinical Investigation.

  “We’ve discovered the first single marker for breast cancer stem cells and also found that it’s targetable with a small molecule drug that inhibits an enzyme crucial to its synthesis,” said co-senior author Michael Andreeff, M.D., Ph.D., professor in MD Anderson’s Departments of Leukemia and Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.

  Andreeff and colleagues are refining the drug as a potential targeted therapy for breast cancer stem cells, which are thought to be crucial to therapy resistance, disease progression and spread to other organs.

  cancer medical research discoveries future
  1 week ago reblog like 12 notes
• Scientists Make Bird Flu Transmissible Between Humans Then Tell World How To Do It →

  

  Of the 603 people infected since the 2003 H5N1 outbreak, 356 have died – a 59 percent mortality rate (by comparison, the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918 that claimed the lives of over 50 million had a mortality rate of just 2 percent). Still, people could take solace in the fact that the flu, luckily, while very well suited to being passed between birds, was not effective at passing from human to human.

  H5N1 bird flu research future disease medical
  1 week ago reblog like 3 notes
• Using light to switch gene expression on and off for testing therapies →

  

  North Carolina State University researchers are using light-activated molecules to turn gene expression on and off. Their method enables greater precision when studying gene function, and could lead to targeted therapies for diseases like cancer.

  research genetics future medical
  1 week ago reblog like 4 notes
• Pills may soon rival condoms in HIV prevention →

  An antiviral drug Truvada may soon become the next solution to HIV prevention, while scientists continue to dig for a vaccine. The FDA is likely to approve the medicine for ‘pre-exposure prophylaxis’ by June 15.

  Truvada is a trade-name for a combination of two antiviral drugs produced by an American biopharmaceutical company in California. Since 2004, it has been widely prescribed to people already infected with HIV. However, an expert committee at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended last week that the medicine be offered daily to uninfected people to prevent them from being infected.

  drugs medical research HIV future
  1 week ago reblog like 8 notes
• Deep brain stimulation may hold promise for mild Azheimer’s disease →

  

  A study at the University of Toronto on a handful of people with suspected mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) suggests that a device that sends continuous electrical impulses to specific “memory” regions of the brain appears to increase neuronal activity.

  brain disease research medical future
  2 weeks ago reblog like 7 notes
• To battle HIV, stem cells step in for fight →

  

  HIV stem cell transplants may soon be tested in human clinical trails, based on successful results in mice.

  HIV AIDS stem cells research medical future
  2 weeks ago reblog like 3 notes
• Screening for breast cancer without X-rays: Lasers and sound merge in promising diagnostic technique →

  

  X-ray mammography is an important diagnostic tool in the fight against breast cancer, but it has certain drawbacks that limit its effectiveness. For example, it can give in false positive and negative results; it also exposes women to low doses of ionizing radiation, which – while accepted as safe – still carry some risk.

  In the first phase of clinical testing of a new imaging device, researchers from Netherlands’ University of Twente and Medisch Spectrum Twente Hospital in Oldenzaal used photoacoustics – light-induced sound – rather than ionizing radiation to detect and visualize breast tumors. The team’s preliminary results, which were conducted on 12 patients with diagnosed malignancies and reported today in the Optical Society’s (OSA (http://www.osa.org)) open-access journal Optics Express (http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe), provide proof-of-concept support that the technology can distinguish malignant tissue by providing high-contrast images of tumors.

  xray lasers future research medical cancer
  2 weeks ago reblog like 3 notes
• Retinal Implants Restore Partial Sight To Three Blind →

  

  The blind really are beginning to see again. After receiving retinal implants in a trial, two people in the UK and one in China – all blind – regained part of their vision. And more good news could be on the way as results from other participants comes to light. But the chip is a bright ray of hope for the estimated 1.5 million worldwide that have retinitis pigmentosa, if not for the 285 million visually impaired.

  implants eyes retina future medical
  2 weeks ago reblog like 13 notes
• Bandages Made of Edible Starch Could Dissolve On Your Skin Once You're Healed →

  

  Finely spun starch fibers woven into a bandage could dissolve on your skin and be absorbed by your body, eliminating the sting and hassle of ripping it off in one fast motion. Starch fibers could also be used to produce toilet paper, napkins and other biodegradable products, according to researchers at Penn State.

  medical future research materials
  3 weeks ago reblog like 20 notes
• Researchers creating "designer lymph nodes" →

  Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center are in the first phase of creating “designer lymph nodes.” Designer lymph nodes are built with specialized gene-modified cells that are injected into patients and produce a pre-planned immunologic response for cancer patients locally and then throughout their bodies. The researchers are examining a cancer vaccine “boosting” effect of the manufactured lymph nodes in patients with advanced melanoma.

  medical research future genetics genomics
  3 weeks ago reblog like 7 notes
• 'Brake gene' turned off in pancreatic cancer →

  

  Aggressive pancreatic tumours may be treatable with a new class of drugs, according to Cancer Research UK

  cancer treatment discoveries future medical research
  3 weeks ago reblog like 2 notes
• Scar tissue gets new life as heart muscle →

  

  A new process that turns scar tissue that forms after a heart attack into heart muscle cells could eliminate the need for stem cell transplant.

  heart medical research Duke future transplant
  3 weeks ago reblog like 5 notes
• Scientists discover enzyme that could slow part of the aging process in astronauts -- and the elderly →

  New research published online in the FASEB Journal suggests that a specific enzyme, called 5-lipoxygenase, plays a key role in cell death induced by microgravity environments, and that inhibiting this enzyme will likely help prevent or lessen the severity of immune problems in astronauts caused by spaceflight. Additionally, since space conditions initiate health problems that mimic the aging process on Earth, this discovery may also lead to therapeutics that extend lives by bolstering the immune systems of the elderly.

  “The outcomes of this space research might be helpful to improve health in the elderly on Earth,” said Mauro Maccarrone, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Teramo in Teramo, Italy. “In fact, space conditions [cause problems that] resemble the physiological process of aging and drugs able to reduce microgravity-induced immunodepression might be effective therapeutics against loss of immune performance in aging people. 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors, already used to curb human inflammatory diseases, may be such a group of compounds.”

  space gravity aging anti-aging medical research future astronauts
  3 weeks ago reblog like 38 notes
• Making human textiles: Research team ups the ante with development of blood vessels woven from donor cells →

  A lot of people were skeptical when two young California-based researchers set out more than a decade ago to create a completely human-derived alternative to the synthetic blood vessels commonly used in dialysis patients. Since then, they’ve done that and more.

  blood medical longevity research future life extension
  4 weeks ago reblog like 5 notes