Latest advances in medical research thread

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http://www.technolog...ture-discovery/

One of the great challenges in molecular biology is to determine the three-dimensional structure of large biomolecules such as proteins. But this is a famously difficult and time-consuming task.

The standard technique is x-ray crystallography, which involves analyzing the x-ray diffraction pattern from a crystal of the molecule under investigation. That works well for molecules that form crystals easily.

But many proteins, perhaps most, do not form crystals easily. And even when they do, they often take on unnatural configurations that do not resemble their natural shape.

 

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Single-Port Urologic Surgery’s Next Phase
New robotic system provides advantages

By Jihad H. Kaouk, MD

Since the inception of minimally invasive surgery, physicians have been inspired to push the limits of available technology by devising new methods and instruments.

The evolution of a single-site technique in robotic surgery has resulted in the development of a device intended specifically for use during urologic procedures appropriate for a single-port approach, including laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (LESS).

LESS has the primary goal of accelerating patient recovery and improving quality of life, but its role has yet to be determined due to inherent challenges compared with standard laparoscopic techniques.

RLESS Is More
In 2009, Cleveland Clinic’s Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute reported the first series of successful robotic single-site surgeries. We found that combining LESS with the robotic platform (RLESS) greatly enhanced our surgical capability by offering increased articulation and stability for precise suturing and dissection.

Since the publication of our initial series, multiple institutions have adopted the technique and published series of their own.

Single-Port Urologic Surgery s Next Phase

 

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Meet the doctor who is convinced he will live to 150

Medical advancements mean that life expectancy is now far greater than we believe, an ageing expert has claimed

3:47PM BST 25 Apr 2015

[...]

Dr Zhavoronkov, 37: "Even people past their 70s, who are in good health, have a fighting chance to live past 150. People alive today will soon see the fruits of biomedical research come to market and gradually reduce mortality from many diseases and extend healthy longevity. Even if you look at the previous century, life expectancies in developed countries doubled, even without major technological interventions. So unless our civilization suffers a major blow from catastrophic events like a global economic crisis, rise of militant religions or bioterrorism, many people alive today will be living extraordinarily long lives and take an active role in further human evolution."

Read more: http://www.telegraph...ive-to-150.html

 

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Implanted micropump could deliver epilepsy drugs right into the brain
By Richard Moss
April 26, 2015

A promising new treatment for epilepsy directly targets the nerve cells, deep within the brain, that cause seizures. The treatment uses an electronic micropump and an anticonvulsant drug to inhibit the relevant areas of the brain without affecting healthy brain regions. It has had promising initial results on mice in vitro and will now be tested on live animals.

 

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Study identifies key factor in neural death that causes Parkinson's disease

In studying the molecular biology of brain development, a team of researchers led by Ludwig Stockholm director Thomas Perlmann has discovered how disruption of a developmental mechanism alters the very nerve ...

 

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The world’s most advanced prosthetic is changing lives

For many amputees, the improvement in quality as seen by Ackland will remain a dream. The prosthesis is expensive and few NHS limb-fitting centres offer it. He said the technology had persuaded him that "life-changing doesn't really have to be life-ending".
He now has a variety of grips and can even tie his shoelaces. If the NHS were to make advanced prosthetics available to more amputees, Ackland says, their lives could also be changed for the better.

 

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Smartphone app promises cheap, easy and accurate diagnosis of sleep apnea
By Nick Lavars
April 28, 2015
4 Pictures

And so the emerging value of smartphones as a tool for diagnosing various medical conditions continues to grow. Recent advances have raised the possibility of using phones to detect ailments like ear infections, cervical cancer, HIV and syphilis. Now, researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have created an app they claim can detect sleep apnea with similar accuracy to available methods, potentially removing the need for expensive equipment and overnight hospital stays.

 

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Key blood pressure drug seen in startling new detail
Apr 28, 2015 by Richard Harth

This rendering shows how a molecule known as ZD7155 (yellow, blue and red) binds inside the "pocket" (light gray) of an angiotensin receptor. These receptors play an important role in regulating blood pressure. ZD7155 is a type of angiotensin …more

A new Arizona State University research study has revealed the fine details of how an experimental drug works to regulate blood pressure, paving the way to the development of better drugs.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-key-blood-pressure-drug-startling.html#jCp

 

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Genetic editing can delete deleterious mitochondria
Genetic editing can delete deleterious mitochondria Science News

A new genetic engineering technique could help prevent mitochondrial diseases without the ethically sticky “three-parent problem” of another recently developed method.

The three-parent method involves transferring the nucleus of a prospective mother’s egg into a donor egg containing healthy mitochondria in order to replace mutant mitochondria with healthy ones.

The new gene-editing method, researchers report April 23 in Cell, removes or depletes the number of mutant mitochondria from eggs or early embryos. This approach could keep mitochondrial diseases from being passed from mother to child.

 

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We're Getting Closer to Creating a Universal Blood Supply

The approach involved randomly mutating the enzyme’s genes, Kwan said, for several generations, only selecting the more efficient versions as they went along. “It’s like evolution in nature, but it’s done in a lab,” Kwan said. The final product was 170 times more efficient than the enzyme they started with

The idea of changing one blood type to another using special enzymes was pioneeredby a scientist named Jack Goldstein in the 1980s. Since then, researchers have attempted to identify the right enzymatic approach to creating a universal blood supply, often citing the lack of efficient enzymes that would make the technique cost-effective and quick as a barrier.

 

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Study points way forward for retinal disease gene therapy
Study points way forward for retinal disease gene therapy

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LCA is an inherited disorder that causes vision loss in childhood. It primarily affects the functioning of the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, as shown here. Credit: National Eye Institute

Gene therapy for Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), an inherited disorder that causes vision loss starting in childhood, improved patients' eyesight and the sensitivity of the retina within weeks of treatment. Both of these benefits, however, peaked one to three years after treatment and then diminished, according to results from an ongoing clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

 

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Scientists identify novel drug mechanism that fights brain cancer
By Chris Wood
May 5, 2015

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed and tested a molecule that has the ability to disrupt the body's regulation of cancer cells, causing the cells to self-destructing rather than multiply. The method was found to be effective when tackling dormant brain cancer cells that existing treatments are ineffective at eradicating.

 

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Tiny cellular bubbles enable delivery of Parkinson's drugs straight to the brain
By Nick Lavars
May 5, 2015
1 Comment
2 Pictures

A natural enzyme called catalase may prove hugely significant in treating neurological disorders such as Parkinson's. These extremely potent antioxidants can tackle neuron-killing inflammation with an effectiveness unparalleled by small molecule drugs. But there's a problem, they are big. So big that getting them through the blood-brain barrier for delivery straight to the brain is nearly impossible. But researchers have now discovered that loading them into tiny, naturally occurring bubbles allows them to sneak past the brain's defenses, pointing to the possibility of improved treatments for such conditions.

 

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New technology maps human genome in days
11 hours ago by Michele Munz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The two 3-by-1-inch glass chips held the unfathomable amount of genetic information contained in 16 human genomes. Last week, a technician placed the chips - called flow cells - in a new genetic sequencing machine at the Genome Institute at Washington University and closed the door.

In just three days, the task will be complete.

It's mind-boggling given that it took scientists working all over the world more than 10 years and about $1 billion to first sequence the human genome, a feat declared officially complete in 2003.

This ultra-fast sequencing machine, which hit the market last year, is only sold in groups of 10 - a system capable of sequencing 18,000 human genomes a year at just $1,000 to $1,500 per genome.



Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-technology-human-genome-days.html#jCp

Science,,,worth every cent!

 

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Scientists reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics
Scientists reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics

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Staphylococcus aureus - Antibiotics Test plate. Credit: CDC

The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a growing problem in the United States and the world. New findings by researchers in evolutionary biology and mathematics could help doctors better address the problem in a clinical setting.]

Biologist Miriam Barlow of the University of California, Merced, and mathematician Kristina Crona of American University tested and found a way to return bacteria to a pre-resistant state. In research published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, they show how to rewind the evolution of bacteria and verify treatment options for a family of 15 antibiotics used to fight common infections, including penicillin.

Their work could have major implications for doctors attempting to keep patient infections at bay using "antibiotic cycling," in which a handful of different antibiotics are used on a rotating basis.

 

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Smartphone microscope scans blood for parasitic worms in minutes
By Nick Lavars
May 7, 2015
3 Pictures

In Africa, the spread of parasitic worms known as Loa loa is seriously hindering the efforts of health care workers to cure particular rampant diseases. Though there are drugs available to treat both river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, if they are administered to a patient who also happens to also be infected with Loa loa the consequences can be lethal. This is complicated further by the inherent difficulties in screening for the worms, but a newly developed mobile phone microscope needing only a drop of blood to automatically detect the parasite

 

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BioBots bioprinter to complement cutting-edge research

A high-resolution desktop 3D bioprinter that builds functional 3D living tissue was shown recently at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York. The machine is significant as a less expensive way for researchers to ...

An alternative state of pluripotency: New stem cell may overcome hurdles for regenerative medicine

Scientists at the Salk Institute have discovered a novel type of pluripotent stem cell—cells capable of developing into any type of tissue—whose identity is tied to their location in a developing embryo. ...

 

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New malaria vaccine shows promise in field trial
A vaccine against malaria, developed at Oxford University's Jenner Institute, has shown promising results in its first field trial. The results are published today in journal Science Translational Medicine.

 

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Cardiac events could be diagnosed using a "heart attack thermometer"
By Ben Coxworth
May 7, 2015

In order to confirm that a patient presenting with a heart attack has in fact had one, doctors typically use bulky, expensive lab equipment ... which isn't always available to clinicians in developing nations or rural locations. That's why scientists from Korea's Pohang University of Science and Technology have created a simple thermometer-like device that reportedly does the job.

 

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Onion cells used to create artificial muscles
By Ben Coxworth
May 7, 2015
2 Pictures

Artificial muscles could one day revolutionize fields such as robotics, prosthetics and nanotechnology. So far, we've seen examples made from materials like electroactive elastomers, crumpled graphene, and vanadium dioxide. The problem is, most artificial muscles can only expand in one direction, or contract in the other. Now, however, scientists from National Taiwan University have gotten around that limitation using gold-plated onion cells.