Latest advances in medical research thread

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The end of animal testing? Human-organs-on-chips win Design of the Year

Tiny tubes emerge from a small transparent block, pumping imperceptible amounts of fluid and air to and fro. It looks like a Fox’s Glacier Mint has been plugged into a life support machine, but this humble chunk of see-through silicone is a model organ that could revolutionise the pharmaceutical industry, reducing the need for animal testing and speeding up the development of new drugs.
Meet the Lung-on-a-chip, a simulation of the biological processes inside the human lung, developed by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University – and now crowned Design of the Year by London’s Design Museum.
Lined with living human cells, the “organs-on-chips” mimic the tissue structures and mechanical motions of human organs, promising to accelerate drug discovery, decrease development costs and potentially usher in a future of personalised medicine.

 

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Smart patch to take pain and hassle out of insulin injections
By Darren Quick - June 23, 2015 3 Pictures

According to the International Diabetes Federation, 387 million people around the world suffer from diabetes, with this number expected to rise to 592 million by 2035. That adds up to a lot of blood sugar checks, diet watching and insulin shots, but researchers in the US have developed a patch that could revolutionize how the disease is managed. The patch contains of more than 100 microneedles, each automatically secreting insulin into the bloodstream when required.

 

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NHS to give volunteers 'synthetic blood' made in laboratory within two years

The first attempt at giving human volunteers “synthetic blood” made in a laboratory for the first time will take place within the next two years, the NHS has announced.


A long-awaited clinical trial of artificial red blood cells will occur before 2017, NHS scientists said. The blood is made from stem cells extracted from either the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies or the blood of adult donors.
The trial, thought to be a world first, will involve small transfusions of a few teaspoons of synthetic blood to test for any adverse reactions. It will allow scientists to study the time the manufactured red blood cells can survive within human recipients.
Eventually, it is hoped that the NHS will be able to make unlimited quantities of red blood cells for emergency transfusions. However, the immediate goal is to manufacture specialised donations for patients suffering from blood conditions such as sickle-cell anaemia and thalassemia, who need regular transfusions.

 

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New class of compounds shrinks pancreatic cancer tumors, prevents regrowth
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150625125958.htm

Scientists from UCL (University College London) have designed a chemical compound that has reduced the growth of pancreatic cancer tumors by 80 percent in treated mice.

The compound, called MM41, was designed to block faulty genes. It appears to do this by targeting little knots in their DNA, called quadruplexes, which are very different from normal DNA and which are especially found in faulty genes.

The findings, published in Nature Scientific Reports, showed that MM41 had a strong inhibiting effect on two genes -- k-RAS and BCL-2 -- both of which are found in the majority of pancreatic cancers.

 

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Scientists develop potential new class of cancer drugs in lab

SLU pharmacology researchers Thomas Burris, Ph.D., and Colin Flaveny, Ph.D., discuss their cancer research. Credit: Saint Louis University

In research published in Cancer Cell, Thomas Burris, Ph.D., chair of pharmacology and physiology at Saint Louis University, has, for the first time, found a way to stop cancer cell growth by targeting the Warburg Effect, a trait of cancer cell metabolism that scientists have been eager to exploit.

 

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Scientists identify a calcium channel essential for deep sleep
Sleep seems simple enough, a state of rest and restoration that almost every vertebrate creature must enter regularly in order to survive. But the brain responds differently to stimuli when asleep than when ...

 

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Human radiologists missed 7% of cancers in a study, a deep learning algorithm missed 0%

Cancer is good at hiding.
It's so good that sometimes sick patients are sent home with a clean bill of health.
And screenings don't always help: A 2013 study by Oxford University found "no evidence" that screening programs are responsible for the decline in breast cancer, and a study by the Huntsman Cancer Institute last year found that colon cancer is missed in about 6% of colonoscopies.
A company is looking to change that margin of error by bringing a super-smart computer into the examination room.
"In one panel of scans that we looked at, when you look at the number of times that radiologists sent someone home with a clean bill of health, about 7% of the time that patient was ultimately found to have cancer," said John Zedlewski, a data scientist with Enlitic, a medical technology company.
When Zedlewski used Enlitic's algorithm against the same panel, there weren't any mistakes.

 

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First-ever possible treatments for MERS
As the South Korean epidemic of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) continues unabated, researchers have raced to find treatments for the deadly virus, which has killed more than 400 people since it was ...

 

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Researchers discover new mechanism of DNA repair

The DNA molecule is chemically unstable giving rise to DNA lesions of different nature. That is why DNA damage detection, signaling and repair, collectively known as the DNA damage response, are needed.

 

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Researchers develop world's most sensitive test to detect infectious disease, superbugs
Infectious diseases such as hepatitis C and some of the world's deadliest superbugs—C. difficile and MRSA among them—could soon be detected much earlier by a unique diagnostic test, designed to easily ...

 

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Midlife changes in Alzheimer's biomarkers may predict dementia
Studying brain scans and cerebrospinal fluid of healthy adults, scientists have shown that changes in key biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease during midlife may help identify those who will develop dementia ...

 

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Stem Cell Exosomes used to Induce Damaged Mouse Hearts to Repair Themselves

A little more than a decade ago, researchers discovered that all cells secrete tiny communications modules jammed with an entire work crew of messages for other cells. Today, a team of researchers, led by stem cell researcher Raj Kishore, PhD, Director of the Stem Cell Therapy Program at the Center for Translational Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM), is harnessing the communications vesicles excreted by...

 

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Multiple Monkey brains and multiple rat brains linked into brainnets

Researchers have linked multiple rat brains and multiple monkey brains and synchronized them and trained them to perform classificiation and other tasks Nature Scientific Reports - Building an organic computing device with multiple interconnected brains Researchers proposed that Brainets, i.e. networks formed by multiple animal brains,...

 

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Ultrasound cuts healing rate of chronic wounds by 30 percent
By Nick Lavars - July 13, 2015 1 Picture

Further to the mental anguish, a lot of time in a hospital bed can bring about some agonizing physical discomfort. This is most commonly brought about by skin ulcers and bedsores, which threaten to evolve into dangerous and potentially deadly infections if left untreated. But a British research team has happened upon a technique that promises to cut the healing time of these and other chronic wounds by around a third, using simple low-intensity ultrasounds.

 

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Lung simulation could improve respiratory treatment

The first computer model that predicts the flow of liquid medication in human lungs is providing new insight into the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Chemotherapeutic coatings enhance tumor-frying nanoparticles

In a move akin to adding chemical weapons to a firebomb, researchers at Duke University have devised a method for making a promising nanoscale cancer treatment even more deadly to tumors.

 

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Hydrogels developed for controlled release of hepatitis C drug

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of A*STAR have developed a drug-delivering hydrogel to treat chronic diseases such as hepatitis C, a liver disease that kills around 500,000 people worldwide every year. “The new gel from IBN prevents premature drug release in the body. This allows for long-term drug...

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Egg yolk extract could allow people with celiac disease to eat gluten
By Ben Coxworth - July 17, 2015 1 Picture

If you or someone you know has celiac disease, then you'll know how much it can limit one's diet. Because people with the autoimmune condition have a negative reaction to the gluten in grains such as wheat, rye or barley, that means they can't consume many baked goods, pastas, liquors, or any number of processed foods that use wheat as a binding agent. Soon, however, they may be able to eat whatever they want – if they take a new egg-based supplement first.

 

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Researchers use bone powder, bio-glue to 3D print bones http://ift.tt/1CMyzQN

 

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Laser device may soon non-invasively monitor diabetics' glucose levels
By Ben Coxworth - July 17, 2015 2 Pictures

In order to monitor their blood glucose levels, diabetics typically have to perform painful and inconvenient finger-prick blood tests – in some cases, several times a day. Using an implantable glucose-monitoring sensor is one alternative, although it must be surgically installed and subsequently removed for replacement. Another option may be on the way, however, in the form of a device that simply shines a laser on the user's finger.

 

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CRISPR DNA editing system controlled by light

Japanese researchers led by University of Tokyo chemist Moritoshi Sato have refined the CRISPR-Cas9 method by developing alight-activated Cas9 nuclease, a technological advancement that significantly improves scientists’ ability to hone in on target genes for research. Converging these two methods brings specificity on a new level, making...

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