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Scientists say they have developed a tiny blood-testing device that sits under the skin and gives instant results via a mobile phone.
The Swiss team say the wireless prototype - half an inch (14mm) long - can simultaneously check for up to five different substances in the blood.
The readings are then beamed to the doctor, using Bluetooth technology.
The device's developers hope it will be available to patients within four years.
It is designed to be inserted, using a needle, into the interstitial tissue just beneath the skin of the abdomen, legs or arms. And it could remain there for months before needing to be replaced or removed.
Blood cells from a patient suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, seen in a scanning-electron micrograph.
http://www.nature.com/news/engineered-immune-cells-battle-acute-leukaemia-1.12643
Genetically engineered immune cells can drive an aggressive type of leukaemia into retreat, a small clinical trial suggests.
The results of the trial — done in five patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia — are published in Science Translational Medicine1 and represent the latest success for a 'fringe' therapy in which a type of immune cell called T cells are extracted from a patient, genetically modified, and then reinfused back. In this case, the T cells were engineered to express a receptor for a protein on other immune cells, known as B cells, found in both healthy and cancerous tissue.
Scientists said Sunday they had found mutations in 26 genes that may cause oesophageal cancer, a breakthrough they hope will lead to new drugs for the deadly and increasingly frequent disease.
A team of experts in the United States unravelled the genetic code of tumour cells from 149 patients, which they compared to healthy cells to identify a mutation signature for oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC).
This type of cancer of the oesophagus or gullet, the muscular tube that moves food from the mouth to the stomach, has a five-year survival rate of only about 15-20 percent.
He explains his invention to the New York Post: "There's really no way to quickly stop bleeding except to hold lots of gauze on a wound. I thought if you could pour this gel into a wound, it would solidify and stop the bleeding."
Landolina started a company called Suneris Inc. in order to sell his product and the United States military is already one of several potential customers, according to Humans Invent.
Veti-Gel gets tested on a fresh pork loin in the YouTube video below. Warning: If blood makes you queasy, go ahead and skip this demonstration.
Study reveals the genetic variations that raise the risk of breast, prostate or ovarian cancerOver 80 regions of the genome that can increase an individual's risk of breast, prostate and ovarian cancers have been found in the largest ever study of its kind.
The research, led by scientists at the University of Cambridge and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, funded by Cancer Research UK and the Wellcome Trust, could lead to new treatments, targeted screening and a greater understanding of how these diseases develop.
The scientists were looking for genetic variations – called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) – linked to an increased risk of developing cancer.
By studying the DNA make-up of over 100,000 people with cancer and 100,000 people from the general population, they found alterations that were more common in people with prostate, breast or ovarian cancers.
Each alteration raises the risk of cancer by a small amount, but the one per cent of people who have lots of these alterations could see their risk of developing prostate cancer increase to nearly 50 per cent and breast cancer to around 30 per cent.
Study author Professor Doug Easton, a Cancer Research UK scientist at the University of Cambridge, said: "We're on the verge of being able to use our knowledge of these genetic variations to develop tests that could complement breast cancer screening and take us a step closer to having an effective prostate cancer screening programme.
"By looking for people who carry most of these variations we will be able to identify those who are at the greatest risk of getting these cancers and then targeting screening tests to these individuals."
Many of the SNPs found in the studies were near to areas of the genome that control how certain genes behave. Alterations to these control areas can lead to the 'brakes' that stop cells growing out of control being lifted; help cancers spread throughout the body; or help cells grow rapidly out of control. Understanding how these genes are involved in cancer could provide new understanding of how cancers develop and how to treat them.
A study conducted in collaboration with researchers at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital hints at a future where doctors could deliver the weight-loss benefits of gastric bypass surgery without the surgery. In a study described in a March 27 paper in Science Translational Medicine, researchers found that the surgery caused drastic changes to microbes in the guts of mice. When those microbes were transferred into the guts of sterile mice, the result was rapid weight loss.
“Simply by colonizing mice with the altered microbial community, the mice were able to maintain a lower body fat, and lose weight — about 20 percent as much as they would if they underwent surgery,” said Peter Turnbaugh, a Bauer Fellow at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Center for Systems Biology, and one of two senior authors of the paper.
Apr. 4, 2013 — Walking briskly can lower your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes as much as running can, according to surprising findings reported in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
Apr. 4, 2013 — One of the major obstacles to growing new organs -- replacement hearts, lungs and kidneys -- is the difficulty researchers face in building blood vessels that keep the tissues alive, but new findings from the University of Michigan could help overcome this roadblock.
"It's not just enough to make a piece of tissue that functions like your desired target," said Andrew Putnam, U-M associate professor of biomedical engineering. "If you don't nourish it with blood by vascularizing it, it's only going to be as big as the head of a pen.
"But we need a heart that's this big," he added, holding up his fist.
Apr. 4, 2013 — For the first time, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have isolated adult stem cells from human intestinal tissue.
DNA Genetics appear to dictate how the cancer behaves
Men with prostate cancer and an inherited gene mutation have the worst form of the disease, research reveals.
The BRCA2 gene is linked to hereditary breast cancer, as well as prostate and ovarian cancer.
Now scientists say that as well as being more likely to get prostate cancer, men with BRCA2 are also more likely to develop aggressive tumours and have the poorest survival rates.
Scientists led by Prof David Ginsburg of the University of Michigan’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute inhibited the action of a gene responsible for transporting a protein that interferes with the ability of the liver to remove cholesterol from the blood in mice. Trapping the destructive protein where it couldn’t harm receptors responsible for removing cholesterol preserved the liver cells’ capacity to clear plasma cholesterol from the blood, but did not appear to otherwise affect the health of the mice.
In the research, scientists found that mice with an inactive SEC24A gene could develop normally. However, their plasma cholesterol levels were reduced by 45 percent because vesicles from liver cells were not able to recruit and transport a critical regulator of blood cholesterol levels called proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9).
Genetically engineered T-cell therapy is showing startling effectiveness against leukemia, judging from both scientific and parental accounts: Of the first seven children, five had a complete response - no evidence of cancer - although one of them later relapsed. One child did not respond, and one child's outcome has not been made public by parents or doctors.
This is a follow up of prior Nextbigfuture coverage
The therapy involves transferring genes into T cells - the soldiers of the immune system - to make them recognize and attack B cells, the blood component that turns malignant in certain leukemias and lymphomas. There is also evidence that some of the designer T cells develop immune "memory," so they could reactivate and strike if cancer returns.
Today, with potent chemotherapies and radiation, about 80 percent of the 3,000 children diagnosed annually in the United States are cured. But the treatments are harsh, and when they fail, the options are increasingly grim.
Cancer cells that can break out of a tumor and invade other organs are more aggressive and nimble than nonmalignant cells, according to a new multi-institutional nationwide study. These cells exert greater force on their environment and can more easily maneuver small spaces.
The researchers report in the journal Scientific Reports that a systematic comparison of metastatic breast-cancer cells to healthy breast cells revealed dramatic differences between the two cell lines in their mechanics, migration, oxygen response, protein production and ability to stick to surfaces. The researchers discovered new insights into how cells make the transition from nonmalignant to metastatic, a process that is not well understood.
The resulting catalogue of differences could someday help researchers detect cancerous cells earlier and someday prevent or treat metastatic cancer, which is responsible for 90 percent of all cancer deaths, according to the study. It was conducted by a network of 12 federally funded Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers (PS-OC) sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. PS-OC is a collaboration of researchers in the physical and biological sciences seeking a better understanding of the physical and chemical forces that shape the emergence and behavior of cancer.
in Autism spectrum disorders A first-ever vaccine created by University of Guelph researchers for gut bacteria common in autistic children may also help control some autism symptoms. The groundbreaking study by Brittany Pequegnat and Guelph chemistry professor Mario Monteiro appears this month in the journal Vaccine.
Hannah Warren with her parents, Darryl and Young-Mi Warren, a few days before the operation at Children’s Hospital of Illinois.
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: April 30, 2013
PEORIA, Ill. — Using plastic fibers and human cells, doctors have built and implanted a windpipe in a 2 ½-year-old girl — the youngest person ever to receive a bioengineered organ.
While the search continues for the Fountain of Youth, researchers may have found the body's "fountain of aging": the brain region known as the hypothalamus. For the first time, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report that the hypothalamus of mice controls aging throughout the body. Their discovery of a specific age-related signaling pathway opens up new strategies for combating diseases of old age and extending lifespan.
Agenus Inc. (Nasdaq: AGEN) on Wednesday reported results from a mid-stage trial of a potential brain cancer vaccine showing big increases in both progression-free and overall survival.
A team of scientists from the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute announced Monday the generation of patient-specific bone substitutes from skin cells capable of repairing large bone defects.
Scientists hail medical breakthrough by which half a million UK sufferers could avoid major surgery and take antibiotics instead
Up to 40% of patients with chronic back pain could be cured with a course of antibiotics rather than surgery, in a medical breakthrough that one spinal surgeon says is worthy of a Nobel prize.
Surgeons in the UK and elsewhere are reviewing how they treat patients with chronic back pain after scientists discovered that many of the worst cases were due to bacterial infections.
The shock finding means that scores of patients with unrelenting lower back pain will no longer face major operations but can instead be cured with courses of antibiotics costing around £114.
Boosting Single Gene Found to Increase Maximum Lifespan 28%Scientists at UCLA have discovered that increased expression of a single gene increases the lifespan of fruitflies by more than 25%.
The gene is called Parkin, and when defective is implicated in the development of Parkinson’s disease.
The gene normally functions to recycle cell proteins and defective mitochondria. It acts to tag defective structures so they are degraded an recycled. It tags them by adding a ubuquitin to the protein’s surface.
It seems clear that at least in part, aging is due both to accumulation of damaged and misfolded proteins in the cell, and increasing numbers of defective and leaky mitochondria, the latter of which release reactive oxygen species which then lead to further damage.
