ON THE SPECTRUM. A child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might have trouble communicating verbally, paying attention to others, or controlling their stress and anxiety. These difficulties can affect the child’s social life and their success in school. Now, a team of researchers from robotics startup LuxAI have created QTrobot, a bot designed to help children with...
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Goodbye viral vectors, hello CRISPR
New technique successfully reprograms T cells without using viruses. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (CA, USA) have genetically reprogrammed T cells using a CRISPR gene-editing technology. The method could accelerate both research and cell therapy development for a range of diseases. The technique sees quantities of T cells, DNA and the CRISPR...
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Amicus secures US approval for Fabry disease drug
Dive Brief: Amicus Therapeutics on Friday won an accelerated U.S. approval of its Fabry disease drug Galafold, giving patients with the rare genetic disorder a new treatment option for the first time in over a decade. The Food and Drug Administration’s OK comes about one year after the agency dropped a requirement for further study of the drug, reversing...
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The Rise of Direct Cell Reprogramming
There has been tremendous activity over the last decade in the development of stem cells therapeutics, which have relied on stem cell differentiation protocols, as well as techniques for direct cell reprogramming. Today, there are over 4,700 “stem cell” trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and publications have increased dramatically in recent years, demonstrating the rapidly growing interest of the scientific...
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FDA expands recall of blood pressure drug due to cancer concern
The US Food and Drug Administration expanded the list of drugs being recalled that contain valsartan. The drug is used as a component in a set of drugs used to treat heart failure and blood pressure. The FDA initially announced a valsartan recall in July after lab tests discovered that some drugs could have been...
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Genetic tools uncover cause of childhood seizure disorder missed by other methods
UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH Early childhood seizures result from a rare disease that begin in the first months of life. Researchers at University of Utah Health have developed high-tech tools to uncover the genetic cause of the most difficult to diagnose cases. The results are available online on August 13 in the journal Nature Genomic...
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High oxidative stress hampers males’ production of powerful blood vessel dilator
MEDICAL COLLEGE OF GEORGIA AT AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY AUGUSTA, Ga. (Aug. 13, 2018) – Higher levels of oxidative stress in males results in lower levels of a cofactor needed to make the powerful blood vessel dilator nitric oxide, researchers report. IMAGE: THIS IS DR. JENNIFER C. SULLIVAN, PHARMACOLOGIST AND PHYSIOLOGIST IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY AT...
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Failed antibiotics team up to defeat superbugs
Forget killer robots or zombies – the most plausible doomsday scenario in the next few decades is the so-called superbug, as infectious bacteria become increasingly resistant to our best antibiotics. Now, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have found that combining two antibiotics that no longer work can create a treatment that’s once...
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Mechanism of fibrosis development discovered
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an incurable lung disease of unknown origin with limited treatment options. Research suggests that the signaling molecule WNT5A plays a key role in the pathogenic process. Now, a group of scientists from Helmholtz Center Munich, working with colleagues from the University of Denver, have taken a further step toward uncovering...
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Cannabis link to relieving intestinal inflammation explained
Reports from cannabis users that the drug reduces the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may finally be explained by new research from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the University of Bath showing that endocannabinoids help control and prevent intestinal inflammation in mice. Credit: CC0 Public Domain This is the first-time scientists have...