New genetic barcoding technology allows scientists to identify differences in origin between individual blood cells. New technology that tracks the origin of blood cells challenges scientific dogma A 7-year-project to develop a barcoding and tracking system for tissue stem cells has revealed previously unrecognized features of normal blood production: New data from Harvard Stem Cell...
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Could Olfactory Loss Point to Alzheimer’s Disease?
Odor identification tests may help scientists track the evolution of the disease in persons at risk By the time you start losing your memory, it`s almost too late. That`s because the damage to your brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may already have been going on for as long as twenty years. Which is why...
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New terahertz imaging approach could speed up skin cancer detection
Researchers have developed a new terahertz imaging approach that, for the first time, can acquire micron-scale resolution images while retaining computational approaches designed to speed up image acquisition. This combination could allow terahertz imaging to be useful for detecting early-stage skin cancer without requiring a tissue biopsy from the patient. Terahertz wavelengths fall between microwaves...
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Novel Stem Cell-Derived Model Created of Inflammatory Neurological Disorder
Brain-in-a-dish approach also showed two existing HIV drugs may be effective in rescuing mutated cells An international team of scientists, led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers, has created a human stem cell-based model of a rare, but devastating, inherited neurological autoimmune condition called Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome (AGS). In doing so, the...
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How VR is Changing the Way We Think About Therapy
“It was an idea whose time had come, and the technology finally caught up with the vision.” -Albert “Skip” Rizzo, Ph.D. If you’re at all familiar with VR, you’ve probably heard that VR is more than “just games” a time or two. Used to describe applications of VR that go beyond first-person shooters—think education, conservation,...
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Using only alternative medicine for cancer linked to lower survival rate
Patients who choose to receive alternative therapy as treatment for curable cancers instead of conventional cancer treatment have a higher risk of death, according to researchers from the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center. The findings were reported online by the Journal of the...
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Scientists obtain ‘how to’ guide for producing hair follicles
How does the skin develop follicles and eventually sprout hair? A USC-led study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), addresses this question using insights gleaned from organoids, 3D assemblies of cells possessing rudimentary skin structure and function—including the ability to grow hair. In the study, first author Mingxing Lei, a postdoctoral scholar...
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Sleep biology discovery could lead to new insomnia treatments that don’t target the brain
UCLA scientists report the first evidence that a gene outside the brain controls the ability to rebound from sleep deprivation—a surprising discovery that could eventually lead to greatly improved treatments for insomnia and other sleep disorders that do not involve getting a drug into the brain. The scientists report that increasing the level of Bmal1—a...
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Scientists Hit Breakthrough In Quest To Transplant Pig Organs Into Humans
A team of researchers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have hit a breakthrough in their quest to develop pigs whose organs and other tissues can be transplanted into humans. The team, led by a biotechnology company called eGenesis, announced Thursday that it has successfully used a powerful gene-editing technique known as CRISPR to modify the DNA in pig...
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Could type 2 diabetes be transmissible?
Although the findings are preliminary, new research suggests that type 2 diabetes may be transmissible in a way that is similar to prion disorders such as “mad cow disease.” A new study has found a prion-like mechanism that drives type 2 diabetes. Although type 2 diabetes affects more than 420 million people worldwide, its causes remain largely unknown....