Each year, Americans develop more than 50 million cases of foodborne illness. While some are caused by eating out, others originate in home kitchens. Still more result from contact with someone already infected. “It’s one of the most common things we see,” said Dr. Ross Rodgers, an emergency medicine physician at Penn State Health Milton...
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Statistical analysis for optimal immunization: New insights into T cell development
When T cells encounter an antigen, they proliferate and produce various types of daughter cells. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now refuted the prevailing hypothesis that this immune response is largely predetermined by the individual structure of the T cell receptor. Instead, the influence of the T cell receptor can...
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Five vascular diseases linked to one common genetic variant
Genome-wide association studies have implicated a common genetic variant in chromosome 6p24 in coronary artery disease, as well as four other vascular diseases: migraine headache, cervical artery dissection, fibromuscular dysplasia, and hypertension. However, it has not been clear how this polymorphism affects the risk for so many diseases. In the journal Cell on July 27, researchers show...
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Gene transfer corrects severe muscle defects in mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a rapidly progressive disease that causes whole-body muscle weakness and atrophy due to deficiency in a protein called dystrophin. Researchers at the University of Missouri, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, University of Washington, and Solid Biosciences, LLC, have developed a new gene transfer approach that uses an adeno-associated virus vector...
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Immune system may mount an attack in Parkinson’s disease
A new study suggests that T cells, which help the body’s immune system recognize friend from foe, may play an important role in Parkinson’s disease (PD). The study, published in the journal Nature, was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health. “This collaboration between...
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Scientists regenerate retinal cells in mice
Scientists have successfully regenerated cells in the retina of adult mice at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Their results raise the hope that someday it may be possible to repair retinas damaged by trauma, glaucoma and other eye diseases. Their efforts are part of the UW Medicine Institute for Stem Cell...
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Using CRISPR, scientists efficiently edit genome of viable human embryos
In a step that some of the nation’s leading scientists have long warned against and that has never before been accomplished, biologists in Oregon have edited the DNA of viable human embryos efficiently and apparently with few mistakes, according to a report in Technology Review. The experiment, using the revolutionary genome-editing technique CRISPR-Cas9, was led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon...
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How genetically engineered viruses develop into effective vaccines
Lentiviral vectors are virus particles that can be used as a vaccine to stimulate the immune system to fight against specific pathogens. The vectors are derived from HIV, rendered non-pathogenic, and then engineered to carry genetic material into the body’s immune cells; the genes program the cells to fight specific pathogens. New research from the...
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Smart underwear proven to prevent back stress with just a tap
TV infomercials offer a world of potential solutions for back pain, but most of them have at least one of three problems — they’re unproven, unworkable or just plain unattractive. A team of Vanderbilt University engineers is changing that with a design that combines the science of biomechanics and advances in wearable tech to create...
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Over-the-counter devices hold their own against costly hearing aids
Hearing aids that can cost more than $2,000 apiece are only slightly more effective than some over-the-counter sound-amplification devices that sell for just a few hundred dollars, according to a recent study. The study bolsters legislation pending in Congress, which would have the Food and Drug Administration set regulations for cheaper over-the-counter products and is...