Although the medical tricorder will remain a dream to be chased by digital health innovators for the years to come, I collected the portable, digital health diagnostic devices currently on the market in case anyone is thinking about purchasing an effective gadget making the patient the point of care. Chasing the dream of the medical...
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Scientists link pancreatic cancer survival to four genes
Alterations in four main genes are responsible for how long patients survive with pancreatic cancer, according to a new study in JAMA Oncology. Before now, the presence and patterns between the genes and disease progression was not clearly established. One key difference in this study is the relatively large size: it involved 356 patients who all had pancreatic adenocarcinoma that...
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Optogenetic Tools for Subcellular Applications in Neuroscience
Summary The ability to study cellular physiology using photosensitive, genetically encoded molecules has profoundly transformed neuroscience. The modern optogenetic toolbox includes fluorescent sensors to visualize signaling events in living cells and optogenetic actuators enabling manipulation of numerous cellular activities. Most optogenetic tools are not targeted to specific subcellular compartments but are localized with limited discrimination throughout the cell....
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Gelatin accelerates healing of the blood brain barrier in acute brain injury
Researchers already know that gelatin-covered electrode implants cause less damage to brain tissue than electrodes with no gelatin coating. Researchers at the Neuronano Research Centre (NRC) at Lund University in Sweden have now shown that microglia, the brain’s cleansing cells, and the enzymes that the cells use in the cleaning process, change in the presence...
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Google alert helps to end a former Royal Marine’s 10-year tinnitus hell: Notification highlighted pioneering IPOD-based therapy that has allowed veteran to ‘function again as a human being’
Harris Tatakis suffered the debilitating condition after 2007 bomb in Afghanistan The blast left the 39-year-old with ruptured eardrums and brain damage Since then he has had ringing in his ears so loud it caused him hearing problems He is believed to be the first UK veteran to benefit from the therapy A former Royal...
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The bacteria in your gut could help determine if a cancer therapy will work
Why does cancer immunotherapy work for some patients, but not others? Gut biodiversity could play a decisive role, two new studies in Science suggest. A lush microbiome populated with “good bacteria” can boost the power of the treatments, one paper found. On the other hand, certain immunotherapies were less effective in patients who were taking...
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Autism treatments may restore brain connections
The diagram above illustrates how the absence or presence of the KCTD13 gene affects the ability of neurons to communicate. When the gene is absent, the protein RhoA proliferates and reduces connections between neurons by half. A drug that …more Scientists have identified a pair of treatments that may restore brain function to autism patients...
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Blood-clotting protein prevents repair in the brain
Picture a bare wire, without its regular plastic coating. It’s exposed to the elements and risks being degraded. And, without insulation, it may not conduct electricity as well as a coated wire. Now, imagine this wire is inside your brain. That’s what happens in many diseases of the nervous system, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), spinal cord injuries,...
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Two Important Signalling Pathways in Cancer And Ageing Are Connected for the First Time
The structure of proteins that protect telomeres (shelterin proteins, from “protective shield”) are promising targets to combat cancer but to date there has been no effective form for attacking them. In the absence of drugs that destroy telomeres, cancer retains one of its most terrible properties, which is the ability of its cells to perpetually...
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Promise seen in possible treatment for autism spectrum disorder
In searching for a potential therapeutic for autism spectrum disorder, researchers have found that R-Baclofen reverses cognitive deficits and improves social interactions in two lines of 16p11.2 deletion mice. Human chromosome 16p11.2 deletion syndrome is caused by the absence of about 27 genes on chromosome 16. This deletion is characterized by intellectual disability; impaired...