#Cells that aid hearing, balance created in lab LONDON: Scientists have developed successfully a way to coax embryonic stem cells to become the inner-ear hair cells
This is an important step for the future production of large numbers of these cells for use in cell transplantation therapies or large-scale drug screens, researchers from the Molecular Medicine Institute in Lisbon,
the team led by Domingos Henrique from the Molecular Medicine Institute in Lisbon, Portugal decided to follow a different strategy."
foam-like battery material that can withstand shock and stress.""It is possible to make incredible materials from trees
foam-like battery material that can withstand shock and stress.""It is possible to make incredible materials from trees
so that the drug they make is slightly different than versions used in hospitals today. The process of creating erythromycin begins with three basic building blocks called metabolic precursors chemical compounds that are combined
so that the drug they make is slightly different than versions used in hospitals today. The process of creating erythromycin begins with three basic building blocks called metabolic precursors chemical compounds that are combined
"What happens if someone had plastic surgery to look like someone else, "one user asked.""How much will it take to turn my face into Jack Ma's (founder of Ali baba?(
"What happens if someone had plastic surgery to look like someone else, "one user asked.""How much will it take to turn my face into Jack Ma's (founder of Ali baba?(
senior study author and an associate professor in the UC San diego School of medicine Department of Pathology. Five other genetic mutations have previously been identified by research groups as pivotal in achromatopsia."
The families received testing in the lab of Susanne Kohl, the study's first author from Centre for Ophthalmology at University of Tuebingen in Germany.
"In this particular disease, we think a mutation in the ATF6 gene disrupts the UPR process
because this (UPR) is a new pathway found to be involved in this disease, "he said d
#Tata doctors find way to cut oral cancer risk Tata Memorial Hospital, the cancer hub in Parel, announced a breakthrough on Tuesday that could
not only reduce the risk of death for oral cancer patients by 36 %but also prevent recurrence of the disease by 55%.
%The innovation is an'extra cut'-a dissection in medical parlance-along the neck to detect
if the patient's cancer had spread from his/her oral cavity to the neck. The cut would be a prophylaxis-a preventive medicine-against aggressive cancer forms
and prevent the need for chemotherapy or radiation. The findings were announced by Tata Memorial Centre's Dr Anil D'Cruz at an ongoing meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology at Chicago on May 31.
The findings were published also in the latest edition of New england Journal of Medicine. The study assumes significance
because India carries the highest burden of oral cancer in the world, with around 1 lakh new patients detected every year.
It is the most common cancer among Indian men and third most common among Indian women.
Worse, almost half of them die within 12 months of diagnosis, because of the delay in seeking treatment.
At a press conference held in the Parel hospital on Tuesday, one of the other investigators Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi said,
"When a patient comes with a lesion in his oral cavity, be it his her tongue
or jaw bone, it's not possible to say whether the cancer has progressed beyond to the neck region.
This is especially in the early stages of oral cancer.''''At present, patients may choose to not undergo neck dissection and wait until some cancerous bulge-basically,
a recurrence-appears in his/her neck. It has been one of medicine's long standing ethical debate on
whether or not early stage oral cancer patients should undergo a neck dissection. On one hand, the dissection is a delicate operation
because the cut is made near important nerves (for facial expression and spine), veins and arteries running along the neck.
On the other hand, if patients choose to not undergo a neck dissection, they may be at the risk of not diagnosing the cancer's complete spread early enough.
This could impact their quality of life and more importantly, their survival.""But this research has put an end to this debate.
A neck detection can save more lives. All it requires is 30 minutes extra on the operation table,''added Dr Chaturvedi.
#Tata docs find way to cut oral cancer risk Tata Memorial Hospital, the cancer hub in Parel, announced a breakthrough on Tuesday that could
not only reduce the risk of death for oral cancer patients by 36 %but also prevent recurrence of the disease by 55%.
%The innovation is an'extra cut'-a dissection in medical parlance-along the neck to detect
if the patient's cancer had spread from his/her oral cavity to the neck. The cut would be a prophylaxis-a preventive medicine-against aggressive cancer forms
and prevent the need for chemotherapy or radiation. The findings were announced by Tata Memorial Centre's Dr Anil D'Cruz at an ongoing meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology at Chicago on May 31.
The findings were published also in the latest edition of New england Journal of Medicine. The study assumes significance
because India carries the highest burden of oral cancer in the world, with around 1 lakh new patients detected every year.
It is the most common cancer among Indian men and third most common among Indian women.
Worse, almost half of them die within 12 months of diagnosis, because of the delay in seeking treatment.
At a press conference held in the Parel hospital on Tuesday, one of the other investigators Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi said,
"When a patient comes with a lesion in his oral cavity, be it his her tongue
or jaw bone, it's not possible to say whether the cancer has progressed beyond to the neck region.
This is especially in the early stages of oral cancer.''''At present, patients may choose to not undergo neck dissection and wait until some cancerous bulge-basically,
a recurrence-appears in his/her neck. It has been one of medicine's long standing ethical debate on
whether or not early stage oral cancer patients should undergo a neck dissection. On one hand, the dissection is a delicate operation
because the cut is made near important nerves (for facial expression and spine), veins and arteries running along the neck.
On the other hand, if patients choose to not undergo a neck dissection, they may be at the risk of not diagnosing the cancer's complete spread early enough.
This could impact their quality of life and more importantly, their survival.""But this research has put an end to this debate.
A neck detection can save more lives. All it requires is 30 minutes extra on the operation table,''added Dr Chaturvedi.
The product uses"low levels of pulsed electrical energy to signal specific neural pathways, allowing users to dial up or dial down their stress responses and energy levels."
The method, called Virscan, developed by Howard hughes medical institute (HHMI) researchers can test for current and past infections with any known human virus,
including HIV and hepatitis C. The method, called Virscan, is an efficient alternative to existing diagnostics that test for specific viruses one at a time.
Stephen Elledge, an HHMI investigator at Brigham and Women's hospital and his colleagues have used already Virscan to screen the blood of 569 people in the US, South africa, Thailand, and Peru.
Virscan works by screening the blood for antibodies against any of the 206 species of viruses known to infect humans.
The immune system ramps up production of pathogen-specific antibodies when it encounters a virus for the first time
and it can continue to produce those antibodies for years or decades after it clears an infection.
PTI That means Virscan not only identifies viral infections that the immune system is actively fighting, but also provides a history of an individual's past infections.
To develop the new test, Elledge and his colleagues synthesised more than 93,000 short pieces of DNA encoding different segments of viral proteins.
They introduced those pieces of DNA into bacteria-infecting viruses called bacteriophage. Each bacteriophage manufactured one of the protein segments-known as a peptide
Antiviral antibodies in the blood find and bind to their target epitopes within the displayed peptides.
The scientists then retrieve the antibodies and wash away everything except for the few bacteriophage that cling to them.
they can identify which viral protein pieces were grabbed onto by antibodies in the blood sample. That tells the scientists which viruses a person's immune system has encountered previously
either through infection or through vaccination. The study was published in the journal Science e
#Now, aircraft wings that can'self heal'on the fly Even the researchers involved in the project describe it as"verging on science fiction".
which could soon produce self-healing nail polish and a cure for cracked mobile phone screens. A team at the University of Bristol has been quietly developing the technology for the past three years.
which could soon produce self-healing nail polish and a cure for cracked mobile phone screens. A team at the University of Bristol has been quietly developing the technology for the past three years.
Surgeons first rewired remaining foot nerve endings from a patient's stump to healthy tissue in the thigh,
"Plus the amputation is tied often to a traumatic experience like an accident or illness, and the mind keeps reliving these memories,
"Importantly, post-surgery recovery is quick and there are no known health dangers associated with the intervention,
Surgeons first rewired remaining foot nerve endings from a patient's stump to healthy tissue in the thigh,
"Plus the amputation is tied often to a traumatic experience like an accident or illness, and the mind keeps reliving these memories,
"Importantly, post-surgery recovery is quick and there are no known health dangers associated with the intervention,
#Copper and its alloys destroy'stomach flu'virus Metal surfaces containing copper can destroy human norovirus, one of the causes of gastroenteritis or'stomach flu,
including copious vomiting and diarrhea. It is a major problem on cruise ships, in restaurants, and in elder care homes, where the disease is transmitted easily by environmental contamination,
"said Clyde Manuel, a doctoral student of North carolina State university, Raleigh.""This is the first study to demonstrate copper's destructive powers against human norovirus,
Several earlier studies have established that copper is very effective against a host of bacteria that cause a variety of human diseases including stomach ailments, pneumonia,
meningitis, skin infections etc. But this is the first study to record copper's action against a virus. In the study,
He notes that a hospital intensive care unit that recently replaced other materials in high touch surfaces with copper reduced the overall infection rate by half.
#New sensor to detect cancer, HIV, hepatitis Researchers have developed a highly sensitive nanomechanical sensor that can detect cancerous tumours as well as viral disease markers for HIV,
hepatitis and herpes. Researchers from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) developed the ultracompact nanomechanical sensor for analysing the chemical composition of substances and detecting biological objects.
The sensor can detect viral disease markers, which appear when the immune system responds to incurable
or hard-to-cure diseases, including HIV, hepatitis, herpes, and many others. The sensor will also enable doctors to identify tumour markers,
whose presence in the body signals the emergence and growth of cancerous tumours. The highly sensitive sensor will allow for diagnosing diseases long before they can be detected by any other method,
which will pave the way for a new-generation of diagnostics, researchers said. Calculations done by the researchers,
Dmitry Fedyanin and Yury Stebunov, showed that the new sensor will combine high sensitivity with a comparative ease of production
and miniature dimensions, allowing it to be used in all portable devices, such as smartphones, wearable electronics, etc.
#New sensor to detect cancer, HIV Researchers have developed a highly sensitive nanomechanical sensor that can detect cancerous tumours as well as viral disease markers for HIV,
hepatitis and herpes. Researchers from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) developed the ultracompact nanomechanical sensor for analysing the chemical composition of substances and detecting biological objects.
The sensor can detect viral disease markers, which appear when the immune system responds to incurable
or hard-to-cure diseases, including HIV, hepatitis, herpes, and many others. The sensor will also enable doctors to identify tumour markers,
whose presence in the body signals the emergence and growth of cancerous tumours. The highly sensitive sensor will allow for diagnosing diseases long before they can be detected by any other method
which will pave the way for a new-generation of diagnostics, researchers said. Calculations done by the researchers,
Dmitry Fedyanin and Yury Stebunov, showed that the new sensor will combine high sensitivity with a comparative ease of production
and miniature dimensions, allowing it to be used in all portable devices, such as smartphones, wearable electronics, etc.
Researchers have developed a highly sensitive nanomechanical sensor that can detect cancerous tumours as well as viral disease markers for HIV,
hepatitis and herpes. Researchers from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) developed the ultracompact nanomechanical sensor for analysing the chemical composition of substances and detecting biological objects.
The sensor can detect viral disease markers, which appear when the immune system responds to incurable
or hard-to-cure diseases, including HIV, hepatitis, herpes, and many others. The sensor will also enable doctors to identify tumour markers,
whose presence in the body signals the emergence and growth of cancerous tumours. The highly sensitive sensor will allow for diagnosing diseases long before they can be detected by any other method
which will pave the way for a new-generation of diagnostics, researchers said. Calculations done by the researchers,
Dmitry Fedyanin and Yury Stebunov, showed that the new sensor will combine high sensitivity with a comparative ease of production
In a medical breakthrough, a 28-year-old woman has become the first person in the world to give birth to a baby using ovarian tissue that was removed
Previous successful transplants resulting in pregnancies have used frozen ovary tissue removed from adult women, but in this case it was taken from a girl
The breakthrough, described in the journal Human Reproduction, gives hope to thousands of young cancer victims who face treatments such as chemotherapy which can damage the ovaries
had received a transplant of her brother's bone marrow to treat her sickle-cell anaemia which needed chemotherapy to disable the immune system
Doctors removed her right ovary just before she turned 14 and froze tissue fragments. Puberty and breast development had begun
and when she was 15 doctors began hor mone replacement therapy (HRT) to induce menstruation.
and doctors, led by Isabelle Demeestere, a gynaecologist and research associate at Erasme hospital, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, stopped the HRT
The doctors said the woman should be able to have more children and that a second transplantation was possible
In a medical breakthrough, a 28-year-old woman has become the first person in the world to give birth to a baby using ovarian tissue that was removed
Previous successful transplants resulting in pregnancies have used frozen ovary tissue removed from adult women, but in this case it was taken from a girl
The breakthrough, described in the journal Human Reproduction, gives hope to thousands of young cancer victims who face treatments such as chemotherapy which can damage the ovaries
had received a transplant of her brother's bone marrow to treat her sickle-cell anaemia which needed chemotherapy to disable the immune system
Doctors removed her right ovary just before she turned 14 and froze tissue fragments. Puberty and breast development had begun
and when she was 15 doctors began hor mone replacement therapy (HRT) to induce menstruation.
and doctors, led by Isabelle Demeestere, a gynaecologist and research associate at Erasme hospital, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, stopped the HRT
The doctors said the woman should be able to have more children and that a second transplantation was possible
Cure for untreatable wounds BEIJING: Chinese scientists have claimed successfully growing muscle stem cells in a test tube,
a breakthrough that could potentially save the careers of top athletes besides cure untreatable injuries caused from accidents and surgeries due to cancer."
"It can generate enough stem cells to heal permanent wounds, especially those caused externally,"said Hu Ping, a cell biologist with the Shanghai Institute for Biological science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences."
"Muscle stem cells are the ultimate way to cure muscle-related wounds or diseases, "Hu said,
but also address a wide range of medical issues such as treatments for people involved in car accidents,
those who have had surgery for cancer, or sufferers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).""This technology could cure (recently retired Chinese hurdler) Liu Xiang's injury,
"Hu said, referring to Asia's first Olympic gold medallist in the 110-metre hurdles at the 2004 Athens Olympics who also ranks as the continent's first world champion hurdler.
A nagging tendon injury caused the Shanghai native to limp off the track when Beijing hosted the Summer Games in 2008.
blaming his longstanding injury. Now scientists from his hometown believe they have found a way to restore him to full health,
along with millions of other patients bearing muscle-related injuries. By transplanting the stem cells from the test tube back into the patient's body
large wounds require large numbers to be dragged over from healthy parts of the patient's body,
adding that no cure was available-until now. The professor said a similar method could be used to grow tendon stem cells to treat injuries like Liu's. She added that
although tests on mice showed that the test tube-generated cells were almost identical to the natural cells,
The team has contacted hospitals in China about conducting human trials but has struggled to find volunteers,
"Most people in China don't care about muscle injuries until they find they cannot walk,
#Microsoft's drones to catch mosquitoes and help stop epidemics WASHINGTON: Microsoft researchers are developing autonomous drones that collect mosquitoes to look for early signs that potentially harmful viruses are spreading,
with the goal of preventing disease outbreaks in humans. Project Premonition, launched by American tech company Microsoft,
is developing a system that aims to detect infectious disease outbreaks before they become widespread. Project Premonition could eventually allow health officials to get a jump start on preventing outbreaks of a disease like dengue fever
or avian flu before it occurs, whether or not it is a disease spread by mosquitoes,
researchers said. It will do that by relying on what Ethan Jackson the Microsoft researcher who is spearheading the project,
calls'nature's drones'-mosquitoes-to look for early signs that a particular illness could be on the move.
Until recently, the idea of culling through mosquitoes to try to find diseases that are known both
with the goal of preventing disease outbreaks in humans. Project Premonition, launched by American tech company Microsoft,
is developing a system that aims to detect infectious disease outbreaks before they become widespread. Project Premonition could eventually allow health officials to get a jump start on preventing outbreaks of a disease like dengue fever
or avian flu before it occurs, whether or not it is a disease spread by mosquitoes,
researchers said. It will do that by relying on what Ethan Jackson the Microsoft researcher who is spearheading the project,
calls'nature's drones'-mosquitoes-to look for early signs that a particular illness could be on the move.
Until recently, the idea of culling through mosquitoes to try to find diseases that are known both
#In a first, drug offers hope for children with dwarfism An experimental drug, vying to become the first approved treatment for dwarfism, improved growth in children by a significant amount in a preliminary study, the drug's developer,
Biomarin Pharmaceutical, said on Wednesday. In the study, the 10 children who got the highest dose of the drug grew at an average rate of 6. 1cm,
can also increase the growth rate for people with dwarfism to 6 centimetres per year but the effect wears off after one year.
or vosoritide, is aimed at treating achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism. The company says there may be 24
Women with achondroplasia typically grow to about four feet tall, and men a few inches taller.
The condition also causes disproportionate growth that can lead to complications like bowed legs, sleep apnea and spinal cord compression,
which can require surgery to correct. It is too soon to say if vosoritide can prevent any of those complications.
Some people with dwarfism say it is not a disease that needs treatment. But about 80%of children with achondroplasia are born to parents of normal stature,
and many parents want treatments for their children. One is a torturous surgery that lengthens the legs by breaking them h
#First electric plane gets wings in China BEIJING: The world's first electric passenger aircraft to gain an airworthiness certificate has been produced by China,
#This vaccine could help block HIV WASHINGTON: Scientists have designed a new experimental HIV vaccine that may stimulate the immune system to block infection from the deadly virus. New research led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI),
INTERNATIONAL AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the Rockefeller University shows in mice that the vaccine candidate can stimulate the immune system activity necessary to stop HIV infection.
The findings could provide key information for the development of an effective AIDS vaccine, researchers said.
The research, published in the journals Cell and Science, represents a leap forward in the effort to develop a vaccine against HIV
which has struggled so far to elicit antibodies (immune system molecules) that can effectively fight off different strains of the virus."The results are said pretty spectacular
Dennis Burton, chairman of the TSRI department of immunology and microbial science. While many vaccines for other diseases use a dead
or inactive version of the disease-causing microbe itself to trigger antibody production, immunisations with"native"HIV proteins are ineffective in triggering an effective immune response,
due to HIV's ability to evade detection from the immune system and mutate rapidly into new strains.
This challenge has led researchers to believe that a successful AIDS vaccine will need a series of related
but slightly different proteins (immunogens) to train the body to produce broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-a twist on the traditional"booster shot,
where a person is exposed to the same immunogen multiple times. The scientists tested one of these potential proteins,
an immunogen called eod-GT8 60mer, using a technique called B cell sorting. The researchers showed that immunisation with eod-GT8 60mer produced antibody"precursors"with some of the traits necessary to recognize
and block HIV infection. This suggested that eod-GT8 60mer could be a good candidate to serve as the first in a series of immunisations against HIV
researchers said.""The vaccine appears to work well in our mouse model to'prime'the antibody response,
"said TSRI professor David Nemazee z
#TOI impact: Energy supplied by humanitarian kite The Zephyr project, a photovoltaic balloon designed by students,
aims to supply energy to disaster areas. In the Iliad, Zephyr is a violent, stormy wind,
and heating to around fifty people living, for example, in a refugee camp or emergency hospital.
and heating to around fifty people living, for example, in a refugee camp or emergency hospital.
An important potential benefit that brainwave technology might offer is the ability to improve the accessibility of media content to people with disabilities.
For example, people affected by motor neurone disease or suffering locked-insyndrome may increasingly be able to use brain-computer interfaces to get a better experience of digital
#New breath test may detect pneumonia LONDON: A simple breath test can now detect if a critically ill patient is infected with pneumonia or not.
Chemically analysing breath specimens from patients in intensive care can reveal bacterial infection in the lower respiratory tract of ventilated patients at risk of developing pneumonia.
Though the study is at an initial stage, the results so far look promising and could potentially have a huge effect on clinical practice as healthcare associated infections are a major issue worldwide."
"Pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics but there are two major problems-it can be difficult to detect
and diagnose and because of that we tend to use potent broad spectrum antibiotics in anyone who shows symptoms of infection,
"said Paul Dark, one of the researchers and honorary consultant in intensive care medicine at Salford Royal.
Current methods of confirming the presence of infections involve laboratory tests of samples from deep in the lungs,
which is time consuming.""Now we know that it is feasible to capture and measure breath chemicals of patients on mechanical ventilators,
"said Stephen Fowler, clinical lecturer in the University of Manchester's Centre for Respiratory Medicine and Allergy.
#UK plans world's first artificial blood transfusions by 2017 LONDON: The world's first human trial of artificial blood grown in a lab from stem cells is set to take place in the UK by 2017.
The UK's NHS (National Health service) Blood and Transplant has announced that manufactured blood will be used in clinical trials with human volunteers within two years.
Research led by scientists at the University of Bristol and NHS Blood and Transplant, used stem cells from adult and umbilical cord blood to create a small volume of manufactured red blood cells.
and thalassemia who require treatment with regular transfusions and for whom it is difficult to find compatible donors.
This will involve a group of 20 volunteers who will receive a small volume transfusion of between five and ten millilitre of the lab-produced blood."
"said Dr Nick Watkins, NHS Blood and Transplant Assistant Director of research and Development.""We are confident that by 2017 our team will be ready to carry out the first early phase clinical trials in human volunteers,
"Research has laid the foundation for current transfusion and transplantation practices. Continued investment in research and development is critical to our role in saving and improving lives through blood and organ donation,"he added d
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