Future applications of such a DNA walker might include a cancer detector that could roam the human body searching for cancerous cells
constantly computing whether a cancer is present.""More immediate practical applications may include deploying the DNA walker in the body
Although it may be a long march from diagnosing cancer to curing it, "All breakthroughs begin with baby steps.
or sterile growing environments where plants were protected from disease --and space was an intriguing option."
So just as nude mice can be really good models for cancer research, 'nude'versions of crop plants could also speed up agricultural research,
and Ear/Harvard Medical school and Boston University have prevented successfully the development of Parkinson's disease in a mouse using new techniques to deliver drugs across the naturally impenetrable blood-brain barrier.
"Although we are currently looking at neurodegenerative disease, there is potential for the technology to be expanded to psychiatric diseases, chronic pain,
seizure disorders and many other conditions affecting the brain and nervous system down the road.""Using nasal mucosal grafting,
a known therapeutic protein for treating Parkinson's disease, to the brains of mice. They showed through behavioral
and histological data capture that their delivery method was equivalent to direct injection of GDNF-the current gold standard for delivering this drug in Parkinson's disease despite its traumatic nature and high complication rates-in diffusing drugs to the brain.
because the therapy has been shown to delay and even reverse disease progression of Parkinson's disease. Nasal mucosal grafting is a technique regularly used in the ENT field to reconstruct the barrier around the brain after surgery to the skull base.
ENT surgeons commonly use endoscopic approaches to remove brain tumors through the nose by making a window through the blood-brain barrier to access the brain.
with the nasal lining protecting the brain from infection just as the blood brain barrier has done. Dr. Bleier saw an opportunity to apply these techniques to the widespread clinical dilemma of delivering drugs across the barrier to the brain and central nervous system.
"We see this expanding beyond Parkinson's disease, as there are multiple diseases of the brain that do not have good therapeutic options,
"Dr. Bleier said.""It is a platform that opens doors for new discovery and could enable drug development for an underserved population."#
Eye and Ear clinicians and scientists are driven by a mission to find cures for blindness, deafness and diseases of the head and neck.
Researchers propose to do this by making the plants better at handling stress. Now I know what you might be thinking tress limate changeit sounds like it time to call the plant acupuncturist.
when the plant detects stress. Beneath this superficially crude mechanism lie untold layers of regulatory nuance.
e-muscularizingthe area and fixing the characteristic damage of a heart attack. The hydrogel worked like a charm;
The team did not invent a treatment for this heart disease, but a booster pack that lets a preexisting treatment really kick into high gear.
#A possible broad spectrum cancer cure is in the offing, but human trials could be up to 4 years away For almost
cancer has been nipping at our heelsnd brains, stomachs, kidneys, and so on. The fossil record indicates humanity embittered relationship with the disease extends even to prehistoric times.
Over the centuries, cancer has proven a most intractable foe. One reason for this is that cancer is a big family, with numerous subtypes and categories,
a veritable medusa head which immensely complicates finding a universal cure. A remedy for one cancer is no guarantee that it will work against another type of cancer.
Worse the treatments that work against multiple types of cancer like chemotherapy and radiation are often so harsh and hazardous that doctors hesitate to prescribe them.
Badly needed is a broad spectrum cancer cure that doesn ruin the human body in the process.
Thanks to a research group studying malaria, such a cure now looks to be in the offing.
The story of this accidental discovery is important as much for what it says about the scientific process as the treatments it promises.
The researchers, a group of Danish scientists from the University of Copenhagen and the University of British columbia
were studying a malaria vaccine for pregnant women when they stumbled across what appears to be broad spectrum cancer cure in the form of a modified malaria strain.
The story is not without a heavy dose of irony, one of mankind oldest foes,
the Malaria virus, may contain the mechanism for curing an even worse nemesis cancer. Ali Salanti, a researcher behind the possible cancer cureor decades, scientists have been searching for similarities between the growth of a placenta
and a tumor, says Ali Salanti, who headed up one of the teams responsible for the discovery. he placenta is an organ,
which within a few months grows from only a few cells into an organ weighing approximately two pounds,
In a manner of speaking, tumors do much the same; they grow aggressively in a relatively foreign environment. hile studying the placenta,
Ali Salanti noticed that a carbohydrate the malaria parasite attaches itself to in the placenta of pregnant women is identical to a carbohydrate found in many cancers.
It was but a small step from there to modifying a malaria strain, so that when it comes in contact with a cancer cell,
Aside from the obvious tremendous benefit that would come from a broad spectrum cancer cure, these developments highlight another nemesis to human health:
With 7. 6 million people dying of cancer a year, in the four years it will likely take to bring this cancer treatment to market,
this discovery of potential broad spectrum cancer cure would seem to make it r
#Big data driving market disruption, leaving many organizations fearing irrelevance: Study A global report by Capgemini, provider of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, in partnership with EMC Corporation, reveals that amid the market disruption being driven by Big data,
and obesity While it has been suggested long that gut microbiota disturbances are involved in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), obesity and metabolic syndrome,
the new findings suggest emulsifiers might be partially responsible for this disturbance and the increased incidence of these diseases.
and metabolism, finding that relatively low-level concentrations of the emulsifiers resulted in distinct alterations to the gut microbial ecosystem (microbiota) and led to low-grade inflammation and the onset of metabolic syndrome.
the research team reported that the emulsifier-induced metabolic syndrome was associated with microbiota encroachment, altered species composition and increased pro-inflammatory potential.#
#Moreover, they suggest that the broad use of emulsifying agents might be contributing to an increased societal incidence of obesity/metabolic syndrome and other chronic inflammatory diseases.##
""The dramatic increase in these diseases IBD, obesity and metabolic syndrome#has occurred despite consistent human genetics, suggesting a pivotal role for an environmental factor,
"Chassaing and his colleagues theorised that emulsifiers might affect the gut microbiota to promote these inflammatory diseases
These changes in bacterial expression triggered chronic colitis in mice genetically prone to this disorder,
or mild intestinal inflammation and metabolic syndrome, characterized by increased levels of food consumption, obesity, hyperglycemia and insulin resistance.
Who also showed that transplant of the microbiota from emulsifiers-treated mice to germfree mice was enough to transfer some parameters of low-grade inflammation and metabolic syndrome.
it would indicate a role for the food additive in driving the epidemic of obesity, its interrelated consequences and a range of diseases associated with chronic gut inflammation,
said the authors. While detailed mechanisms underlying the effect of emulsifiers on metabolism remain under study,
and metabolic syndrome,"said Andrew Gewirtz, senior author of the study.##Rather, our findings reinforce the concept suggested by earlier work that low-grade inflammation resulting from an altered microbiota can be an underlying cause of excess eating."
10.1038/nature14232#Dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome#Authors: Benoit Chassaing, et a e
labelling, injury, sanitation and wasted raw ingredients. Increasing automation in the workplace can significantly help reduce many of these issues, with the newest generation of technologies such as lightweight robots capable of improving processes for food manufacturers.
The freeing up of employees from repetitive tasks can also help reduce costs related to worker accident and injury.
In the United states as many as 65 percent of all food factory workers had experienced injury while working on the job.
Costs related to worker injury are considerable. In addition to injury pay, they can also have a direct impact on insurance premiums, lost labour and production interruption as well as the distress of a valued team member.
Lightweight robots now have many built-in features to ensure they can work safely side-by-side with factory workers.
Alternately, riders prone to the malady could always take anti-nausea medications, though this is not a particularly practical solution for various reasons.
Imagine a diabetics biochip detecting blood glucose levels within personalized parameters, and then initiating appropriate, immediate,
Imagine a diabetics biochip detecting blood glucose levels within personalized parameters, and then initiating appropriate, immediate,
a pacemakers use in heart arrhythmias, efficacy (or side effects) of prescribed medications, and dosing compliance,
It very possible, maybe even likely, that an ipad giveaway program, paired with the right apps, could make senior citizens with chronic health problems healthier and more independent.
It a calculus of success. Working together, we can solve the equation w
#Boeing Patents Futuristic Force field Aerospace and defence firm Boeing BA-1. 59%has just been granted a patent for
Glu got its biggest recent winner from a celebrity app that many scoffed at before Kardashian game fever swept America.
Its USAID-funded Control and Prevention of Tuberculosis Project, which Techonomy highlighted in January, does this for health workers in Thailand and China with Qstream,
the University of Toronto is working with Christian Blind Mission a non-governmental organization that helps people with disabilities in developing countries as well as software supplier Autodesk ADSK+0. 17%and the Corsu rehabilitation hospital in Mpigi, Uganda.
and safety needles will receive WHO funding after 2020 should radically reduce infections caused by dirty syringes.
300,000 cases of hepatitis C and 35,000 new cases of HIV each year, as well as other infections. t was one of the proudest days in my life,
says Koska. o hear the head of THE WHO giving this the push that she did was phenomenal.
The remaining 5 per cent the use of syringes to vaccinate against potential disease converted en masse to auto-disable syringes in 1999.
I felt this discombobulating headache at the American Authors concert. My friend was sending emails while
we must remember that obsessive documenting changes the artistic structure of a concert atmosphere. he need to ocumentone life in every detail is a mania that can subtract from one enjoyment of the moment,
and prescription opioid epidemic the Obama administration announced recently a new $13. 4 million program to curb access to both.
The program will target illegal trafficking of the drugs in areas that have been particularly hard hit by the epidemic
including the increasing rate of HIV infections and car accidents. This is particularly troubling as these issues put the patient at an increased likelihood of needing a legitimate prescription for opioids to aid in the recovery from a planned procedure
Healing wounds The researchers created a dog-bone shaped sample of the polymer and then cut it in half.
saving time and money. aybe someday we could apply this approach to healing of wounds or other applications,
and size of lab tests A new device could make it much cheaper and easier to perform lab tests on blood and fluid for disorders like HIV and Lyme disease.
Until now, animal research on central nervous system disorders, such as spinal cord injury and Parkinson disease, has been limited because researchers could not extract sufficient cerebrospinal fluid to perform conventional assays. ith our technology,
The discovery could also lead to more comprehensive research on autoimmune joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis through animal studies.
The National institutes of health, the National Science Foundation, the New jersey Commission on Brain injury Research, and Corning, Inc. provided funding for the research n
#Vaccine might replace surgery for cervical cancer A genetically engineered cervical cancer vaccine performed well in a clinical trial,
offering hope that many women can one day avoid surgery that short-circuits the disease but threatens their ability to have a baby.
The vaccine eradicated high-grade precancerous cervical lesions in nearly half of women who received it, scientists report.
The goal of the trial was to find nonsurgical ways to treat precancerous lesions caused by human papillomavirus (HPV),
which is the most common form of sexually transmitted infection and can lead to cervical cancer,
according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Infection. very standard therapeutic option for women with these lesions destroys part of the cervix,
which is particularly relevant for women of childbearing age, who may then be at risk for preterm birth due to a weakened cervix,
and pathology at Johns hopkins university School of medicine. vaccine able to cure precancerous lesions could eventually be one way women can avoid surgery that is invasive
Despite dramatic progress in recent decades, about 12,000 women still develop cervical cancer in the United states each year, and about 4
High-grade cervical lesions occur most often in women 40 or younger. Because the lesions can progress to cancer,
they are removed today usually by surgery, freezing, or laser treatment. The procedures remove the precancerous areas in about 80 percent of women.
Less troublesome low-grade lesions usually are monitored just. They pose less of a cancer risk and usually regress on their own.
CLEARS OUT THE VIRUS If a vaccine is approved eventually for use, the slow development of cervical cancer would leave an opening for patients to try it. t typically takes about 10
or more years for precancerous cells to become cancer, so there is a window of opportunity to intervene with nonsurgical approaches,
Trimble says. The new study, published online in the journal the Lancet, involved a vaccine developed by University of Pennsylvania scientist David Weiner that is engineered to teach immune system cells to recognize precancerous and cancerous cells.
with newly diagnosed, high-grade precancerous cervical lesions. The women were assigned randomly to receive either three doses of the vaccine over a 12-week period or saline injections.
55 (48.2 percent) had regression of their precancerous lesions, meaning they disappeared or converted to low-grade lesions,
compared with 12 of 40 (30 percent) who received saline. The regression rate was closer to 50 percent in 107 women who received all three vaccine doses. n many of these women,
the vaccine not only made their lesions disappear, but it also cleared the virus from their cervix,
Trimble says. n most unvaccinated patients whose lesions went away, the virus was still present,
and many still had low-grade lesions. Clearance of the virus is a ignificant bonus she says,
because lingering HPV is a major risk factor for recurrence of cervical lesions. In biopsy samples, patients whose lesions completely regressed after vaccination had more immune T cells in the tissue. t important that T cells capable of recognizing HPV stay in the cervix
and fight off any recurrence of the infection, Trimble says. She is also studying other types of vaccines to prevent high-grade cervical lesions from developing into cancer.
The injection vaccine is made by Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc, . which funded the clinical trial and whose employees coauthored the report with Trimble.
Trimble received an unrestricted grant from Inovio but has no other financial or consulting arrangements with the company a
and respond to toxic injury in ways that are similar to kidney tubules in people.
To re-create human disease, researchers used the gene-editing technique called CRISPR. They engineered mini-kidneys with genetic changes linked to two common kidney diseases:
polycystic kidney disease and glomerulonephritis. The organoids developed characteristics of these diseases. Those with mutations in polycystic kidney disease genes formed balloon-like, fluid-filled sacks, called cysts, from kidney tubules.
The organoids with mutations in podocalyxin, a gene linked to glomerulonephritis, lost connections between filtering cells. utation of a single gene results in changes kidney structures associated with human disease,
thereby allowing better understand of the disease and serving as models to develop therapeutic agents to treat these diseases,
says senior author Joseph Bonventre, chief of the renal division at Brigham and Women Hospital.
CLINICAL TRIALS IN A DISH hese genetically engineered mini-kidneys Freedman says, ave taught us that human disease boils down to simple components that can be re-created in a petri dish.
This provides us with faster, better ways to perform linical trials in a dishto test drugs
and therapies that might work in humans. Genetically matched kidney organoids without disease-linked mutations showed no signs of either disease,
Freedman says. RISPR can be used to correct gene mutations, explained Freedman. ur findings suggest that gene correction using CRISPR may be a promising therapeutic strategy.
In the United states, costs for kidney disease are about 40 billion dollars per year. Kidney disease affects approximately 700 million people worldwide.
Bonventre holds patents on kidney injury molecule-1 which have been assigned to Partners Healthcare. The other researchers declare no competing interests t
The National Science Foundation, the Della Martin Fund for Discoveries in Mental illness, and the Japan Science and Technology Agency, Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology funded the work
But because there has been no way to obtain live human serotonin neurons to study these diseases,
since they can be generated from individual patients suffering from illnesses involving the neurotransmitter. hese patient-specific serotonin neurons will be very useful to the discovery of new drugs for diseases ranging from depression
and anxiety to obsessive-compulsive disorder and many others, says Feng. hey will not only allow researchers to study why certain individuals develop a disease
#Drug combo shows promise for skin cancer n transitnew melanoma research finds a combination therapy is highly effective at treating patients with skin metastases.
t unclear if the recently developed targeted melanoma therapies that have revolutionized management of patients with internal melanoma metastases are useful in patients with metastatic disease limited of the skin,
Although intralesional IL-2 has recently been included in the US National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for management of melanoma metastases of the skin
About 10 percent of patients with advanced melanoma develop what are called cutaneous metastases, often located n-transitto the patientslymph nodes.
Historically, treatment for these metastatic lesions has been surgical excision with or without radiation therapy, but disease recurrences can still be very high.
For the study, the researchers did a retrospective analysis of patients with either stage III
or stage IV melanoma who had history of treatment with IL-2 therapy combined with imiquimod and a topical retinoid.
Ten of the 11 patients had experienced recurrences of the disease after surgery, and several had failed nonsurgical treatments, as well.
TWO YEARS LATER The data indicate that all patients achieved complete clinical response to the treated lesions within one to three months of starting the intralesional IL-2-based therapy.
and seven were alive at the conclusion of the study without melanoma recurrence. The remaining five patients died from unrelated causes. he favorable outcomes in these patients are encouraging
and demonstrate for opioid pain relievers can be adapted to produce many plant-derived compounds to fight cancers,
infectious diseases and chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and arthritis. any medicines are derived from plants, which our ancestors chewed
and easily repeatable test for pancreatic cancer, scientists at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University, have developed a three-protein biomarker panel that can screen urine samples to identify pancreatic cancer
Moreover, it readily distinguishes between pancreatic cancer and chronic pancreatitis, conditions that are mistaken easily for each other.
The scientists settled on just three proteins after conducting proteomic analyses of 488 urine samples92 from patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC
92 from patients with chronic pancreatitis, 87 from healthy volunteers, and 117 samples from patients with other benign and malignant liver and gall bladder conditions.
Patients suffering from chronic pancreatitis had significantly lower levels than cancer patients. Combining the three proteins
The panel performance was described August 3 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, in an article entitled, dentification of a Three-Biomarker Panel in Urine for Early Detection of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma. hen comparing
The biomarker panel established by the Barts Cancer Institute scientists, however, shows promise. e've always been keen to develop a diagnostic test in urine as it has several advantages over using blood.
if the three-biomarker signature is present during the latency periodhe time between the genetic changes that will cause the cancer to develop and the clinical presentation.
With few specific symptoms even at a later stage of the disease, more than 80%of people with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed
when the cancer has already spread. This means they are not eligible for surgery to remove the tumorurrently the only potentially curative treatment.
when the cancer is already at a terminal stage, but if diagnosed at stage II,
the survival rate for patients with very small tumors can increase up to 60%.%It is hoped that with early detection,
#Genetic Variance Found as Cause for Cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common form of physical disability in children, with an incidence rate of approximately two cases for every 1, 000 live births.
Historically, CP has been attributed to an array of factors such as asphyxia, stroke, and infections in the developing brains.
However, researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (Sickkids) and the Research Institute of the Mcgill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have uncovered evidence for genetic causes of CP that may precipitate a change in the clinical
"Our research suggests that there is a much stronger genetic component to cerebral palsy than previously suspected,
"explained lead author Maryam Oskoui, M d.,pediatric neurologist at The Montreal Children's Hospital (MCH) of the MUHC and co-director of the Canadian Cerebral palsy Registry."
Our research suggests that our genes impart resilience or conversely a susceptibility to injury.""The findings from this study were published recently in Nature Communications through an article entitled linically relevant copy number variations detected in cerebral palsy.
The investigators performed genetic tests on 115 children with CP, many of whom had been identified previously with other risk factors as a cause for their disease.
DNA tests were performed also on the children parents, in order to paint a more comprehensive picture of the genetic background for CP.
"In light of the findings, we suggest that genomic analyses be integrated into the standard of practice for diagnostic assessment of cerebral palsy."
as they are associated with and array of genetic disease states.""It's a lot like autism, in that many different CNVS affecting different genes are involved
which could possibly explain why the clinical presentations of both these conditions are noted so diverse
or new, CNVS identified in these patients with cerebral palsy is even more significant than some of the major CNV autism research from the last 10 years.
We've opened many doors for new research into cerebral palsy.""While the researchers were excited by their findings,
"Finding an underlying cause for a child's disability is an important undertaking in management,
"stated co-author Michael Shevell, M d. co-director of the Canadian Cerebral palsy Registry and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the MCH-MUHC."
This study will provide the impetus to make genetic testing a standard part of the comprehensive assessment of the child with cerebral palsy."
"Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common form of physical disability in children, with an incidence rate of approximately two cases for every 1, 000 live births.
Historically, CP has been attributed to an array of factors such as asphyxia, stroke, and infections in the developing brains.
However, researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (Sickkids) and the Research Institute of the Mcgill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have uncovered evidence for genetic causes of CP that may precipitate a change in the clinical
"Our research suggests that there is a much stronger genetic component to cerebral palsy than previously suspected,
Our research suggests that our genes impart resilience or conversely a susceptibility to injury.""The findings from this study were published recently in Nature Communications through an article entitled linically relevant copy number variations detected in cerebral palsy.
The investigators performed genetic tests on 115 children with CP, many of whom had been identified previously with other risk factors as a cause for their disease.
DNA tests were performed also on the children parents, in order to paint a more comprehensive picture of the genetic background for CP.
"In light of the findings, we suggest that genomic analyses be integrated into the standard of practice for diagnostic assessment of cerebral palsy."
as they are associated with and array of genetic disease states.""It's a lot like autism, in that many different CNVS affecting different genes are involved
which could possibly explain why the clinical presentations of both these conditions are noted so diverse
or new, CNVS identified in these patients with cerebral palsy is even more significant than some of the major CNV autism research from the last 10 years.
We've opened many doors for new research into cerebral palsy.""While the researchers were excited by their findings,
"Finding an underlying cause for a child's disability is an important undertaking in management,"stated Dr. Shevell."
This study will provide the impetus to make genetic testing a standard part of the comprehensive assessment of the child with cerebral palsy. e
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