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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,444

Studying a cell’s crawling motion in a fluid

Cell motility, the spontaneous movement of cells from one location to another, plays a fundamental role in many biological processes, including immune responses and metastasis. Recent physics studies have gathered new evidence suggesting that mammalian cells do not only crawl on solid substrates, including complex 3D mediums of a tissues, but can also swim in fluids.

In a recent study, a team of researchers at the University Grenoble Alpes and CNRS (National Center of Scientific Research) tried to shed light on the mechanisms behind the onset of motility cells in suspension, which would occur if they were moving in fluids. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, presents a model that couples actin and myosin kinetics with , which they applied to a spherical and a non-spherical shape.

“Recent studies have suggested that adhesion is not necessary for cells to move in a three-dimensional environment, and have even shown that cells of the immune system can swim when suspended in a fluid,” the researchers who conducted the study told Phys.org via email.

Researchers synthesize ‘impossible’ superconductor

Researchers from the U.S., Russia, and China have bent the rules of classical chemistry and synthesized a “forbidden” compound of cerium and hydrogen—CeH9—which exhibits superconductivity at a relatively low pressure of 1 million atmospheres. The paper came out in Nature Communications.

Superconductors are materials capable of conducting an electric current with no resistance whatsoever. They are behind the powerful electromagnets in , maglev trains, MRI scanners, and could theoretically enable power lines that deliver electricity from A to B without losing the precious kilowatts to thermal dissipation.

Unfortunately, the superconductors known today can only work at very low temperatures (below −138 degrees Celsius), and latest record (−13 degrees Celsius) requires extremely high pressures of nearly 2 million atmospheres. This limits the scope of their possible applications and makes the available superconducting technologies expensive, since maintaining their fairly extreme operating conditions is challenging.

‘Revolution’ in prostate cancer care as off-label breast cancer drug doubles survival

A breast cancer drug has been used to double the survival of men with advanced prostate cancer, becoming the first successful precision medicine for the disease.

Doctors at the Royal Marsden Hospital who conducted the trial say the results amount to a “revolution” in prostate cancer care.

They conducted genetic testing on more than 4,400 patients to identify those with one or more of 15 types of DNA fault.

Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type

Japanese researchers said they have developed artificial blood that can be transfused into patients regardless of their blood type and can vastly improve the chances for survival of seriously injured people.

The artificial blood created by a team of scientists primarily from the National Defense Medical College has proved effective in experiments on rabbits.

For possible applications on humans, the artificial blood gets around problems with identifying blood types in emergency situations and overcomes limits on storing real blood from donors.

An Interview with Dr. Michael West

At our 2019 Ending Age-related Diseases conference in New York City, we had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Michael West, the CEO of AgeX Therapeutics.

Dr. West can rightfully be called a pioneer in his field with a substantial background in biomedical and biotechnology corporations. After completing his PhD at Baylor College of Medicine, he founded Geron Corporation in 1990, where he launched and directed programs in telomere biology as it relates to cancer, aging, and human embryonic stem cell technology. He subsequently established the research group that went on to isolate human embryonic stem cells for the first time.

After his time at Geron, Dr. West was chairman and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology, which was acquired by the Japanese company Astellas Pharma in 2016 for $379 Million. Following his success with Advanced Cell Technology and Geron, Dr. West served as the CEO/co-CEO of BioTime Inc. for ten years.

“Off-the-Shelf” Stem Cells Could Bring a Regenerative Revolution

It’s the promise of stem cell medicine: Someday soon, clinics will rebuild diseased or broken hearts, kidneys, pancreases or blood by growing and reprogramming human cells, then adding them back to the bodies of the patients they came from.

If only it were that easy.

After two decades of human stem cell research, researchers have learned how to create what appear to be reasonably functional versions of several types of cells, first using genetic tricks to turn cells back to an uncommitted state and then molding them into the type of cell needed — say, an insulin-producing cell or a particular kind of nerve cell. And many early clinical trials of stem cell medicine have shown genuinely promising results.

Five patients die every minute from incorrect medical treatment, according to the World Health Organization

  • A recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO) claims 2.6 million people die every year in middle and low-income countries from incorrect medical care.
  • The report, which was published before the first-ever World Patient Safety Day on September 17, reveals that five people die every minute from incorrect medical care.
  • The health agency says the most common errors occur in diagnosis, prescription and use of medicines and that the deaths are completely preventable.
  • The cost of prescribing the wrong medication alone is $42 billion a year.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Every year, 2.6 million people die in middle and low-income countries because of incorrect medical care, according to a recent report published by the World Health Organization (WHO). The health agency is hoping to shed light on the issue by launching a campaign in solidarity with patients on the first-ever World Patient Safety Day on September 17.

“No one should be harmed while receiving health care. And yet globally, at least 5 patients die every minute because of unsafe care,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

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