Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 2467
Oct 24, 2016
5 Ways Medical VR Is Changing Healthcare
Posted by Elmar Arunov in categories: biotech/medical, virtual reality
Virtual Reality started its fascinating take-over of healthcare for the greatest pleasure of patients and doctors alike. Here are five great examples of medical VR transforming patient lives and how doctors work.
Oct 23, 2016
Cartilage from nose is used to repair bum knees
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical
Using cells from the cartilage in patients’ noses, Swiss doctors have successfully made patches to treat 10 adults whose knee cartilage was damaged by injury.
Two years after the transplants, most of the patients grew new cartilage in their knees and reported improvements in pain, knee function and quality of life.
“We have developed a new, promising approach to the treatment of articular cartilage injuries,” said lead researcher Ivan Martin, a professor of tissue engineering at the University of Basel. The articular cartilage is the tissue that covers and protects the ends of the knee bones, and injuries to it can lead to degenerative joint conditions like osteoarthritis.
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Oct 22, 2016
Man Makes DIY Prosthetic Arm For His Dad
Posted by Elmar Arunov in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs
Sergei lost his arm when his son was four years old.
His son is now an engineer, and he built this for his dad.
Oct 22, 2016
Associations between Periodontal Microbiota and Death Rates
Posted by Steve Hill in category: biotech/medical
Brushing your teeth has never been so important.
It is conceived that specific combinations of periodontal bacteria are associated with risk for the various forms of periodontitis. We hypothesized that such specificity is also related to human cause-specific death rates. We tested this hypothesis in a representative sample of the US population followed for a mean duration of 11 years and found that two specific patterns of 21 serum antibodies against periodontal bacteria were significantly associated with increased all-cause and/or diabetes-related mortalities. These data suggested that specific combinations of periodontal bacteria, even without inducing clinically significant periodontitis, may have a significant impact on human cause-specific death rates. Our findings implied that increased disease and mortality risk could be transmittable via the transfer of oral microbiota, and that developing personalized strategies and maintaining healthy oral microbiota beyond protection against periodontitis would be important to manage the risk.
Oct 22, 2016
Can DNA Hard Drives Solve Our Looming Data Storage Crisis?
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biotech/medical, computing, health, internet, mobile phones
The idea of storing digital data in DNA seems like science fiction. At first glance, it might not seem obvious that a molecule can store data. The term “data storage” conjures up images of physical artifacts like CDs and data centers, not a microscopic molecule like DNA. But there are a number of reasons why DNA is an exciting option for information storage.
The status quo
We’re in the midst of a data explosion. We create vast amounts of information via our estimated 17 billion internet-connected devices: smartphones, cars, health trackers, and all other devices. As we continue to add sensors and network connectivity to physical devices we will produce more and more data. Similarly, as we bring online the 4.2 billion people who are currently offline, we will produce more and more data.
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Oct 22, 2016
Withholding amino acid depletes blood stem cells, researchers say
Posted by Steve Hill in categories: biotech/medical, life extension
Rebooting the immune system just got a bit easier. This could potentially be used to treat autoimmune diseases and just as exciting some of the aging processes.
A dietary approach to depleting blood stem cells may make it possible to conduct bone marrow transplantations without the use of chemotherapy or radiation therapy, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The discovery, made in collaboration with researchers at the University of Tokyo, may also become a new way to treat certain cancers without chemo or radiation, which can cause severe side effects.
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Oct 21, 2016
Bryan Johnson invests $100 million in Kernel to unlock the power of the human brain
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
Earlier this year, former Braintree founder Bryan Johnson publicly announced his plans to forge Kernel, a company with the sole purpose of building hardware and software to augment human intelligence. Today, Johnson is investing $100 million of his own money into the concept, looking to rapidly double the size of his team, shore up a portfolio of intellectual property and prepare for animal and human testing trials for a forthcoming device aimed at reducing cognitive deficiencies for sufferers of conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Kernel is still very much in the planning stages, but the idea is rooted in the research of Theodore Berger, the company’s chief science officer. The futuristic device, which Johnson says might actually not need to be implanted beneath the skull at all, is designed to facilitate communication between brain cells by hacking the “neural code” that enables our brain to store and recall key information. With proper implementation, such a device could correct faulty signals to mend a cognitive impairment.
“We have done this before with biology and genomics,” said Johnson in an interview. “We can program yeast to do a specific function. We can expect the same path with neural code.”
Oct 21, 2016
Autism study identifies defect in sufferers’ cells and existing medication could treat it
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience
Scientists at Boston Children’s Hospital identified a defect that causes a genetic disorder in 50% of autism sufferers — and two existing classes of drugs that counter the defect.
Oct 21, 2016
Caloric restriction can be beneficial to the brain, study shows
Posted by Steve Hill in categories: biotech/medical, food, life extension, neuroscience
Studies of different animal species suggest a link between eating less and living longer, but the molecular mechanisms by which caloric restriction affords protection against disease and extends longevity are not well understood.
New clues to help solve the mystery are presented in an article published in the September issue of Aging Cell by scientists at the Center for Research on Redox Processes in Biomedicine (Redoxoma), one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) funded by FAPESP.
The results of in vitro and in vivo experiments performed by the Redoxoma team included the finding that a 40% reduction in dietary caloric intake increases mitochondrial calcium retention in situations where intracellular calcium levels are pathologically high. In the brain, this can help avoid the death of neurons that is associated with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and stroke, among other neurodegenerative conditions.