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Biophotonic Therapy Can Destroy Bacteria and Viruses in Organs Before Transplantation

S\xC3O PAULO, April 16, 2019 — A new technique for decontaminating organs before transplantation using UV and red light irradiation has been developed by researchers at the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) in partnership with the University of Toronto. The biophotonic decontamination technique, which was initially developed to decontaminate lungs with viral infections such as hepatitis C, could help prevent transmission of diseases to organ recipients and increase the number of transplants.

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CRISPR has been used to treat US cancer patients for the first time

The gene-editing tool has been used in a trial to enhance the blood cells of two patients with cancer.

The trial: The experimental research, under way at the University of Pennsylvania, involves genetically altering a person’s T cells so that they attack and destroy cancer. A university spokesman confirmed it has treated the first patients, one with sarcoma and one with multiple myeloma.

Slow start: Plans for the pioneering study were first reported in 2016, but it was slow to get started. Chinese hospitals, meanwhile, have launched a score of similar efforts. Carl June, the famed University of Pennsylvania cancer doctor, has compared the Chinese lead in employing CRISPR to a genetic Sputnik.

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Discovery of oral cancer biomarkers could save thousands of lives

Oral cancer is known for its high mortality rate in developing countries, but an international team of scientists hope its latest discovery will change that.

Researchers from the University of Otago and the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, have discovered epigenetic markers that are distinctly different in tissues compared to the adjacent healthy tissues in patients.

Co-author Dr. Aniruddha Chatterjee, of Otago’s Department of Pathology, says finding these biomarkers is strongly associated with patient survival.

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Scientists restore some functions in a pig’s BRAIN hours after it died

Scientists bring some functions in a pig’s BRAIN ‘back to life’ — four hours after the farm animal died„.


Scientists have been able to partially revive the brains of decapitated pigs that died four hours earlier in a groundbreaking study.

Experts used tubes that pumped a chemical mixture designed to mimic blood into the decapitated heads of 32 pigs to restore circulation and cellular activity.

Echoing Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein, billions of neurons began acting normally and the deaths of other cells was reduced over the course of six hours.


New CRISPR Tech Could Cure Herpes

Gene hacking techniques that were recently used in human cells for the first time could someday let doctors shred up and destroy viruses like herpes or hepatitis B inside human cells, scientists say.

The new technique is called CRISPR-Cas3 — usually, when you hear about CRISPR tech, it’s the Cas9 variety — and Cornell researchers believe it could be used to cure viral diseases, according to a university-published press release.

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