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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 138

Sep 17, 2023

Overeating and addiction may have roots in early human brain evolution and prosocial behaviors

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, evolution, food, health, neuroscience

Research led by the Department of Anthropology and School of Biomedical Sciences, Kent State University, Ohio, has investigated neuropeptide Y innervation in an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens of various primate species, including humans. The research was focused on understanding its role in brain evolution and any implications for human health, particularly regarding addiction and eating disorders.

In a paper, “Hedonic eating, obesity, and addiction result from increased neuropeptide Y in the nucleus accumbens during human ,” published in PNAS, the researchers suggest that the combination of increased neuropeptide Y (NPY) and dopamine (DA) within the human nucleus accumbens (NAc) may have allowed for enhanced . This same configuration may have also made humans exceptionally vulnerable to eating disorders and , hinting at addictive traits having a deep evolutionary origin.

NPY plays a role in the reward system, emotional behavior and is associated with increased alcohol use, drug addiction and . The NAc brain region is central to motivation and action, exhibiting one of the highest densities of NPY in the brain and is of great interest to researchers investigating brain-related promoters of addiction.

Sep 17, 2023

The “Unknome”: A Database of Human Genes We Know Almost Nothing About

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

UK researchers have developed a new publicly accessible database, and they hope to see it shrink over time. That’s because it is a compendium of the thousands of understudied proteins encoded by genes in the human genome, whose existence is known but whose functions are mostly not.

The database, dubbed the “unknome,” is the work of Matthew Freeman of the Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford.

The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England that is made up of 39 constituent colleges, and a range of academic departments, which are organized into four divisions. It was established circa 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s second-oldest university in continuous operation after the University of Bologna.

Sep 17, 2023

As artificial intelligence goes multimodal, medical applications multiply

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Machines don’t have eyes, but you wouldn’t know that if you followed the progression of deep learning models for accurate interpretation of medical images, such as x-rays, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, pathology…

Sep 17, 2023

Researchers develop plasmonic nanotweezers to more rapidly trap potentially cancerous nanosized particles

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nanotechnology

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a way to more quickly and precisely trap nanoscale objects such as potentially cancerous extracellular vesicles using cutting-edge plasmonic nanotweezers.

The practice by Justus Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering, and Chuchuan Hong, a recently graduated Ph.D. student from the Ndukaife Research Group, and currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Northwestern University, has been published in Nature Communications.

Optical tweezers, as acknowledged with a 2018 Physics Nobel Prize, have proven adept at manipulating micron-scale matter like biological cells. But their effectiveness wanes when dealing with nanoscale objects. This limitation arises from the diffraction limit of light that precludes focusing of light to the nanoscale.

Sep 17, 2023

Researchers develop a novel method to generate deep-UV light

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, materials

This device can generate deep-UV light with a very narrow wavelength range that is safe for humans but lethal for germs.

A new device that can generate deep-ultraviolet (UV) light to kill germs without harming humans has been developed by a team of researchers from Osaka University, Japan. The device uses a novel method of combining two visible photons into one deep-UV photon inside a thin waveguide made of aluminum nitride, a material that has nonlinear optical properties.

The research, named “229 nm far-ultraviolet second harmonic generation in a vertical polarity inverted AlN bilayer channel waveguide,” has been published in the journal Applied Physics Express.

Sep 17, 2023

Have A Heart! We All Do, Actually…And AI Might Improve Cardio Care

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, robotics/AI

Back to AI in healthcare – we’ve looked at this from a number of angles, but what about some of the pros and cons of using AI/ML systems in a clinical context? And also, what about how to conquer disease with AI models?

There’s a broader theory that AI is going to allow for trail-blazing research on everything from cancer and heart disease to trauma and bone and muscle health — and everything in between. Now, we have more defined solutions coming to the table, and they’re well worth looking at!

In this IIA talk, cardiologist Collin Stultz talks about the treatment of disorders, and new tools, starting with a dramatic emphasis on heart disease.

Sep 17, 2023

DNA and Behavioral Genetics — Robert Plomin

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Serious Science — http://serious-science.org.

Behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin on twin studies, genetic influence of parents on their children, and 1% of DNA that makes people different.

Continue reading “DNA and Behavioral Genetics — Robert Plomin” »

Sep 17, 2023

To stave off Alzheimer’s, protect your brain’s mitochondria

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Decades of Alzheimer’s research might have missed a cellular culprit hiding in plain sight: the cellular powerhouses known as mitochondria.

Sep 17, 2023

First robotic liver transplant in U.S. performed by Washington University surgeons

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

A surgical team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently performed the first robotic liver transplant in the U.S. The successful transplant, accomplished in May at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, extends to liver transplants the advantages of minimally invasive robotic surgery: a smaller incision resulting in less pain and faster recoveries, plus the precision needed to perform one of the most challenging abdominal procedures.

The patient, a man in his 60s who needed a transplant because of liver cancer and cirrhosis caused by hepatitis C virus, is doing well and has resumed normal, daily activities. Typically, liver transplant recipients require at least six weeks before they can walk without any discomfort. The patient was walking easily six weeks after surgery and cleared to resume golfing and swimming seven weeks after the surgery.


Groundbreaking surgery performed at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Continue reading “First robotic liver transplant in U.S. performed by Washington University surgeons” »

Sep 17, 2023

New nanotech weapon takes aim at hard-to-treat breast cancer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, engineering, nanotechnology

Breast cancer in its various forms affects more than 250,000 Americans a year. One particularly aggressive and hard-to-treat type is triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which lacks specific receptors targeted by existing treatments. The rapid growth and metastasis of this cancer also make it challenging to manage, leading to limited therapy options and an often poor prognosis for patients.

A promising new approach that uses minuscule tubes to deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly to the tumor site while preserving has been developed by Johns Hopkins engineers. The team’s research appeared in Nanoscale.

“In this paper, we showed that we can use to specifically target both proliferating and senescent TNBC cells with chemotherapeutics and senolytics, killing them without targeting healthy breast cells,” said Efie Kokkoli, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, a core researcher at the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology, and a specialist in engineering targeted nanoparticles for the delivery of cancer therapeutics.

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