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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,162

Patients undergo interventions to achieve a ‘normal’ brain temperature; a parameter that remains undefined for humans. The profound sensitivity of neuronal function to temperature implies the brain should be isothermal, but observations from patients and non-human primates suggest significant spatiotemporal variation. We aimed to determine the clinical relevance of brain temperature in patients by establishing how much it varies in healthy adults.

We retrospectively screened data for all patients recruited to the Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in Traumatic Brain Injury (CENTER-TBI) High Resolution Intensive Care Unit Sub-Study. Only patients with direct brain temperature measurements and without targeted temperature management were included. To interpret patient analyses, we prospectively recruited 40 healthy adults (20 males, 20 females, 20–40 years) for brain thermometry using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Participants were scanned in the morning, afternoon, and late evening of a single day.

In patients (n = 114), brain temperature ranged from 32.6 to 42.3°C and mean brain temperature (38.5 ± 0.8°C) exceeded body temperature (37.5 ± 0.5°C, P 0.0001). Of 100 patients eligible for brain temperature rhythm analysis, 25 displayed a daily rhythm, and the brain temperature range decreased in older patients (P = 0.018). In healthy participants, brain temperature ranged from 36.1 to 40.9°C; mean brain temperature (38.5 ± 0.4°C) exceeded oral temperature (36.0 ± 0.5°C) and was 0.36°C higher in luteal females relative to follicular females and males (P = 0.0006 and P 0.0001, respectively). Temperature increased with age, most notably in deep brain regions (0.6°C over 20 years, P = 0.0002), and varied spatially by 2.41 ± 0.46°C with highest temperatures in the thalamus. Brain temperature varied by time of day, especially in deep regions (0.86°C, P = 0.0001), and was lowest at night. From the healthy data we built HEATWAVE—a 4D map of human brain temperature.

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A new computer algorithm developed by the University of Toronto’s Parham Aarabi can store and recall information strategically—just like our brains.

The associate professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering, in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, has also created an experimental tool that leverages the to help people with memory loss.

“Most people think of AI as more robot than human,” says Aarabi, whose framework is explored in a paper being presented this week at the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference in Glasgow. “I think that needs to change.”

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The money will go to the Gates Foundation.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates revealed that he will give away his wealth for various reasons ranging from climate adaptation to pandemic prevention. This will eventually cross his name off on the world’s richest people list.

With his wife, Gates started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in 2000 to fight disease, poverty, and inequity around the world\.

Gates plans to donate most of his wealth to charitable causes carried out by his foundation in the future.

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Reimagining Nuclear Medicine — Dr. Stephen Moran, Ph.D., Global Program Head, Neuroendocrine Tumors & Other Radiosensitive Cancers, Advanced Accelerator Applications, Novartis

Dr. Stephen Moran, Ph.D., is Global Program Head, Neuroendocrine Tumors & Other Radiosensitive Cancers, for Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA — https://www.adacap.com/), a Novartis company and also a member of the Oncology Development Unit Leadership Team at Novartis.

Prior to joining AAA, Dr. Moran was Global Head of Novartis Strategy, where he played a key role in defining the company’s strategy, prioritizing critical actions needed to deliver on the mission to discover new ways to extend and improve peoples’ lives. He also led numerous strategic initiatives, including gene therapy (AveXis, now Novartis Gene Therapies), RNA therapeutics (The Medicines Company), precision medicine and digital strategies.

Dr. Moran joined Novartis as Strategic Assistant to the CEO, a position he held for two years and prior to this, he was an associate principal at McKinsey & Company serving as a leader in the healthcare practice, where he focused on health system sustainability, research and development strategy, and the economic analysis of clinical interventions across disease pathways.

Dr. Moran holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, including an undergraduate exchange program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also received a Doctorate from the University of Oxford in Biophysics where he lectured on thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and electromagnetism as applied to biology.

Continue reading “Dr. Stephen Moran, PhD — Reimagining Nuclear Medicine — Advanced Accelerator Applications, Novartis” | >

After a US Supreme Court draft decision on Roe v. Wade was leaked in May, Dr. Joshua Trebach noticed a disturbing turn in the online conversation around abortion.

“I started seeing things on social media, things like TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, people saying ‘oh, if Roe v. Wade does get overturned, here are some secret, sneaky ways that you can drink some tea and have an abortion,’” Trebach said.

Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned and some states are putting strict limits on abortions, there’s widespread confusion about whether the procedures are available and to whom. Physicians and poison control officials say they’re worried that people seeking abortions will turn to ineffective and dangerous methods shared online, potentially delaying or preventing safe, proven abortion care.

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Researchers at Cornell University have come up with a novel biomaterial that can be used to create artificial skin capable of mimicking the behavior of natural human tissues.

Thanks to its unique composition, made up of collagen mixed with a ‘zwitterionic’ hydrogel, the team’s biohybrid composite is said to be soft and biocompatible, but flexible enough to withstand continued distortion. While the scientists’ R&D project remains ongoing, they say their bio-ink could one day be used as a basis for 3D printing scaffolds from patients’ cells, which effectively heal wounds in-situ.

“Ultimately, we want to create something for regenerative medicine purposes, such as a piece of scaffold that can withstand some initial loads until the tissue fully regenerates,” said Nikolaos Bouklas, one of the study’s co-lead authors. “With this material, you could 3D print a porous scaffold with cells that could eventually create the actual tissue around the scaffold.”

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Because the heart, unlike other organs, cannot heal itself after injury, heart disease—the top cause of mortality in the U.S.—is particularly lethal. For this reason, tissue engineering will be crucial for the development of cardiac medicine, ultimately leading to the mass production of a whole human heart for transplant.

Researchers need to duplicate the distinctive structures that make up the heart in order to construct a human heart from the ground up. This involves re-creating helical geometries, which cause the heart to beat in a twisting pattern. It has long been hypothesized that this twisting action is essential for pumping blood at high rates, but establishing this has proven problematic, in part because designing hearts with various geometries and alignments has proven difficult.

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Relatively new COVID-19 subvariant BA.5 takes some of Omicron’s worst traits—transmissibility and immune evasion—to a new level.

But it also combines them with a penchant for affecting the lungs reminiscent of the Delta variant that hit the U.S last summer and fall, according to two recent studies.

In the case of Delta, COVID tended to accumulate in and affect the lungs, potentially resulting in more severe disease. Until recently, a silver lining of Omicron has been its tendency to instead accumulate in the upper respiratory tract, causing symptoms more similar to a cold or the flu.

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Researchers at Simon Fraser University have made a crucial breakthrough in the development of quantum technology.

Their research, published in Nature today, describes their observations of more than 150,000 silicon “T center” photon-spin qubits, an important milestone that unlocks immediate opportunities to construct massively scalable quantum computers and the quantum internet that will connect them.

Quantum computing has to provide computing power well beyond the capabilities of today’s supercomputers, which could enable advances in many other fields, including chemistry, , medicine and cybersecurity.

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