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Category: biotech/medical – Page 14

AI system for rapid annotation of medical images could accelerate clinical research

Annotating regions of interest in medical images, a process known as segmentation, is often one of the first steps clinical researchers take when running a new study involving biomedical images.

For instance, to determine how the size of the brain’s hippocampus changes as patients age, the scientist first outlines each hippocampus in a series of brain scans. For many structures and image types, this is often a manual process that can be extremely time-consuming, especially if the regions being studied are challenging to delineate.

To streamline the process, MIT researchers developed an artificial intelligence-based system that enables a researcher to rapidly segment new biomedical imaging datasets by clicking, scribbling, and drawing boxes on the images. This new AI model uses these interactions to predict the segmentation.

Breakthrough Gene Therapy Slows Huntington’s Disease by 75%

Researchers in the United Kingdom say they have successfully trialed what could become the world’s first gene therapy for Huntington’s disease – a fatal neurodegenerative disorder that is typically inherited.

While the results of the clinical trial are not yet formally published or peer reviewed, principal investigator and neuroscientist Ed Wild from University College London says the gene therapy, called AMT-130, “changes everything.”

The highest dose can apparently slow disease progression by as much as 75 percent over three years. It also led to a significant reduction in a biomarker of neurodegeneration, found in cerebrospinal fluid, which usually increases with disease progression.

Now in 3D: Yale scientists catch Legionnaires’ disease ‘in the act’

The Yale labs of Craig Roy and Jun Liu have harnessed the power of cryo-EM to solve a 30-year mystery of how the Legionella bacteria works. The findings represent the next steps in the search for new therapeutic drugs to tackle the severe form of pneumonia.

Early in his postdoc studies, Roy wanted to understand why a single protein was essential for the bacteria Legionella to cause disease.

Fast forward more than 30 years, and now alongside collaborative partner Jun Liu, the Yale professors are using next-generation research technology to reveal a level of 3D precision they could only have dreamed of.

IQ appears to affect ability to listen in noisy settings

You’re in a bustling café with a friend. The din is making it hard to tune in to the conversation. The scenario might suggest you’d benefit from a hearing aid. On the other hand, new research suggests that speech-perception difficulty might relate to your cognitive ability.

In a study of three groups—individuals with autism, and a “neurotypical” control group—researchers found that cognitive ability was significantly associated with how well the participants, all with typical hearing, processed speech in noisy environments.

“The relationship between cognitive ability and speech-perception performance transcended diagnostic categories. That finding was consistent across all three groups,” said the study’s lead investigator, Bonnie Lau. She is a research assistant professor in otolaryngology–head and at the University of Washington School of Medicine and directs lab studies of auditory brain development.

Scientists sidestep Heisenberg uncertainty principle in precision sensing experiment

Physicists in Australia and Britain have reshaped quantum uncertainty to sidestep the restriction imposed by the famous Heisenberg uncertainty principle—a result that could underpin future ultra-precise sensor technology used in navigation, medicine and astronomy.

Physicists Find a New Way Around Quantum Limits

Physicists in Australia and the United Kingdom have found a way to reshape quantum uncertainty, offering a new method that bypasses the limits set by the well-known Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Their discovery could lay the groundwork for next-generation sensors with extraordinary precision, with potential uses in navigation, medical imaging, and astronomy.

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle, first introduced in 1927, states that it is impossible to know certain pairs of properties, such as a particle’s position and momentum, with unlimited accuracy at the same time. In practice, this means that increasing precision in one property inevitably reduces certainty in the other.

In a study published in Science Advances, researchers led by Dr. Tingrei Tan of the University of Sydney Nano Institute and School of Physics demonstrated how to design an alternative trade-off, one that allows position and momentum to be measured simultaneously with exceptional accuracy.

Rising Cognitive Disability as a Public Health Concern Among US Adults

From 2013 to 2023, rates of cognitive disability nearly doubled among U.S. adults under 40.

Cognitive disability includes self-reported serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions.

Rates are highest among people with chronic diseases or lower household incomes.

Background and Objectives.

Key driver of pancreatic cancer spread identified

A Cornell-led study has revealed how a deadly form of pancreatic cancer enters the bloodstream, solving a long-standing mystery of how the disease spreads and identifying a promising target for therapy.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is among the most lethal cancers, with fewer than 10% of patients surviving five years after diagnosis. Its microenvironment is a dense, fibrotic tissue that acts like armor around the tumor. This barrier makes difficult and should, in theory, prevent the tumor from spreading. Yet the cancer metastasizes with striking efficiency—a paradox that has puzzled scientists.

New research published in the journal Molecular Cancer reveals that a biological receptor called ALK7 is responsible, by activating two interconnected pathways that work in tandem. One makes cancer cells more mobile through a process called , and the other produces enzymes that physically break down the .

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