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Category: biotech/medical – Page 177

Ransomware attacks drive majority of US health data breaches, analysis shows

A new study led by researchers from Michigan State University, Yale University and Johns Hopkins University reveals that ransomware attacks—which involve a hacker putting encryption controls into a file and then demanding a ransom to unlock the files—have become the primary driver of health care data breaches in the United States, compromising 285 million patient records over 15 years.

Published May 14 in JAMA Network Open, the study provides the first comprehensive analysis of ransomware’s role in health care breaches across all entities covered by privacy laws—hospitals, physician practices, and data clearinghouses—from 2010 to 2024.

“Ransomware has become the most disruptive force in health care cybersecurity,” said John (Xuefeng) Jiang, Eli Broad Endowed Professor of accounting and in the MSU Broad College of Business and lead author of the study. “Hospitals have been forced to delay care, shut down systems and divert patients—all while sensitive patient data is held hostage.”

US creates wood 10 times tougher than steel, can resist water, fire

A biotech startup from the U.S. is aiming to reshape the construction industry with the launch of a groundbreaking new material that mimics the look and feel of natural wood while outperforming high-grade steel in strength and durability.

Maryland-based firm InventWood, revealed that their engineering wood product called Superwood is a result of molecular-level transformation that turns natural wood into a material up to a dozen times stronger and 10 times tougher than its original form.

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

Researchers identified three types of zombie skin cells; only one gets worse with age. Researchers have identified three subtypes of senescent skin cells with distinct shapes, biomarkers, and functions – an advance that could equip scientists with the ability to target and kill the harmful types while leaving the helpful ones intact.

Senescent skin cells, often referred to as zombie cells because they have outlived their usefulness without ever quite dying, have existed in the human body as a seeming paradox, causing inflammation and promoting diseases while also helping the immune system to heal wounds.

New findings may explain why: Not all senescent skin cells are the same. They were published today in the journal Science Advances.

Coming Soon to Apple Devices: Brain Control Accessibility Features

Apple is making progress on a standard for brain implant devices that can help people with disabilities control devices such as iPhones with their thoughts. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, Apple has plans to release that standard to other developers later this year.

The company has partnered with Synchron, which has been working with other companies, including Amazon, on ways to make devices more accessible. Synchron makes an implant called a Stentrode that is implanted in a vein on the brain’s motor cortex. Once implanted, the Stentrode can read brain signals and translate that to movement on devices including iPhones, iPads and Apple’s Vision Pro VR headset.

As we saw last year, a patient with ALS testing the Synchron technology was able to navigate menus in the Vision Pro device and use it to experience the Swiss Alps in VR. The technology could become more widely available to people with paralysis. The company has a community portal for those interested in learning about future tests.

Which Epigenetic Clock Is Best For Evaluating Death Risk?

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Sugar-coated nanotherapy dramatically improves neuron survival in Alzheimer’s model

Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a new approach that directly combats the progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

In these devastating illnesses, proteins misfold and clump together around brain cells, which ultimately leads to cell death. The innovative new treatment effectively traps the proteins before they can aggregate into the toxic structures capable of penetrating neurons. The trapped proteins then harmlessly degrade in the body.

The “clean-up” strategy significantly boosted the survival of lab-grown human neurons under stress from disease-causing proteins.

Scientists reveal crystal structure of protein that allows viruses to infect cells in human airway

New research by scientists at the University of Toronto and the Structural Genomics Consortium has deepened our understanding of how viruses like the flu, common cold, and COVID-19 get into cells in human airways.

Using the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan, the researchers identified for the first time the crystal structures of a human protein (TMPRSS11D) that viruses use as a doorway into our body. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Understanding how viruses use our proteins to gain entry into our cells will help researchers develop better ways to stop infections in their tracks.

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