Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers have created the first functional 3D-printed brain tissue that can develop and form connections in the same way as real human brain tissue.

This remarkable accomplishment by a team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison provides neuroscientists with a new tool for studying communication between brain cells and other parts of the human brain, potentially leading to better ways of treating diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Continue reading “World’s First 3D-Printed Neural Tissue Grows And Functions Like a Human Brain” »

THURSDAY, Feb. 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Drug overdoses resulting in cardiac arrest occur most often among young adults, a new study finds.

People tend to have OD-related cardiac arrests at an average age of 39, compared to an average age of 64 for those suffering cardiac arrests not related to opioids, results show.

“Many communities face ongoing challenges with increases in drug overdoses, which tend to affect a younger, healthier population,” said lead researcher Aditya Shekhar, a medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

An international team of researchers has identified the genetic basis and biological processes that influence cancer risk related to alterations in the number of immune cells present in the blood. This is a significant advance in understanding how the immune system can prevent the appearance of tumors.

The study, led by researchers from the Institut Català d’Oncologia (ICO), the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), and the Translational Genomics Research Institute in the United States, has been published in the journal Genome Medicine and represents a significant step towards a better understanding of how alterations in the immune system facilitate the onset of cancer.

The immune system is responsible for maintaining the integrity and function of the body by continuously protecting us from exogenous attacks, such as viruses and endogenous attacks, in this case, cancer. This gives it a central role in inhibiting carcinogenesis, and its disruption may increase the risk of cancer by allowing malignant cells to proliferate.

Deep learning #AI for skin lesions assessed for assistance to 800 dermatologists and primary care physicians from 39 countries Marked improvement in accuracy but widened bias gap.

In a large-scale study involving 389 board-certified dermatologists and 459 primary-care physicians from 39 countries, the impact of a deep learning-aided decision support system on physicians’ diagnostic accuracy was tested across 46 skin diseases and for both light and dark skin tones.

Stefan Wilhelm, an associate professor in the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, and several students in his Biomedical Nano-Engineering Lab have recently published an article in the journal Nano Letters (“Toward the Scalable, Rapid, Reproducible, and Cost-Effective Synthesis of Personalized Nanomedicines at the Point of Care”) that outlines their recent important nanomedicine advancement.

The group examined how to create tools that produce nanomedicines, such as vaccine formulations, directly at the point of care. In doing so, the large centralized facilities, shipping challenges, and extreme cold storage challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic would no longer limit vaccine distribution.

Wilhelm, with student researchers such as Hamilton Young, a senior biomedical engineering student, and Yuxin He, a biomedical engineering graduate research assistant, used 3D printer parts to mix fluid streams together containing the building blocks of nanomedicines and their payloads in a T-mixer format.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have discovered that odors stimulate specific brain cells that may play a role in rapid “go/no-go” decision-making.

The study was published online Tuesday (Feb. 6) in the journal Current Biology.

The scientists focused on the hippocampus, an area of the brain crucial to memory and learning. They knew that so-called “time cells” played a major role in hippocampal function, but didn’t know their role in associative learning.

Even with dialysis, life expectancy is significantly shortened. With a kidney transplant, patients can expect to live 10 to 15 years longer.

The problem is that there aren’t enough donor kidneys to meet demand. If a person is lucky enough to find a matching donor, they still have to take immunosuppressants for the rest of their lives. While the drugs ensure their body won’t reject the organ, they also increase the risk of serious infections.

Continue reading “Artificial kidney aces test in pigs” »

A preventative anti-aging therapy seems like wishful thinking.

Yet a new study led by Dr. Corina Amor Vegas at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory describes a treatment that brings the dream to life—at least for mice. Given a single injection in young adulthood, they aged more slowly compared to their peers.

By the equivalent of roughly 65 years of age in humans, the mice were slimmer, could better regulate blood sugar and insulin levels, and had lower inflammation and a more youthful metabolic profile. They even kept up their love for running, whereas untreated seniors turned into couch potatoes.

Researchers have unveiled a pioneering “bone bandage” that not only regenerates damaged bones in mice but also holds the promise of transforming bone regeneration in humans.

Developed by scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), this biomimetic scaffold combines piezoelectric materials and the growth-promoting properties of hydroxyapatite (HAp), a naturally occurring mineral found in bones.

The innovative approach KAIST researchers took, although very much sounding like science fiction, is simply a freestanding scaffold that generates electrical signals when pressure is applied.