Lifeboat Foundation

The bacteria, known as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is found widely in the environment. Infections usually occur among people with weakened immune systems—and most often in hospitals—according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.)

The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) say that the deceased patient—who has not been named to protect the privacy of the family—is the latest of eight reported cases of citizens of the state becoming infected with P. aeruginosa after traveling to Tijuana for similar procedures. Fortunately, all of the other patients recovered from their infections.

Interviews with the surviving patients revealed that seven of the eight—including the one who died—had visited the same surgeon, Mario Almanza, for their procedures. Furthermore, five of the patients said that they had been referred to this surgeon by a medical tourism agency known as “Weight Loss Agents.”

By Chelsea Whyte

Tiny self-propelled capsules shed their outer shells and deliver drugs directly to tumour cells. These microrobots, demonstrated in mouse intestines, could one day be targeted treatments for cancers in hard-to-reach places in the body.

“When the capsule reaches the tumour, we can activate it, break the capsule, release the micromotors and they will move around the tumour area. That motion is very important for drug delivery,” says Wei Gao at the California Institute of Technology.

Imagine a patient controlling the movement of his or her prosthetic limb simply by thinking of commands. It may sound like science fiction but will soon become reality thanks to the EU-funded DeTOP project. A consortium of engineers, neuroscientists and clinicians has made great strides in further developing the technology behind more natural and functional prostheses.

The team uses an osseointegrated human-machine gateway (OHMG) to develop a physical link between a person and a robotic prosthesis. A patient in Sweden was the first recipient of titanium implants with the OHMG system. The OHMG is directly fitted to bones in the user’s arms, from which electrodes to nerves and muscle extract signals to control a robotic hand and provide tactile sensations. According to a news item by “News Medical,” the patient will begin using a training prosthesis in the next few months before being fitted with the new artificial hand developed by DeTOP partners. This will help the team evaluate the entire system, including the implanted interface, electronics, as well as wrist and hand functions. Motor coordination and grip strength will also be assessed during the tests.

From interpreting CT scans to diagnosing eye disease, artificial intelligence is taking on medical tasks once reserved for only highly trained medical specialists — and in many cases outperforming its human counterparts.

Now AI is starting to show up in intensive care units, where hospitals treat their sickest patients. Doctors who have used the new systems say AI may be better at responding to the vast trove of medical data collected from ICU patients — and may help save patients who are teetering between life and death.

Patients are about to be enrolled in the first study to test a gene-editing technique known as CRISPR inside the body to try to cure an inherited form of blindness.

People with the disease have normal eyes but lack a gene that converts light into signals to the brain that enable sight.

The experimental treatment aims to supply kids and adults with a healthy version of the gene they lack, using a tool that cuts or “edits” DNA in a specific spot. It’s intended as a onetime treatment that permanently alters the person’s native DNA.

Research on robotic prostheses is coming along in leaps and bounds, but one hurdle is proving quite tricky to overcome: a sense of touch. Among other things, this sense helps us control our grip strength — which is vitally important when it comes to having fine motor control for handling delicate objects.

Enter a new upgrade for the LUKE Arm — named for Luke Skywalker, the Star Wars hero with a robotic hand. Prototype versions of this robotic prosthesis can be linked up to the wearer’s nerves.

Continue reading “This Robotic Arm Inspired by Luke Skywalker Has Allowed an Amputee to Feel Again” »

Researchers have cast doubt on the claims upon which Homology Medicines is built.

New research from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering could be key to our understanding of how the aging process works. The findings potentially pave the way for better cancer treatments and revolutionary new drugs that could vastly improve human health in the twilight years.

The work, from Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Nick Graham and his team in collaboration with Scott Fraser, Provost Professor of Biological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, and Pin Wang, Zohrab A. Kaprielian Fellow in Engineering, was recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

“To drink from the fountain of youth, you have to figure out where the fountain of youth is, and understand what the fountain of youth is doing,” Graham said. “We’re doing the opposite; we’re trying to study the reasons cells age, so that we might be able to design treatments for better aging.”

Central London’s freshwater sources contain high levels of antibiotic resistant genes, with the River Thames having the highest amount, according to research by UCL.

The Regent’s Canal, Regent’s Park Pond and the Serpentine all contained the genes but at lower levels than the Thames, which contained genes providing resistance for bacteria to common antibiotics such as penicillin, erythromycin and tetracycline.

The genes come from bacteria in human and animal waste. When antibiotics are taken by humans much of the drug is excreted into the sewer system and then into freshwater sources. The presence of antibiotics in these water sources provides an environment where microbes carrying the resistance genes can multiply quicker and share their resistance with other microbes.