Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 2021
Jan 29, 2019
How dirty air could be affecting our gut health
Posted by Xavier Rosseel in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience
The gut microbiome is made up of billions of bacteria, and scientists have been trying to understand exactly how they affect our health, contribute to our risk of contacting diseases and how they interact with the vital organs and systems in the body, including the brain. It is quite a lot to unpick.
As countries industrialise, their air becomes dirtier – and this could have some far-reaching effects on the beneficial bacteria inside us.
Jan 29, 2019
UK shows leadership on anti-microbial resistance
Posted by Derick Lee in category: biotech/medical
This is not hyperbole. AMR already leads to at least 700,000 deaths every year. But the impact goes further — resistant genes in people and animals cross ecological, species and geographical borders. Progress against diseases including HIV, malaria and tuberculosis is threatened globally. In 2016, the World Health Organization reported that nearly half a million people developed drug-resistant tuberculosis. Even cancer patients are more at risk as most treatments suppress the immune system and would, along with several routine surgical operations, become too risky without effective antibiotics.
The world urgently needs a new financing model for antibiotics.
Jan 28, 2019
A cure for cancer? Israeli scientists say they think they found one
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, evolution
A small team of Israeli scientists think they might have found the first complete cure for cancer.
“We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer,” said Dan Aridor, of a new treatment being developed by his company, Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), which was founded in 2000 in the ITEK incubator in the Weizmann Science Park. AEBi developed the SoAP platform, which provides functional leads to very difficult targets. “Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market,” Aridor said. “Our solution will be both generic and personal.”
It sounds fantastical, especially considering that an estimated 18.1 million new cancer cases are diagnosed worldwide each year, according to reports by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Further, every sixth death in the world is due to cancer, making it the second leading cause of death (second only to cardiovascular disease).
Continue reading “A cure for cancer? Israeli scientists say they think they found one” »
Jan 28, 2019
Cancer: A mutation that breaks gene interplay in 3D
Posted by Xavier Rosseel in categories: biotech/medical, genetics
EPFL scientists have discovered how a mutated gene can affect the three-dimensional interactions of genes in the cell, leading to various forms of cancer.
Jan 28, 2019
The American Public Increasingly Desires Life Extension
Posted by Steve Hill in categories: biotech/medical, life extension
Attitudes about life extension have significantly changed within the last decade.
While medical schools have had the idea that aging should be brought under medical control for over a century, the explicit desire to greatly extend one’s life remained rare – until very recently. A new study by YouGov, a market intelligence company that researches multiple topics, found that, today, one in five Americans agrees with the statement “I want to live forever.” Is this the result of some sort of bias, or does it mean that we are reaching a turning point, after which society will start boldly and unambiguously clamoring for the cure for aging?
The desire for a long life
Continue reading “The American Public Increasingly Desires Life Extension” »
Jan 28, 2019
Design and Clinical Evaluation of the Interoperable Artificial Pancreas System (iAPS) Smartphone App: Interoperable Components with Modular Design for Progressive Artificial Pancreas Research and Development
Posted by James Christian Smith in categories: biotech/medical, information science, mobile phones
#OpenAccess #FullArticle The results of a new clinical trial have shown the safety and efficacy of the interoperable Artificial Pancreas System smartphone app (iAPS), which can interface wirelessly with leading continuous glucose monitors (CGM), insulin pump devices, and decision-making algorithms. The clinical trial and the app, which runs on an unlocked smartphone, are described in an article published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
Diabetes Technology & TherapeuticsVol. 21, No. 1Original ArticlesFree AccessSunil Deshpande,…
Jan 27, 2019
Go Boldly — Future of Medicine
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, futurism
Jan 27, 2019
Paralyzed Individuals Operate Tablets Using Brain Waves
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
Jan 27, 2019
AI Helps Amputees Walk With a Robotic Knee
Posted by James Christian Smith in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, information science, robotics/AI
A movie montage for modern artificial intelligence might show a computer playing millions of games of chess or Go against itself to learn how to win. Now, researchers are exploring how the reinforcement learning technique that helped DeepMind’s AlphaZero conquer chess and Go could tackle an even more complex task—training a robotic knee to help amputees walk smoothly.
Computer algorithms help prosthetics wearers walk within minutes rather than requiring hours of training.