Lifeboat Foundation

A simple technique to measure the amount of amyloid beta in the brain could improve diagnosis and drug trials for Alzheimer’s disease, according to the results of new research.

A simple blood test

Japanese researchers led by Dr. Katsuhiko Yanagisawa have published a new study suggesting that a screening test could help to boost the success rate of Alzheimer’s drug research. The research team has shown that a simple blood test can accurately measure the amount of amyloid beta, a protein that appears in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Continue reading “A Potential Blood Test for Alzheimer’s Disease” »

SciShow created a well-produced video on why whales don’t get cancer. The video shows how researchers have discovered extra cancer-fighting genes in elephants and whales and plan to apply these lessons to fighting cancer in humans.

(video) Researchers are investigating why blue whales don’t get cancer and plan to apply this lessons to fighting cancer in humans.

By Ziba Kashef

Building on prior research that examined the use of an arthritis medication to treat vitiligo, a team of Yale dermatologists has successfully applied a novel combination therapy — the medication and light — to restore skin color in patients.

Tickling the brain with low-intensity electrical stimulation in a specific area can improve verbal short-term memory. Mayo Clinic researchers report their findings in Brain.

The researchers found word recall was enhanced with stimulation of the brain’s lateral temporal cortex, the regions on the sides of the head by the temples and ears. Patients recalled more words from a previously viewed list when low-amplitude electrical stimulation was delivered to the brain. One patient reported that it was easier to picture the words in his mind for remembering.

“The most exciting finding of this research is that our memory for language information can be improved by directly stimulating this underexplored brain area,” says Michal Kucewicz, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher in the Department of Neurology and co-first author. Dr. Kucewicz compares the stimulation to “tickling” the brain.

Warning over wider global health impacts after findings reveal hundreds of tonnes of colistin – the ‘antibiotic of last resort’ – are being shipped to India’s farms.

Fiona Harvey

Thu 1 Feb 2018 05.50 EST Last modified on Thu 1 Feb 2018 11.20 EST.

Continue reading “India’s farmed chickens dosed with world’s strongest antibiotics, study finds” »

I suspect this will be the hands for ATLAS. being field tested by human volunteers to see what it needs to do for average use. And, then blow that away within a few years.

Johnny Matheny is the first person to live with an advanced mind-controlled robotic arm. Last December, researchers from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab delivered the arm to Matheny at his home in Port Richey, Florida. Aside from the occasional demo, this is the first time the Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) has spent significant time out of the lab.

Continue reading “The most advanced robotic arm in the world, John Hopkins’s Modular Prosthetic Limb, is finally leaving the lab” »

Worth a closer look at, parasites causing cancer.

Vietnam veterans may have a slow growing, silent killer sitting inside their bodies, and they probably won’t even know it until it’s too late.

Last year, we talked about a new cancer “vaccine” currently in clinical trials in an article here, and now a second cancer vaccine is capturing media interest due to impressive results in the lab. The new therapy is now in human clinical trials for lymphoma patients.

Researchers at Stanford Medicine have found that injecting two immune system stimulating agents directly into a solid tumor can eradicate the tumor completely. The treatment is also able to destroy distant metastases that have not been directly treated themselves.