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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,225

Landmark study points to source of rapid aging, chronic inflammation in people living with HIV

Shokrollah Elahi led a new study showing that short-lived white blood cells called neutrophils play a role in impaired T cell functions and counts in people with HIV, as well as the chronic inflammation that is common with the virus. (Photo: Najmeh Bozorgmehr)

In a groundbreaking study of people living with HIV, University of Alberta researchers found that elusive white blood cells called neutrophils play a role in impaired T cell functions and counts, as well as the associated chronic inflammation that is common with the virus.

Neutrophils are a foundational part of the body’s immune system and the most abundant type of white blood cell, making up about 60 to 80 per cent of circulating immune cells in the blood. However, unlike other types of white blood cells, neutrophils are extremely short-lived and cannot be frozen and thawed like other immune cells, making them extremely difficult to examine, said study lead Shokrollah Elahi.

“Neutrophils live for hours to a day or two maximum,” Elahi said. “The body produces a lot of neutrophils, and they do their job and then they die and have to be regenerated in the bone marrow. But despite the fact that neutrophils are the most abundant white blood cells in the blood circulation, their role in the context of HIV has not been very well defined.”

Tracking Coronavirus Via The Sewer System

Wastewater samples are being used to track the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

It’s sometimes called ‘wastewater-based epidemiology’ (WBE) – a scientific and public health field that involves detecting and monitoring specific molecules in untreated wastewater, to determine how prevalent they are. First proposed more than 70 years ago as a way to track the spread of the deadly poliovirus, WBE has since been used to measure human population exposure to pollutants, and even to estimate the level of drug consumption in major cities. In 2,020 it hit global news headlines when it was first proposed as a way to track SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

An Element Found In Our Bones, Teeth And In Toothpaste Has Been Discovered In An Ancient Galaxy 12 Billion Light-Years Away

You’ve heard the phase “we are all made of star-stuff,” attributed to the late astronomer Carl Sagan, but that grand statement can be broken-down into every constituent part of the human body–such as your teeth and bones.

Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory (ESO)‘s mighty Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile have detected fluorine in a distant star-forming galaxy 12 billion light-years away.

It’s the first time fluorine has been observed in a star-forming galaxy so early in the history of the Universe.

“We all know about fluorine because the toothpaste we use every day contains it in the form of fluoride,” said Maximilien Franco from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, who led the new study, published today in Nature Astronomy.

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Cellular aging: A basic paradox elucidated

In a study published in Nucleic Acids Research, the team of cancer researcher Francis Rodier, an Université de Montréal professor, shows for the first time that cellular senescence, which occurs when aging cells stop dividing, is caused by irreversible damage to the genome rather than simply by telomere erosion.

This discovery goes against the scientific model most widely adopted in the last 15 years, which is based on one principle: telomeres, caps located at the ends of chromosomes whose purpose is to protect genetic information, erode with each cell division. When they get too short, they tell the cell to stop dividing, thus preventing damage to its DNA. Made dormant, the cell enters senescence.

For this model to be valid, the inactivation of a single should be sufficient to activate the senescence program. Rodier’s laboratory and many others had already observed that several dysfunctional telomeres were necessary.

Regeneron’s COVID antibody drug shows protection for up to 8 months

The antibody therapy, REGEN-COV, is currently authorized in the United States to treat people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 and for prevention of infection in those exposed to infected individuals, and others at high risk of exposure in settings such as nursing homes or prisons. [USN: L4N2P640O]

The extended authorization could help boost sales of Regeneron’s antibody cocktail, in the face of competition from oral COVID-19 pills such as those being developed by Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and Merck & Co (MRK.N).

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Monday a single dose of its antibody cocktail reduced the risk of contracting COVID-19 by 81.6% in a late-stage trial, in the two to eight months period following the drug’s administration.

Autonomous robot performs its first intramuscular injection without needles

One of the things that many people hate most about getting vaccinations and taking certain types of medication is needles. Any medication that has to be delivered intramuscular typically requires a needle and a skilled medical professional to administer it. However, that may change in the future with a new autonomous robot created by a company called Cobionix, founded at the University of Waterloo.

The autonomous robot utilizes the company’s Cobi platform to perform injections without using needles. Cobi is described as a versatile robotic platform that can be deployed rapidly and complete tasks completely autonomously. The robot was fitted with a needle-free injection system. It demonstrated the ability to deliver intramuscular injections to patients without needing needles and without supervision by a healthcare professional.

The robot developers believe that Cobi and solutions like it could help protect healthcare workers, reduce the cost of healthcare, and help improve patient outcomes. Researchers believe the autonomous design of the robot will dramatically reduce the requirements for vaccine clinics and could help deliver vaccines and other medications to remote populations with limited access to healthcare.

Brain Implant Translates Paralyzed Man’s Thoughts Into Text With 94% Accuracy

A man paralyzed from the neck down due to a spinal cord injury he sustained in 2007 has shown he can communicate his thoughts, thanks to a brain implant system that translates his imagined handwriting into actual text.

The device – part of a longstanding research collaboration called BrainGate – is a brain-computer interface (BCI), that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to interpret signals of neural activity generated during handwriting.

In this case, the man – called T5 in the study, and who was 65 years of age at the time of the research – wasn’t doing any actual writing, as his hand, along with all his limbs, had been paralyzed for several years.

Winect: A system that tracks 3D human poses during free-form motion

Wireless sensing devices, tools that allow users to sense movements and remotely monitor activities or changes in specific environments, have many applications. For instance, they could be used for surveillance purposes as well as to track the sleep or physical activities of medical patients and athletes. Some videogame developers have also used wireless sensing systems to create more engaging sports or dance-related games.

Researchers at Florida State University, Trinity University and Rutgers University have recently developed Winect, a new wireless sensing system that can track the poses of humans in 3D as they perform a wide range of free-form physical activities. This system was introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv and is set to be presented at the ACM Conference on Interactive, Mobile, Wearables and Ubiquitous Technologies (Ubi Comp) 2,021 one of the most renowned computer science events worldwide.

“Our research group has been conducting cutting-edge research in wireless sensing,” Jie Yang, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. “In the past, we have proposed several systems to use Wi-Fi signals to sense various human activities and objects, ranging from large-scale human activities, to small-scale finger movements, sleep monitoring and daily objects For example, we proposed two systems dubbed E-eyes and WiFinger, which are among the first work to utilize Wi-Fi sensing to distinguish various types of daily activity and finger gestures.”

Astronomers Want to Build an $11BN Telescope That Would Outclass Hubble

The proposed telescope would be powerful enough to detect distant planets 10 billion times fainter than their hosting star.

Astronomers have proposed a telescope that would far exceed the capabilities of Hubble.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine just released its Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, also known as Astro 2020. The report outlines plans for the next decade of investment in astronomical equipment and projects in the U.S.

One of the real standout recommendations in the survey, DigitalTrends reports, is for a “Great Observatory” designed to replace the ailing Hubble Space Telescope, which encountered several technical problems this year due to its decades-old hardware.

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