MIT professor Sangeeta Bhatia is currently devising a simple urine test that works just like a pregnancy test to detect cancer the moment it starts. In this video, Big Think contributor Susan Hockfield, president emerita of MIT, explains how the new technology works.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,400
Scientists create mind-controlled hearing aid
A mind-controlled hearing aid that allows the wearer to focus on particular voices has been created by scientists, who say it could transform the ability of those with hearing impairments to cope with noisy environments.
The device mimics the brain’s natural ability to single out and amplify one voice against background conversation. Until now, even the most advanced hearing aids work by boosting all voices at once, which can be experienced as a cacophony of sound for the wearer, especially in crowded environments.
Nima Mesgarani, who led the latest advance at Columbia University in New York, said: “The brain area that processes sound is extraordinarily sensitive and powerful. It can amplify one voice over others, seemingly effortlessly, while today’s hearing aids still pale in comparison.”
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CRISPR catches out critical cancer changes
In the first large-scale analysis of cancer gene fusions, which result from the merging of two previously separate genes, researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, EMBL-EBI, Open Targets, GSK and their collaborators have used CRISPR to uncover which gene fusions are critical for the growth of cancer cells. The team also identified a new gene fusion that presents a novel drug target for multiple cancers, including brain and ovarian cancers.
The results, published today (16 May) in Nature Communications, give more certainty for the use of specific gene fusions to diagnose and guide the treatment of patients. Researchers suggest existing drugs could be repurposed to treat some people with pancreatic, breast and lung cancers, based on the gene fusions found in their tumours.
Gene fusions, caused by the abnormal joining of two otherwise different genes, play an important role in the development of cancer. They are currently used as diagnostic tools to predict how particular cancer patients will respond to drugs, as well as prognostics, to estimate the outcome for a patient given the best possible care. They are also the targets of some of the latest targeted treatments for cancer.
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Robert Zubrin Makes a Strong Case for Space Development
Greg Autry reviews Robert Zubrin’s new book, The Case for Space. The good doctor knows a lot more than just Mars. The book envisions a bright future for humanity in the solar system and beyond, backed by scientific, engineering and economic analysis from the expert who brought us the Case for Mars.
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Is Comprehensive Damage Repair Feasible?
Earlier this year at the Undoing Aging conference in Berlin, I had the opportunity to listen to a debate between Dr. Vadim Gladyshev of Harvard Medical School and Aubrey de Grey of the SENS Research Foundation. The topic was “Is comprehensive damage repair feasible?”
What followed was a friendly and interesting discussion about the three main approaches that might be applied to aging in order to delay, prevent, or reverse age-related diseases.
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New video from our 2019 Undoing Aging conference: Is comprehensive damage repair feasible?
An entertaining debate between Vadim Gladyshev — Havard Medical School and Aubrey de Grey — SENS Research Foundation.
undoing-aging.org/…/a-debate-between-vadim-gladyshev-and-au…
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New York’s First Proton Therapy Center to Open in July
New York City is set to get a new radiation-treatment center, nearly a decade in the making, that uses proton beams to treat cancerous tumors.
Called the New York Proton Center, it is a for-profit partnership of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Montefiore Health System and Mount Sinai Health System, managed by the ProHEALTH company. Financing for the center was provided in part by the hospitals.
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‘World Class Neuroscience To Your Driveway’: Bucks County Unveils Lifesaving Mobile Stroke Unit
BENSALEM, Pa. (CBS) — It could be the difference between life and death. A mobile rescue squad was unveiled Thursday in Bucks County.
Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke. Survival depends on quick treatment. Now, instead of racing to the hospital, a mini, specialized hospital on wheels can come to you.
“We’re the first university medial center in our region to have this,” Jefferson neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Rosenwasser said.
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Tiny “flying whale” robot is made to move within the human body
An ever-increasing number of research groups are developing tiny robots, capable of performing targeted drug-delivery inside the body. One of the latest such devices incorporates a flapping whale-flukes-like tail, along with wings that fold up or down as needed.
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