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Category: biotech/medical – Page 374

A prosthesis driven by the nervous system helps people with amputation walk naturally

State-of-the-art prosthetic limbs can help people with amputations achieve a natural walking gait, but they don’t give the user full neural control over the limb. Instead, they rely on robotic sensors and controllers that move the limb using predefined gait algorithms.

Using a new type of surgical intervention and neuroprosthetic interface, MIT researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, have shown that a natural walking gait is achievable using a prosthetic leg fully driven by the body’s own nervous system. The surgical amputation procedure reconnects muscles in the residual limb, which allows patients to receive “proprioceptive” feedback about where their prosthetic limb is in space.

In a study of seven patients who had this surgery, the MIT team found that they were able to walk faster, avoid obstacles, and climb stairs much more naturally than people with a traditional amputation.

First Drug to Prevent Heart Disease Is Approved

Doctors have long known that inflammation plays a significant role in triggering heart attacks and strokes. Now for the first time, an anti-inflammatory drug is on the market to prevent these cardiovascular events.

“It is a game changer,” says Ian Neeland, MD, Director of Cardiovascular Prevention at University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute.

“We’ve known that low-grade, systemic inflammation is a powerful determinant of recurrent cardiovascular events. Colchicine is the first drug we have on the market for inflammation that reduces this risk,” says Dr. Neeland.

One Stage of Sleep Seems to Be Critical in Reducing Dementia Risk

The risk of getting dementia may go up as you get older if you don’t get enough slow-wave sleep. Over-60s are 27 percent more likely to develop dementia if they lose just 1 percent of this deep sleep each year, a 2023 study found.

Slow-wave sleep is the third stage of a human 90-minute sleep cycle, lasting about 20–40 minutes. It’s the most restful stage, where brain waves and heart rate slow and blood pressure drops.

Deep sleep strengthens our muscles, bones, and immune system, and prepares our brains to absorb more information. Recently, research discovered that individuals with Alzheimer’s-related changes in their brain did better on memory tests when they got more slow-wave sleep.

New Discovery Paves The Way to Generating Energy From Body Heat

If you’ve ever seen yourself through a thermal imaging camera, you’ll know that your body produces lots of heat. This is in fact a waste product of our metabolism. Every square foot of the human body gives off heat equivalent to about 19 matches per hour.

Unfortunately, much of this heat simply escapes into the atmosphere. Wouldn’t it be great if we could harness it to produce energy? My research has shown this would indeed be possible. My colleagues and I are discovering ways of capturing and storing body heat for energy generation, using eco-friendly materials.

The goal is to create a device that can both generate and store energy, acting like a built-in power bank for wearable tech. This could allow devices such as smart watches, fitness trackers, or GPS trackers to run much longer, or even indefinitely, by harnessing our body heat.

RNA-targeting CRISPR reveals that hundreds of noncoding RNAs are essential—not ‘junk’

Can someone smarter than I tell me if this has any implications regarding the Covid vaccine?

Genes contain instructions for making proteins, and a central dogma of biology is that this information flows from DNA to RNA to proteins. But only two percent of the human genome actually encodes proteins; the function of the remaining 98% remains largely unknown.

Animal cells capable of photosynthesis created for the first time

In an incredible feat that redefines biological boundaries, scientists have successfully engineered animal cells capable of photosynthesis.

This breakthrough, led by Professor Sachihiro Matsunaga at the University of Tokyo, could transform medical research and aid in advancing lab-grown meat production.

Photosynthesis, traditionally exclusive to plants, algae, and certain bacteria, is a process that uses sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and sugars – essentially “feeding” the organism.

Dr Päivi Sillanaukee, Special Envoy, Health & Wellbeing, Ministry of Social Affairs & Health Finland

Health Innovation For Prevention And Precision At Scale — Dr. Päivi Sillanaukee, MD, Ph.D. — Special Envoy, Health & Wellbeing, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health Finland.

Dr. Päivi Sillanaukee, MD, Ph.D. is Special Envoy for Health and Wellbeing, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health Finland (https://stm.fi/en/rdi-growth-programm…).

Dr. Sillanaukee has over 20 years of experience at highest civil servant administrative positions, both from government, including roles as Director General at Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Ambassador for Health and Wellbeing at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, as well as various additional roles in the public sector at the Municipalities and Special Health care district levels.

Actively participating also in Global Health, Dr. Sillanaukee has chaired and facilitated global multisectoral, multi-partner Health Security collaborations, facilitating capacity building at the country level. She served as Vice chair and member of WHO Executive Board, as Executive President for WHO/Europe Regional Committee, Member of Women in Global Health advocating for Gender Equity in Health, a member of Global Pulse Finland’s health sector advisory board, as Member of Board of Directors, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Member of the Inaugural Board of Digital Health \& AI Research Collaborative (I-DAIR).

Dr. Sillanaukee has also served as the co-chair of the Alliance for Health Security Cooperation (AHSC) and a member of the Steering Group of the Global Health Security Agenda.

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Scientists Determine Why Some Patients Don’t Respond Well to Wet Macular Degeneration Treatment, Show How New Experimental Drug Can Bridge Gap

A new study from researchers at Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine explains not only why some patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (or “wet” AMD) fail to have vision improvement with treatment, but also how an experimental drug could be used with existing wet AMD treatments…

Wilmer Eye Institute researchers have found that ‘wet’ macular degeneration patients who don’t respond well to treatment have an increased protein in their eyes and that an experimental drug can help improve vision gains. ›

Scientists Create a Potent Bacterial Anti-Cancer Vaccine

A new study describes a novel anti-cancer vaccine based on antigen-producing bacteria that can tackle solid and metastatic cancers [1].

Invading an invader

Years ago, scientists discovered that bacteria can colonize tumors [2]. Some bacteria are drawn to the tumor microenvironment due to factors such as necrotic tissue, hypoxia, and nutrient availability. For example, Clostridium species prefer anaerobic conditions and have been explored in tumor-targeting therapies. Salmonella and E. coli strains have also shown an affinity for tumors [3].