Discoveries in the Seidman Lab gave way to a novel treatment for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Category: biotech/medical – Page 4
A biocompatible and stretchable transistor for implantable devices
Recent technological advances have opened new possibilities for the development of advanced biomedical devices that could be implanted inside the human body. These devices could be used to monitor biological signals that offer insight about the evolution of specific medical conditions or could even help to alter problematic physiological processes.
Despite their potential for the diagnosis and treatment of some conditions, most implantable devices developed to date are based on rigid electronic components. These components can damage tissue inside the body or cause inflammation.
Some electronics engineers have been trying to develop alternative implantable electronics that are based on soft and stretchable materials, such as polymers. However, most known polymers and elastic materials are not biocompatible, which means that they can provoke immune responses and adversely affect the growth of cells.
Innovative microscope captures large, high-resolution images of curved samples in single snapshot
Researchers have developed a new type of microscope that can acquire extremely large, high-resolution pictures of non-flat objects in a single snapshot. This innovation could speed up research and medical diagnostics or be useful in quality inspection applications.
“Although traditional microscopes assume the sample is perfectly flat, real-life samples such as tissue sections, plant samples or flexible materials may be curved, tilted or uneven,” said research team leader Roarke Horstmeyer from Duke University.
“With our approach, it’s possible to adjust the focus across the sample, so that everything remains in focus even if the sample surface isn’t flat, while avoiding slow scanning or expensive special lenses.”
Scientists just found the “master switch” for plant growth
Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have cracked open the secrets of plant stem cells, mapping key genetic regulators in maize and Arabidopsis. By using single-cell RNA sequencing, they created a gene expression atlas that identifies rare stem cell regulators, links them to crop size and productivity, and offers a new roadmap for breeding resilient, high-yield plants.
Scientists reverse stroke damage with stem cells
Scientists in Zurich have shown that stem cell transplants can reverse stroke damage by regenerating neurons, restoring motor functions, and even repairing blood vessels. The breakthrough not only healed mice with stroke-related impairments but also suggested that treatments could soon be adapted for humans, marking a hopeful step toward tackling one of the world’s most devastating conditions.
World-first discovery harnesses mRNA in the search for an HIV cure
Australian researchers have made a major breakthrough in HIV research by repurposing the same mRNA delivery system used in COVID-19 vaccines, not to prevent infection, but as a potential strategy to find a cure.
Nearly 40 million people live with HIV worldwide. While antiretroviral therapy can suppress the virus to undetectable levels, it cannot eliminate it. HIV has a unique ability to hide in a type of white blood cells, resting CD4+ T cells, ready to re-emerge if treatment is stopped. This HIV “reservoir” has long been one of the greatest challenges in the search for a cure.
Using the same technology behind mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, researchers, led by the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute), have discovered a new way to deliver mRNA to the elusive HIV reservoir and coax HIV out of hiding. In a laboratory-based study published in Nature Communications, the team packaged mRNA inside an entirely novel microscopic fat-like bubbles, known as lipid nanoparticles, and successfully transported it into HIV-infected cells, where it prompted the cells to expose the dormant virus.
Researchers from Professor Sharon Lewin’s laboratory at the Doherty Institute have made a major breakthrough in HIV research by repurposing the same mRNA delivery system used in COVID-19 vaccines, not to prevent infection, but as a potential strategy to find a cure.
Pain-detecting nerve cells could yield new way to manage lung scarring
Researchers at the University of Calgary studying a lethal lung disease called pulmonary fibrosis have found that neurons known to help detect pain are also critical for reducing harmful lung inflammation that leads to the disease.
Pulmonary fibrosis, also called lung scarring, is uncommon but it’s hard to treat and most people die within five years of diagnosis. Research to date has focused on how the lung lining gets damaged and the body’s attempts to repair the issue. The role of neurons—a complex network of cells within the nervous system that send messages between the brain, spinal cord and through the body—and the immune system has received less study.
Now a research team led by Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) physician-scientist Dr. Bryan Yipp, MD, has found specific nerve cells that normally detect pain also help control inflammation during lung fibrosis.
Guava’s secret molecule could fight liver cancer
New research by William Chain, associate professor in the University of Delaware’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and his lab, uses a molecule found in a tropical fruit to offer hope in the fight against liver-related cancers, one of the world’s top causes of cancer deaths.
Using a process called natural product total synthesis, Chain and his lab group have invented a pathway that uses widely available chemicals to create molecules found in a guava plant that are known to fight these deadly cancers. The work was published in one of the leading chemistry publications, the international journal Angewandte Chemie.
The research provides scientists around the world with an easy and low cost method to create large amounts of the naturally-occurring molecules, and opens doors to more effective and cheaper treatments.
Nature has long been the source of lifesaving medicines, from willow bark’s natural aspirin to new discoveries in tropical fruits. Now, chemists at the University of Delaware have pioneered a way to recreate powerful molecules from guava plants that show promise against liver cancer. Their method provides a low-cost, scalable recipe for scientists worldwide, sparking collaboration and potentially transforming cancer treatment.
Project Overview ‹ AlterEgo
AlterEgo is a non-invasive, wearable, peripheral neural interface that allows humans to converse in natural language with machines, artificial intelligence assistants, services, and other people without any voice—without opening their mouth, and without externally observable movements—simply by articulating words internally. The feedback to the user is given through audio, via bone conduction, without disrupting the user’s usual auditory perception, and making the interface closed-loop. This enables a human-computer interaction that is subjectively experienced as completely internal to the human user—like speaking to one’s self.
A primary focus of this project is to help support communication for people with speech disorders including conditions like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and MS (multiple sclerosis). Beyond that, the system has the potential to seamlessly integrate humans and computers—such that computing, the Internet, and AI would weave into our daily life as a “second self” and augment our cognition and abilities.
The wearable system captures peripheral neural signals when internal speech articulators are volitionally and neurologically activated, during a user’s internal articulation of words. This enables a user to transmit and receive streams of information to and from a computing device or any other person without any observable action, in discretion, without unplugging the user from her environment, without invading the user’s privacy.