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Category: biotech/medical – Page 4

Research highlights solutions to critical gaps in dementia and childhood cancer care

In the United States, significant numbers of adults with dementia require long-term care services. For example, around 750,000 people who live in nursing homes have a diagnosis of dementia. However, transportation insecurity for this population has not received sufficient attention. Although long-term care facilities provide basic medical services, residents with dementia often need external, preventative, and follow-up care such as specialist visits, diagnostics, and dental or vision services. Without reliable nonemergency medical transportation, these needs may go unmet.

To demonstrate the extent of this problem, Postdoctoral Research Scientist Soojeong Han, Ph.D., and her colleagues reviewed existing literature on non-emergency medical for individuals with living in long-term care (LTC) facilities. The study, “Transportation Services in Society for Individuals Living With Dementia in Long-Term Care Facilities: A Scoping Review,” was published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.

Their review found only five publications that mentioned this topic, and even then, only briefly. Across these studies, caregivers, health care professionals, and people with dementia consistently described nonemergency medical transportation as a critical need. Reported barriers included financial strain, rural-urban disparities, lack of continuity among transportation vendors, and dementia-specific challenges such as , stigma, and the need for caregiver accompaniment.

Our Future in Imaging Comes Into Focus

Pushing the bounds of imaging isn’t new for the San Francisco Biohub and Imaging Institute. Both organizations have already taken down barriers to research by building imaging tools that don’t exist anywhere else, as well as creating pioneering cell atlases that have redefined how we understand health and disease.

One example is the San Francisco Biohub’s research on how zebrafish embryos develop over time. In order to capture video images of whole zebrafish embryos through various developmental stages, Biohub scientists built a custom microscope, along with novel software that can find and track the movement of each cell in the videos. The “Google Earth” of embryology resulting from this research is Zebrahub, which brings a new vision to developmental biology and helps us understand our own cellular origins.

Projects like Zebrahub require scientists from a host of different disciplines. Teams across the Biohub, along with interdisciplinary partners, worked to build the microscope, develop the cell tracking software and interpret the resulting images. The collaborative nature of this project isn’t unique to our research on zebrafish — it’s part of our philosophy, and we believe collaboration is critical to drive scientific advancement in all of our work.

Scientists just found a molecule that could stop Parkinson’s in its tracks

Researchers have designed a peptide that prevents the deadly misfolding of alpha-synuclein, the protein behind Parkinson’s and some dementias. In lab and animal tests, it stabilized the protein and improved motor function. The work demonstrates the power of rational drug design in tackling brain diseases that have long lacked effective treatments.

1 Gene, 1 Disease no More — Acknowledging The Full Complexity of Genetics Could Improve And Personalize Medicine

Your DNA contains millions of genetic variants that interact with each other in ways that affect whether diseases such as schizophrenia and heart disease develop, and with what severity.

A Review of Artificial Intelligence-Based Down Syndrome Detection Techniques

In this section, the authors reveal the findings of this review. The findings are categorized based on data modalities, showcasing the effectiveness of AI models in terms of evaluation metrics. Figure 1 summarizes the extraction process, providing a clear representation of the progression from article identification to final selection of studies. The initial search yielded a substantial total of 1,175 articles. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the subsequent screening process excluded irrelevant articles. By meticulously filtering the literature, 25 studies were deemed suitable for inclusion into this review.

A chronology of research studies on the uses of AI in DS diagnosis is shown in Figure 2. This timeline highlights a considerable growth in academic interest over the course of the years. A single study was published per year between the years 2013 and 2017. Technical restrictions and the availability of datasets restricted the early attempts to integrate AI into DS diagnoses. Advancements in deep learning and machine learning technologies have been driven by continuous growth in research, representing a milestone in 2021. These developments are signs of increasing confidence in the ability of artificial intelligence to identify and resolve challenging diagnostic problems. The year 2021 reaches a high with four studies, indicating a surge of innovation. This may result from improved computing tools and a more extensive understanding of the usefulness of artificial intelligence in the medical field. However, the minor decline in 2022 and 2023, with three studies, may indicate difficulties in maintaining the rapid pace of research. These challenges may include restricted access to different datasets or limitations to clinical adoption.

In 2024, there was a significant increase in DS diagnostics approaches, achieving a total of seven studies. This increase is a result of developments in AI algorithms, collaborations across diverse fields, and the significant role of AI in medical diagnosis. It demonstrates the increased academic and multidisciplinary interest in developing effective AI-powered DS detection models. In addition, an increasing trajectory highlights the importance of maintaining research efforts in order to overcome current challenges in implementing AI applications in the healthcare sector.

Pan-disease atlas maps molecular fingerprints of health, disease and aging

A new study has mapped the distinct molecular “fingerprints” that 59 diseases leave in an individual’s blood protein, which could enable blood tests to discern troubling signs from those that are more common.

As now published in Science, an international team of researchers mapped how thousands of proteins in human blood shift as a result of aging and serious diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular and .

The Human Disease Blood Atlas also reveals that each individual’s blood profile has a unique molecular fingerprint, which changes through childhood and stabilizes in adulthood. This provides a baseline for comparison that could one day use to flag early deviations.

Forget hair transplants — a laser that reactivates follicles is the latest trend in hair-loss care

Hair transplants have exploded in popularity in recent years — so much so that flights returning from Turkey packed with men sporting freshly transplanted hairlines have become a meme. And the stigma surrounding the once-taboo procedure is lessening.

In August, John Cena said his recent hair transplant “completely changed the course of my life.” While effective, transplants are still surgeries that require thousands of dollars, time off work, and a multi-week recovery process.

However, FoLix, the first FDA-cleared fractional laser of its kind, administered in-office by a provider, offers men and women a surgery-free way to help with their hair loss. Dermatologists say that the new treatment, which began appearing in clinics over the past year, could be a game changer for patients who may not like the daily regimen of pills or the invasiveness of hair transplant surgery.

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