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Category: biotech/medical – Page 414

Contrary to popular perception, traumatic brain injury (TBI) is not the reserve of car accidents and punishing contact sports; it’s surprisingly common. Up to 50 million new cases of traumatic brain injury are registered each year worldwide. Notably, 80% of TBI occurs in low-to middle-income countries, and it is also the leading cause of death and disability in young adults. Overall, the global economic burden of TBI is estimated at 400 billion USD.

Minimising the devastating effects of TBI doesn’t rely solely on reducing the risk of an injury; it’s also essential to improve treatment after one has happened. For that, physiological real-time monitoring of vital signals is critical. One inventor has made it his mission to create devices that can do this accurately, easily, anywhere, and what’s more, they are also non-invasive.

Professor Arminas Ragauskas is a founder and director of the Health Telematics Science Institute at Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, which develops innovative industrial and physiological measurement and process monitoring technologies. He is particularly known for his work on non-invasive intracranial pressure and cerebral blood flow autoregulation measurement devices. He was also the national coordinator of the CENTER-TBI project, funded by the European Commission and the EU industry, with a budget of 40 million EUR, and focused European efforts to advance the care of patients with traumatic brain injury.

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Dr. Jean Ristaino: “We searched those descriptions by keywords, and by doing that we were able to recreate the original outbreak maps using location coordinates mentioned in the documents. We were also trying to learn what people were thinking about the disease at the time and where it came from.”

Can plant diseases be tracked through analyzing past reports? This is what a recent study published in Scientific Reports hopes to address as a team of researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) attempted to ascertain the causes behind blight disease on plants, known as Phytophthora infestans, that resulted in the Irish potato famine during the 1840s. This study holds the potential to help scientists and farmers not only better understand the causes of blight disease in plants, but also how they might be able to predict them in the future.

Image of a blight lesion on a potato leaf. (Credit: Jean Ristaino, NC State University)

For the study, the researchers analyzed United States farm reports from 1,843 to 1,845 by searching for keywords, including “evil”, “murrain”, “rot”, “black spots”, and “decay”, just to name a few, within the scanned documents using the computer programming language, Python. In the end, the researchers discovered a notable increase in the usage of the keywords, “disease”, “blight”, and “rot” within the reports between 1,843 and 1,845, with the researchers noting the usage of these keywords began occurring in 1,844, indicating the disease began in 1843.

Continue reading “Tracking the Trajectory of Late Blight Disease: A Text Mining Study from 1840s to Modern Times” | >

Summary: Researchers developed an artificial intelligence model that accurately determines the sex of individuals based on brain scans, with over 90% success. This breakthrough supports the theory that significant sex differences in brain organization exist, challenging long-standing controversies.

The AI model focused on dynamic MRI scans, identifying specific brain networks—such as the default mode, striatum, and limbic networks—as critical in distinguishing male from female brains.

This research not only deepens our understanding of brain development and aging but also opens new avenues for addressing sex-specific vulnerabilities in psychiatric and neurological disorders.

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Have you ever imagined listening to the brain’s activity as it unfolds in real-time? Researchers from Columbia University have pioneered a technique that transforms complex neuroimaging data into a captivating audiovisual experience, akin to watching a movie with a musical soundtrack. This novel approach allows scientists to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ the brain’s intricate workings, offering fresh insights into its behavior during various tasks.

The details of their work have been published in the journal PLOS One.

The motivation behind this study stems from a growing challenge in neuroscience: the vast amount of data generated by advanced brain imaging techniques. Technologies like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and wide-field optical mapping (WFOM) capture the dynamic, multi-dimensional activities of the brain, revealing patterns of neurons firing and blood flow changes.

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Injuries in the central nervous system heal poorly because cavities scar. Researchers hope to remedy this problem by filling the cavities in such a way that stem cells feel comfortable in them.

Researchers from Bochum and Dortmund have created an artificial cell environment that could promote the regeneration of nerves. Usually, injuries to the brain or spinal cord don’t heal easily due to the formation of fluid-filled cavities and scars that prevent tissue regeneration. One starting point for medical research is therefore to fill the cavities with a substance that offers neural stem cells optimal conditions for proliferation and differentiation. The team from Ruhr University Bochum and TU Dortmund University, both in Germany, showed that positively charged hydrogels can promote the survival and growth of stem cells.

Dr. Kristin Glotzbach and Professor Andreas Faissner from the Department of Cell Morphology and Molecular Neurobiology in Bochum cooperated with Professor Ralf Weberskirch and Dr. Nils Stamm from the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at TU Dortmund University. The team describes the findings in the American Chemical Society Journal Biomaterials Science and Engineering from January 16, 2024.

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Year 2020 face_with_colon_three

There’s a new disease-detecting technology in the lab of Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir, MD PhD, and its No. 1 source of data is number one. And number two.

It’s a smart toilet. But not the kind that lifts its own lid in preparation for use; this toilet is fitted with technology that can detect a range of disease markers in stool and urine, including those of some cancers, such as colorectal or urologic cancers. The device could be particularly appealing to individuals who are genetically predisposed to certain conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, prostate cancer or kidney failure, and want to keep on top of their health.

Continue reading “‘Smart toilet’ monitors for signs of disease” | >

Summary: Researchers developed an innovated a technique to convert complex neuroimaging data into audiovisual formats. By transforming brain activity and blood flow data from behaviors like running or grooming in mice into synchronized piano and violin sounds, accompanied by video, they offer an intuitive approach to explore the brain’s intricate workings.

This method not only makes it easier to identify patterns in large datasets but also enhances the understanding of the dynamic relationship between neuronal activity and behavior. The toolkit represents a significant step forward in neuroscientific research, enabling scientists to intuitively screen and interpret vast amounts of brain data.

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The team found that administering an HDAC inhibitor orally effectively halted sperm production and fertility in mice while preserving the sex drive.

Researchers are grappling with the challenge of developing effective male contraceptives as existing attempts to block sperm production, maturation, or fertilization have fallen short, either offering incomplete protection or leading to severe side effects.

Now, a team of researchers at the Salk Institute in the US has developed a novel approach to halting sperm production, which is both non-hormonal and reversible, marking a significant advancement in male contraception research.

Researchers have identified a novel protein complex governing gene expression in sperm production. By administering an existing class of drugs, called HDAC (histone deacetylase) inhibitors to male mice, they effectively disrupt this complex, leading to infertility without impacting libido. This breakthrough suggests a promising avenue for non-hormonal and reversible male contraception, according to the team.

Continue reading “Scientists unlock key to reversible, non-hormonal male birth control” | >