Nearly invisible, seaweed-based electronic skin precisely monitors pulse pressure and temperature, rivaling medical equipment in accuracy with its innovative bioelectronic design.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 559
Wobbly molecules get a closer look
While new technologies, including those powered by artificial intelligence, provide innovative solutions to a steadily growing range of problems, these tools are only as good as the data they’re trained on. In the world of molecular biology, getting high-quality data from tiny biological systems while they’re in motion – a critical step for building next-gen tools – is something like trying to take a clear picture of a spinning propeller. Just as you need precise equipment and conditions to photograph the propeller clearly, researchers need advanced techniques and careful calculations to measure the movement of molecules accurately.
Matthew Lew, associate professor in the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, builds new imaging technologies to unravel the intricate workings of life at the nanoscale. Though they’re incredibly tiny – 1,000 to 100,000 times smaller than a human hair – nanoscale biomolecules like proteins and DNA strands are fundamental to virtually all biological processes.
Scientists rely on ever-advancing microscopy methods to gain insights into these systems work. Traditionally, these methods have relied on simplifying assumptions that overlook some complexities of molecular behavior, which can be wobbly and asymmetric. A new theoretical framework developed by Lew, however, is set to shake up how scientists measure and interpret wobbly molecular motion.
Prof. Dr. Alan Widgerow — Division Chief, Center for Tissue Engineering, UC Irvine / CSO, Galderma
Innovation At The Frontiers Of Aesthetic And Regenerative Medicine — Prof. Dr. Alan Widgerow — Division Chief, Center for Tissue Engineering, UCIrvine — Chief Scientific Officer, Galderma.
Prof. Dr. Alan Widgerow, MBBCh, FCS, MMed, FACS, is Division Chief, Research, Center for Tissue Engineering (https://sites.uci.edu/ctelab/team/) and Adjunct Professor Plastic Surgery, Dept of Plastic Surgery, University of California, Irvine (https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facu…) and Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Skin Science Center of Innovation at Galderma (https://www.galderma.com/).
Prof. Widgerow is a plastic surgeon who ran a solo private practice in South Africa for over 20 years.
Prof. Widgerow completed his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has held various positions in numerous academic and professional associations including that of President of the Association of Plastic and Reconstructive surgery of Southern Africa (APRSSA). He is author of over 190 plastic surgical related publications and 2 books. He was also the founder and medical director of 13 wound clinics in South Africa.
Prof. Widgerow relocated to Irvine California in Dec 2009 to pursue his interests in medical device innovations, cosmeceuticals and wound care, but he still plays an active role in academic medicine world-wide. In 2012 he was appointed to the Faculty of the University of California Irvine Plastic Surgery Dept as Full Adjunct Professor and Director of the Center for Tissue Engineering and in 2021 was appointed as its Division Chief of Research. He is involved in multiple projects related to adipose derived stem cell and adipose decellularized matrix, wound healing and transplantation. In 2018 he was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Mentor of the year Award by the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, UCI.
Sheba Study: AI Can Spot Patients At Risk Of Pulmonary Embolism
A newly published study by Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest and internationally ranked hospital, shows that AI analysis of medical records as patients are admitted to the ER can accurately identify those at high risk of pulmonary embolism (PE).
A pulmonary embolism is a sudden blockage in an artery in the lung caused by a blood clot, most commonly due to a dislodged clot in the leg. They are normally diagnosed during a CT scan.
Using machine learning, the researchers trained an algorithm to detect a pulmonary embolism before a patient was hospitalized, based on existing medical records.
Custom Implants on Demand? Bandages for the Heart? 3D Printing Method Makes It Possible
University of Colorado at Boulder News
In the quest to develop life-like materials to replace and repair human body parts, scientists face a formidable challenge: Real tissues are often both strong and stretchable and vary in shape and size.
A CU Boulder-led team, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, has taken a critical step toward cracking that code. They’ve developed a new way to 3D print material that is at once elastic enough to withstand a heart’s persistent beating, tough enough to endure the crushing load placed on joints, and easily shapable to fit a patient’s unique defects.
Metformin and the TAME trial: a conversation with Nir Barzilai and Brad Stanfield
In this interview, hosted by Nicolás Cherñavsky, Nir Barzilai and Brad Stanfield discuss metformin, whether or not to use it in non-diabetic patients to slow aging, and the TAME trial.
Nir Barzilai is president of the Academy of Health and Lifespan Research (https://www.ahlresearch.org/), and Brad Stanfield is a primary care physician in Auckland (New Zealand) and runs a YouTube channel (/ @drbradstanfield) with around 250,000 subscribers to explore the latest research and preventive care guidelines.
Host: Nicolás Cherñavsky.
Production: Nicolás Cherñavsky and Nina Torres Zanvettor.
Editing: Nina Torres Zanvettor.
Revision and subtitling: Nicolás Cherñavsky.
============================================================
Notes:
TAME trial website: https://www.afar.org/tame-trial.
Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS): https://repository.niddk.nih.gov/stud…
UK metformin vs sulfonylurea trial on type 2 diabetics: https://www.cmajopen.ca/content/2/3/E162
The New England Journal of Medicine paper on metformin treatment in Covid-19 patients: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056…
Lancet paper on metformin treatment in Covid-19 patients: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/la…
Andre Scott’s paper on the cost-effectiveness of treating aging: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4358…
Medical guidelines database mentioned by Brad Stanfield: https://uptodate.com.
============================================================
Heales website (Healthy Life Extension Society): https://heales.org/
Contact e-mail: [email protected].
Breakthrough molecule reverses Alzheimer’s symptoms
In a new study, a molecule identified and synthesized by UCLA Health researchers was shown to restore cognitive functions in mice with symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease by effectively jumpstarting the brain’s memory circuitry.
If proven to have similar effects in humans, the candidate compound would be novel among Alzheimer’s disease treatments in its ability to revitalize memory and cognition, study authors said.
There is really nothing like this on the market or experimentally that has been shown to do this.
Researchers identify body’s ‘quality control’ regulator for protein folding, could lead to targeted treatments
Anyone who’s tried to neatly gather a fitted sheet can tell you: folding is hard. Get it wrong with your laundry and the result can be a crumpled, wrinkled mess of fabric, but when folding fails among the approximately 7,000 proteins with an origami-like complexity that regulate essential cellular functions, the result can lead to one of a multitude of serious diseases ranging from emphysema and cystic fibrosis to Alzheimer’s disease.