In a small cell therapy trial, 10 out of 12 people with type 1 diabetes no longer needed supplemental insulin, even a year after treatment.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 69
Lab-grown ‘tiny hearts’ bring hope for children and adults with genetic heart disease
Scientists from QIMR Berghofer’s Cardiac Bioengineering Lab have developed lab-grown, three-dimensional heart tissues known as cardiac organoids that mimic the structure and function of real adult human heart muscle.
To create these tissues, the researchers use special cells called human pluripotent stem cells (which can turn into any cell in the body). However, when these stem cells become heart cells, they usually stay immature and more like the heart tissue found in a developing baby. This immaturity can limit their usefulness to model diseases that present in childhood or as an adult.
In the study, researchers activated two key biological pathways to mimic the effects of exercise in order to mature these cells, making them behave more like genuine adult heart tissue. This breakthrough means scientists can now use these lab-grown heart tissues to test new drugs that could help people with heart conditions. The findings have been published in Nature Cardiovascular Research.
New AI system uncovers hidden cell subtypes, boosts precision medicine
In this view of cHL (classic Hodgkin Lymphoma) tissue, CellLENS identified subtle but distinct CD4 T cell subpopulations infiltrating a tumor, lingering at tumor boundaries, and found at a distance from tumors. CellLENS enables the potential precision therapy strategies against specific immune cell populations in the tissue environment.
Image courtesy of the researchers.
Ultrafast 12-minute MRI maps brain chemistry to spot disease before symptoms
Illinois engineers fused ultrafast imaging with smart algorithms to peek at living brain chemistry, turning routine MRIs into metabolic microscopes. The system distinguishes healthy regions, grades tumors, and forecasts MS flare-ups long before structural MRI can. Precision-medicine neurology just moved closer to reality.
Manipulation of light at the nanoscale helps advance biosensing
Traditional medical tests often require clinical samples to be sent off-site for analysis in a time-intensive and expensive process. Point-of-care diagnostics are instead low-cost, easy-to-use, and rapid tests performed at the site of patient care. Recently, researchers at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology reported new and optimized techniques to develop better biosensors for the early detection of disease biomarkers.
People have long been fascinated with the iridescence of peacock feathers, appearing to change color as light hits them from different angles. With no pigments present in the feathers, these colors are a result of light interactions with nanoscopic structures, called photonic crystals, patterned across the surface of the feathers.
Inspired by biology, scientists have harnessed the power of these photonic crystals for biosensing technologies due to their ability to manipulate how light is absorbed and reflected. Because their properties are a result of their nanostructure, photonic crystals can be precisely engineered for different purposes.
Virtual reality software uncovers new details in pediatric heart tumors
New cutting-edge software developed in Melbourne can help uncover how the most common heart tumor in children forms and changes. And the technology has the potential to further our understanding of other childhood diseases, according to a new study.
The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and published in Genome Biology, found the software, VR-Omics, can identify previously undetected cell activities of cardiac rhabdomyoma, a type of benign heart tumor.
Developed by MCRI’s Professor Mirana Ramialison, VR-Omics is the first tool capable of analyzing and visualizing data in both 2D and 3D virtual reality environments. The innovative technology aims to analyze the spatial genetic makeup of human tissue to better understand a specific disease.
Photon ‘time bins’ and signal stability show promise for practical quantum communication via fiber optics
Researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) in Jena, Germany, together with international collaborators, have developed two complementary methods that could make quantum communication via fiber optics practical outside the lab.
One approach significantly increases the amount of information that can be encoded in a single photon; the other improves the stability of the quantum signal over long distances. Both methods rely on standard telecom components—offering a realistic path to secure data transmission through existing fiber networks.
From hospitals to government agencies and industrial facilities—anywhere sensitive data must be kept secure—quantum communication could one day play a key role. Instead of transmitting electrical signals, this technology uses individual particles of light—photons—encoded in delicate quantum states. One of its key advantages: any attempt to intercept or tamper with the signal disturbs the quantum state, making eavesdropping not only detectable but inherently limited.
Platform enables tunable photonic crystals with integrated spin-orbit coupling and controlled laser emission
A team of researchers has developed a novel method for using cholesteric liquid crystals in optical microcavities. The platform created by the researchers enables the formation and dynamic tuning of photonic crystals with integrated spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and controlled laser emission. The results of this research have been published in the journal Laser & Photonics Reviews. The team is from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, the Military University of Technology, and the Institut Pascal at Université Clermont Auvergne.
“A uniform lying helix (ULH) structure of a cholesteric phase liquid crystal is arranged in the optical cavity. The self-organized helix structure with the axis lying in the plane of the cavity acts as a one-dimensional periodic photonic lattice. This is possible due to the unique properties of liquid crystals, which are elongated molecules that resemble a pencil,” explains Prof. Jacek Szczytko from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, where research on novel optical microcavities is being conducted.
A cholesteric structure is a spiral structure made up of layers of almost parallel oriented molecules lying in a single plane. From layer to layer, the orientation of the molecules is gently twisted, which altogether builds up a helical structure reminiscent of DNA helixes or ‘piggyback’ noodles. The direction perpendicular to the layers of molecules determines the axis of the helix formed.
Engineers create first immunocompetent leukemia device for CAR T immunotherapy screening
A team of researchers led by NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Weiqiang Chen has developed a miniature device that could transform how blood cancer treatments are tested and tailored for patients.
The team’s microscope slide-sized “leukemia-on-a-chip” is the first laboratory device to successfully combine both the physical structure of bone marrow and a functioning human immune system, an advance that could dramatically accelerate new immunotherapy development.
This innovation comes at a particularly timely moment, as the FDA recently announced a plan to phase out animal testing requirements for monoclonal antibodies and other drugs, releasing a comprehensive roadmap for reducing animal testing in preclinical safety studies.