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Category: health – Page 101

‘All of Us’ reports half of the genomes it has sequenced are from non-Europeans

Although people of European descent account for less than one-quarter of the world’s population, their DNA disproportionately drives genetics research. Between 2005 and 2018, the majority of genome-wide association studies were conducted with data from people living in just three countries — the United Kingdom, the United States, and Iceland.

“The paradox of precision medicine is that you have to have a ton of different kinds of people to figure out one person really well,” said Josh Denny, CEO of the All of Us research program. “There’s still so much we don’t understand about the human genome, especially about rare variation. Huge projects like ours are really helping to accelerate that understanding.”

All of Us has recruited more than 750,000 volunteers to provide survey responses about their health, medical records, and if they’re willing, biological samples for molecular and genetic testing. Genetic data from some participants have been available for researchers since 2020, but the new release this week includes the whole genome sequences of nearly 250,000 participants — half of whom are of non-European ancestry.

NASA looking for 4 volunteers to spend a year living and working inside a Mars simulator

Ever wonder what it’s like to live on Mars? Now, you could try out life on the Red Planet – in a simulation run by NASA. The space agency is looking for participants to live on a fake Mars for a full year to help them prepare for human exploration of the planet.

This is the second of three missions, which will have four volunteers living in a 1,700-square-foot Mars simulation, NASA has announced. The missions, called CHAPEA, for Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, take place in a 3D-printed Mars habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The simulation, called the Mars Dune Alpha, simulates a future Mars habitat with separate areas for living and working. It includes four living quarters for each volunteer, a workspace, a medical station, lounge areas and a galley and food growing stations.

How to detect the deadliest form of cancer

Lung cancer is the deadliest of cancers. Screening could save thousands of lives, so why is it not the norm?

https://econ.st/2VAzFNX

Lung cancer kills more people than any other form of tumour.
About nine out of ten people die within five years of being diagnosed with the disease. If the cancer is caught very early most patients could be cured. But doctors struggle to diagnose early because there are no symptoms until the cancer is in its late stages and has spread to other organs.

Some experts think that doctors should screen people at high risk to find lung cancer before symptoms appear. The national lung-screening trial in America subjected 53,000 current and former heavy smokers to either X-ray or computed-tomography scans every year for three years. Its results, reported in 2011 found that screening with CT scans did save lives.

But there was a problem. Too many of the lumps found during the screening were not cancer. This is known as a false positive. False positives can harm patients who undergo dangerous follow-up procedures such as biopsies, even if they do not have cancer.

It can also affect their mental health and false positives add to the cost of health care. According to new data from the World Health Organisation these harms can be greatly reduced by following a different protocol. Instead of treating all lumps as a positive result doctors are now advised to ignore the smallest nodules and treat them as a negative result. This has halved the rate of false positives.

Continue reading “How to detect the deadliest form of cancer” | >

LVHN taking part in clinical trial of revolutionary colorectal cancer treatment that saw 100% remission in patients

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center made waves earlier this year when it announced the completion of a clinical trial that saw colorectal cancer in 18 patients disappear.

The patients received a drug that helped their immune system target and attack cancer cells, driving their cancer into remission and rendering it undetectable within six months.

Now, Lehigh Valley Health Network has joined a select group of networks and hospitals participating in the expanded clinical trial of the drug.

US study uncovers 275 million entirely new genetic variants

CHICAGO, Feb 19 (Reuters) — A study that analyzed the genetic code of a quarter of a million U.S. volunteers found more than 275 million entirely new variants that may help explain why some groups are more prone to disease than others, researchers reported on Monday.

The whole genome sequencing data from a wide range of Americans aims to address the historical lack of diversity in existing genomic datasets by focusing on previously under-represented groups. The U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded “All of Us” study turned up 1 billion genetic variants in total.

“Sequencing diverse populations can lead to new drug targets that are relevant to everyone,” said Dr. Josh Denny, a study author and its chief executive. “It can also help uncover disparities that lead to specific treatments for people that are experiencing higher burdens of disease or different disease.”

Check out these cool Earth images from latest moon mission

Intuitive Machines said its team programmed the lander’s wide and narrow field-of-view cameras “to take five quick images every five minutes for two hours, starting 100 seconds after separating from SpaceX’s second stage,” adding that “out of all the images collected, Intuitive Machines chose to show humanity’s place in the universe with four wonderful images we hope [will] inspire the next generation of risk-takers.”

In a mission update, Intuitive Machines said that Odysseus “continues to be in excellent health” as mission IM-1 makes its way toward the moon for a touchdown scheduled to take place on Thursday. “Flight controllers are preparing planned trajectory correction maneuvers to prepare the lander for lunar orbit insertion,” the company added in its message.

If Intuitive Machines manages to perform a successful soft landing with Odysseus, it will become the first private company to achieve the feat. It will also mark the first soft lunar landing by a U.S. spacecraft since the final Apollo mission in 1972.

Global project to drive lifesaving agreement on appropriate antimicrobial drug use

University of Melbourne researchers are leading a new push to address the growing harm of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as more humans and animals become seriously ill or die from infections that medicine once treated easily.

Over-use and misuse of microbe-killing drugs – including antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals – is the main driver accelerating the evolution of resistance to these drugs in bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites around the world.

The World Health Organisation calls AMR a top global public health threat that was directly responsible for 1.27 million deaths and contributed to 4.95 million deaths in 2019.

New Solid Electrolyte Matches Liquid Performance

Now we’re cooking with gas—but soon, we may be cooking with induction. A growing number of consumers are switching to induction-based stoves and ovens to address environmental concerns and health risks associated with gas ranges. But while these new appliances are more energy efficient, most models require modified electrical outlets and cost hundreds of dollars to install. That’s why startups like Channing Street Copper and Impulse Labs are working to make induction ovens easier to install by adding built-in batteries that supplement regular wall-socket power. Channing Street Copper plans to roll out its battery-boosted Charlie appliance in early 2024.