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Category: health – Page 42

First-of-their-kind wearable sensors continuously monitor health through body sounds

This was first predicted by Omni magazine in 1981.

In the world of medicine, the ability to listen to the intricate symphony of sounds within the human body has long been a vital diagnostic tool. Physicians routinely employ stethoscopes to capture the subtle rhythms of air moving in and out of the lungs, the steady beat of the heart, and even the progress of digested food through the gastrointestinal tract.

These sounds hold valuable information about a person’s health, and any deviations from the norm can signal the presence of underlying medical issues. Now, a groundbreaking development from Northwestern University is set to transform the way we monitor these vital sounds.

Researchers at Northwestern University have introduced a revolutionary soft, miniaturized wearable device that transcends the episodic measurements typically obtained during periodic doctor examinations. These innovative devices adhere gently to the skin, enabling continuous, wireless monitoring of crucial body sounds across multiple regions of the body simultaneously. This groundbreaking research was published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine.

PEMF Therapy: A Non-Invasive Approach to Enhance Cancer Treatment

The Earth’s magnetic field, a constant presence in our environment, has a subtle yet profound impact on human health. It operates at extremely low frequencies (around 7.83 Hz, known as the Schumann resonance) and low intensities (30−60 microTesla). Generated by electric currents in the conductive iron alloys in Earth’s core, this magnetic field protects us from a blast of solar particles (solar wind) that could literally obliterate life on Earth if allowed to enter our atmosphere (Figure 1). It also plays a crucial role in regulating our circadian rhythms and supporting overall cellular function. Our cells are used to living bathed in this interactive field of magnetism and electricity, and therapeutically, we can turn this into our advantage.

Figure 1. How Earth’s magnetic field interacts with the solar wind.

Organic electrochemical transistors enhance bioelectronic sensor sensitivity by three orders of magnitude

In a breakthrough that could transform bioelectronic sensing, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Rice University has developed a new method to dramatically enhance the sensitivity of enzymatic and microbial fuel cells using organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). The research was recently published in the journal Device.

The innovative approach amplifies electrical signals by three orders of magnitude and improves signal-to-noise ratios, potentially enabling the next generation of highly sensitive, low-power biosensors for health and .

“We have demonstrated a simple yet powerful technique to amplify weak bioelectronic signals using OECTs, overcoming previous challenges in integrating fuel cells with electrochemical sensors,” said corresponding author Rafael Verduzco, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and materials science and nanoengineering. “This method opens the door to more versatile and efficient biosensors that could be applied in medicine, environmental monitoring and even wearable technology.”

A Next-Generation Malaria Drug: New Epigenetic Inhibitor Kills the Deadliest Parasite

Epigenetic inhibitors: A promising new strategy for antimalarial treatment? A recent study discovers a gene regulation inhibitor that selectively eliminates the malaria parasite.

A multinational research team, led by Professor Markus Meißner from LMU Munich and Professor Gernot Längst from the University of Regensburg, has made significant discoveries about gene regulation in Plasmodium falciparum, the primary cause of malaria. Their findings, published in Nature, provide new avenues for developing advanced therapeutic strategies.

Malaria remains a major global health challenge. In 2022 alone, an estimated 247 million people were infected, with over 600,000 deaths, the majority occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. These statistics highlight the urgent need for innovative research to drive progress in malaria prevention and treatment.

Prof. Dr. Niels Riedemann — CEO, InflaRx — Controlling Life Threatening Inflammatory Diseases

Controlling Sepsis, ARDS And Other Life Threatening Inflammatory Diseases — Prof. Dr. Niels Riedemann, MD, Ph.D. — CEO, InflaRx

Prof. Dr. Niels Riedemann, MD, Ph.D. is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of InflaRx (https://www.inflarx.de/Home/About-Inflarx/Team~Niels-C.-Riedemann~.h… a biopharmaceutical company focused on applying its proprietary anti-C5a and C5aR inhibitors to the treatment of life-threatening or debilitating inflammatory diseases with high unmet medical need.

Prof. Dr. Riedemann has over 15 years of experience in the biotech industry and drug development, as well as over 20 years of experience in complement immunology research. He founded InflaRx in 2007 and has served as Chief Executive Officer since inception of the company. He has been instrumental in and led numerous private and public financing rounds of the company and has been the responsible lead for its Nasdaq IPO in 2017. He is named inventor on several internationally granted core patents of InflaRx.

As physician, Prof. Dr. Riedemann was appointed Vice Director (“Leitender Oberarzt”) of Intensive Care Medicine, and led a 50-bed University ICU unit for over 6 years at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany until 2015. Before that, he received his board certification as General Surgeon upon completion of his surgical fellowship at MHH (Hannover Medical School, Germany) in 2007 where he also received his habilitation (equivalent to Ph.D.) and where he still holds an Adjunct Professorship (APL Professor). He spent three years as postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan, USA until 2003. He received his medical training at Albert Ludwig University (ALU), Freiburg, Germany, and Stanford University, USA and graduated as Dr. med. (equivalent to M.D.) from ALU in 1998.

Prof. Dr. Riedemann’s research has been awarded with several national and international awards. He has received extensive extra-mural funding and published over 60 peer reviewed scientific publications in highly ranked journals. He has served as a member on a Board of Directors and a Scientific Advisory Board of two large scientific governmental funded programs. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Health Politics working group of Bio-Deutschland and he serves as member of the board of trustees for the German Sepsis Foundation.

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Scientists design novel battery that runs on atomic waste

Researchers have developed a battery that can convert nuclear energy into electricity via light emission, a new study suggests.

Nuclear power plants, which generate about 20% of all electricity produced in the United States, produce almost no greenhouse gas emissions. However, these systems do create , which can be dangerous to human health and the environment. Safely disposing of this waste can be challenging.

Using a combination of scintillator crystals, high-density materials that emit light when they absorb radiation, and , the team, led by researchers from The Ohio State University, demonstrated that ambient gamma radiation could be harvested to produce a strong enough electric output to power microelectronics, like microchips.

Nanoparticles offer enhanced treatment for root canal infection with fewer complications

Apical periodontitis, a chronic and hard-to-treat dental infection, affects more than half of the population worldwide and is the leading cause of tooth loss. Root canal is the standard treatment, but existing approaches to treat the infection have many limitations that can cause complications, leading to treatment failure.

Now, researchers at the School of Dental Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have identified a promising new therapeutic option that could potentially disrupt current treatments. The team of researchers is part of the Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry, a joint research center between Penn Dental Medicine and Penn Engineering that leverages engineering and computational approaches to advance oral and craniofacial health care innovation.

In a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, they show that ferumoxytol, an FDA-approved iron oxide nanoparticle formulation, greatly reduces infection in patients diagnosed with apical periodontitis.

The Green Anesthesia Initiative: A New Path to Sustainable Health Care

Dr. Douglas Colquhoun: “Inhaled anesthetics are a natural area to pursue reductions in emissions because, as greenhouse gases, they are so disproportionately bad for the environment.”

How can greener anesthesia help both patients and the environment? This is what a recent study published in The Lancer Planetary Health hopes to address as a team of researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) Medical School investigated a multitude of benefits regarding the use of anesthesia free of pollutants and greenhouse gases, which they are traditionally known to contain. This study has the potential to help researchers, medical professionals, legislators, and the public better understand the benefits of providing patients with “greener” anesthesia, along with the environmental benefits, as well.

For the study, the researchers started the Green Anesthesia Initiative (GAIA) in March 2022 to monitor the use of pollutant-free—such as nitrous oxide—anesthesia aged 1 year and older between March 1, 2021, and February 28, 2023. The goal of GAIA was to ascertain patient health and environmental impact resulting from this new anesthetic treatment. In the end, the researchers monitored 45,692 patients (50.8 percent women and 49.2 percent men) before GAIA and 47,199 patients (also 50.8 percent women and 49.2 percent men) after GAIA, with results showing a 14.38 kilograms (31.7 pounds) per patient reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

“Tens of thousands of people undergo general anesthesia at Michigan Medicine every year,” said Dr. Douglas Colquhoun, who is an assistant professor of anesthesiology at U-M Medical School and lead author of the study. “Inhaled anesthetics are a natural area to pursue reductions in emissions because, as greenhouse gases, they are so disproportionately bad for the environment. We’ve shown that small changes in our practice lead to big changes for the environment and, importantly, no changes for the patients.”

It seems like something out of a science fiction movie — they successfully achieve the first quantum teleportation in history

The future is coming and much faster than we think. Let’s do an exercise of imagination, imagine, for a moment, being able to send information from one point to another without the need for cables, Wi-Fi or traditional signals, more or less like something telepathic, right? Well, that is precisely what scientists have recently achieved at the University of Oxford: teleporting data between two quantum computers. Although it may seem like science fiction or just news, the world.

Although, let’s lower the hype a little, the transmission distance of this experiment was less than two meters, but that doesn’t matter, what matters is having achieved this milestone of sharing information without the need for connections.