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Japanese scientists have reported the first successful skin-to-eye stem cell transplant in humans, where stem cells derived from a patient’s skin were transplanted into her eye to partially restore lost vision.

The patient, a 70-year-old woman diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) – the leading cause of vision impairment in older people – received the experimental treatment back in 2014 as part of a pilot study. Now, closing in on two years after the transplant took place, the scientists are sharing the results.

The researchers took a small piece of skin from her arm (4 mm in diameter) and modified its cells, effectively reprogramming them into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC).

Continue reading “Japanese scientists have used skin cells to restore a patient’s vision for the first time” »

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed a set of algorithms that will help teach computers to process and understand human languages.

Whilst mastering natural language is easy for humans, it is something that computers have not yet been able to achieve. Humans understand language through a variety of ways for example this might be through looking up it in a dictionary, or by associating it with words in the same sentence in a meaningful way.

The algorithms will enable a computer to act in much the same way as a human would when encountered with an unknown word. When the computer encounters a word it doesn’t recognise or understand, the algorithms mean it will look up the word in a dictionary (such as the WordNet), and tries to guess what other words should appear with this unknown word in the text.

My dream is to finally have an AI solution that is a mixture of Dragon meets, Amy meets a great editor and pr person to help me co-author a series of novels that I have been waiting for many years to write, publish, market and promote. Right now, you have Dragon or an experimental AI that writes the novel without any human input.

Textio, a service that helps job recruiters by flagging both good and poor phrasing, now aims to be a real-time writing coach.

Something so simple and finally done to help so many.

Beautiful

Researchers at the University of California said the new system dramatically improves the ability of people with limited sight to read books, menus, newspapers and emails.

Continue reading “OrCam headset recognises faces, objects and reads words aloud” »

A new mode of operation for others to follow?

Mindfulness and meditation help Google, Facebook and others’ employees do their best work, says Happify CEO Tomer Ben-Kiki.

Nice

A study providing new information about neuropathic pain afflicting some 90 percent of cancer patients who have had nerve damage caused by tumors, surgery, chemotherapy or radiation indicates gene therapy as a possible treatment.

The study in rats showed transfer of a gene known as KCC2 into the spinal canal restored chloride levels gone awry after nerve injury. Results from the research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, were published in the May 5 online issue of Cell Reports.

Continue reading “Gene therapy could be potential treatment for neuropathic pain in cancer patients” »

A gene therapy for an inherited immune disease completes a 27-year journey.

The week’s top Science news.