Article • Human Locomotion
Researchers improve efficiency of human walking
Unpowered exoskeleton developed by Carnegie Mellon and North Carolina State researchers helps individuals walk using less energy.
News • Plastic plus egg whites
Recipe for antibacterial plastic
Bioplastics made from protein sources such as albumin and whey have shown significant antibacterial properties, findings that could eventually lead to their use in plastics used in medical applications such as wound healing dressings, sutures, catheter tubes and drug delivery, according to a recent study.
How to tame most aggressive breast cancers
Australian researchers have found that so-called 'triple-negative breast cancers' are two distinct diseases that likely originate from different cell types. This helps explain why survival prospects for women with the diagnosis tend to be either very good or very bad.
Long-standing mystery in membrane traffic solved
Researchers discovered that NSF unravels a single SNARE complex using one round ATP turnover by tearing the complex with a single burst, contradicting a previous theory that it unwinds in a processive manner.
MRI may replace biopsies
Imaging tests like mammograms or CT scans can detect tumors, but figuring out whether a growth is or isn’t cancer usually requires a biopsy to study cells directly. Now results of a Johns Hopkins study suggest that MRI could one day make biopsies more effective or even replace them altogether by noninvasively detecting telltale sugar molecules shed by the outer membranes of cancerous cells.
News • Obesity
'Nurture' more important than 'nature' for overweight children
Parents’ lifestyles, rather than their genes, are primarily responsible for their children being overweight according to research by the Centre for Economic Performance, based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Researchers compared the weight of biological and adopted children to that of their parents to determine whether children inherit their weight problems or…
News • Neuropsychiatric disorders
Philips develops handheld blood test
Royal Philips today announced that it has entered into a multi-year development agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. (Janssen). The collaboration aims to develop a new handheld blood test to provide doctors with a novel tool to improve the care of patients with neuropsychiatric disorders.
News • Organ Transplantation
Innovative technique for liver transplants
Surgeons at the University Hospitals Leuven have used a new technique for two recent liver transplants: in both cases the organ was preserved prior transplantation in a device that mimics the environment of that in the human body, making sure the liver stays ‘healthier’. The device can even assess and improve the quality of the liver.
Article • Power in Hybrid
PET/MRI – powerful diagnostic tool improving with corrections
PET/MRI scanners have great potential because they combine the strengths of two different systems. Previous problems resulting from respective, mutually exclusive physical effects of both procedures have been resolved. Now these scanners are being introduced to the hospital and assist in the detection of the position and spread of tumours as well as their metabolic activity, says Dr Harald H…
Article • Cold plasma
Treatment out of a power socket
Electricity is not the only thing that should come out of an electrical socket; ideally so should cold atmospheric plasma, according to Dr Georg Daeschlein, at the Dermatology Department, University of Greifswald, who has investigated its medical properties for years. Report: Ralf Mateblowski
Article • Frostbite
Chilled to the bone!
For people living in Chamonix-Mont Blanc medical services at the nearby community hospital have been reduced to little more than a stopover visit before being referred down the mountain to larger facilities in the network of the Hospitals of Mont Blanc Country. Report: John Brosky
News • Heart failure
Researchers identify 'missing culprit'
Working with lab animals and human heart cells, scientists from Johns Hopkins and other institutions have identified what they describe as "the long-sought culprit" in the mystery behind a cell-signaling breakdown that triggers heart failure.
A speech-based system for the early detection of Alzheimer's disease
The ELEKIN research group of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country is working to develop various non-invasive methodologies for the early detection of Alzheimer's disease.
Study uncovers mechanisms of cancer-causing mutations
Researchers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, have described for the first time the molecular mechanism of cancer development caused by well-known "resistance" mutations in the gene called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).
Telemedicine allows acute stroke trial
Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) were able to enroll patients at other hospitals into an acute stroke clinical trial.
Research on injectable oriented hydrogels for spinal cord repair
The research objective of Dr.-Ing. Laura De Laporte, junior group leader at DWI – Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials in Aachen, is to develop a minimally invasive therapy for spinal cord injury. Her goal and her scientific approach to develop an injectable material with the ability to provide biochemical and physical guidance for regenerating nerves across the injury site, was selected…
Cancer researchers identify new function in an old acquaintance
Cells have two different programs to safeguard them from getting out of control and developing cancer. One of them is senescence (biological aging). It puts cancer cells into a permanent sleep so they no longer divide and grow in an uncontrolled way. Now the research group led by Professor Walter Birchmeier (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch) has discovered that an…
Article • Screening
AB-MRI could be the ideal screening tool
MRI is increasingly relevant to cancer management, especially to detect breast carcinoma. Professor Christiane K Kuhl from the department of diagnostic and interventional radiology at the University of Aachen, Germany, strongly advocated in favour of MRI in breast cancer screening during a dedicated Satellite Symposium organised by Bracco at ECR 2015. Report: Mélisande Rouger
Biomolecular force generation based on the principle of a gas spring
The mechanical basis of mitosis has only been understood in fragments so far. Scientists at Technische Universität Dresden have now been able to add another piece to the puzzle of cell biological mechanisms, as they report in the latest issue of the renowned scientific journal “Cell” .
News • Medical nanoparticles
Local treatment of lung cancer
Nanoparticles are extremely small particles that can be modified for a variety of uses in the medical field. For example, nanoparticles can be engineered to be able to transport medicines specifically to the disease site while not interfering with healthy body parts.
Article • Molecular Imaging
Xe-MRI advances body exploration
Clinical routine would be inconceivable without MR Imaging. Without exposure to radiation, doctors can make a patient’s organs and tissue structures clearly visible. However, pathological changes in the early stages, degenerated cells or small areas of inflammation, have so far remained almost invisible on these images. In 2014, for the first time, a team of cell biologists, chemists and…
Article • Study
Hospital design has little effect on patient satisfaction
Contrary to previous reports, a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers found that patients’ satisfaction scores only modestly improved based on the newly remodeled design of a hospital.
Article • Liver
Stellate cells control regeneration and fibrosis
Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Medical Faculty in Mannheim at Heidelberg University are searching for new approaches to prevent liver fibrosis. They have identified a surface molecule on special liver cells called stellate cells as a potential target for interfering with this process. When the researchers turned off the receptor, this led to reduced liver…
News • Survey
Dutch doctors would consider assisted suicide
Around one in three Dutch doctors would be prepared to help someone with early dementia, mental illness, or who is ‘tired of living’ to die, reveals a small survey published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
News • Head and Neck
Therapy with radioactive beads used for tumors
Researchers at University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht are developing an innovative cancer treatment with the help of a grant from Alpe d’HuZes/Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) of nearly 300,000 euros. The treatment involves the injection of radioactive beads into tumors, thereby enabling a very precise localized radiotherapy.
