The human immune system is usually very efficient in protecting the body against diseases by eliminating pathogens as well as infected, damaged or otherwise suspicious cells. However, it often fails because tumours have developed efficient strategies that hamper the system’s ability to detect and destroy the cancer cells. Report. Ludger Weß
Prosthetic joint infections (PJI) are the most frequent complication in orthopaedic implant patients and may occur any time: weeks, months, or even years after an implantation. Report: Ludger Weß
New approaches, solutions and outlooks on biologised medical technology developed in the Berlin metropolitan region were presented at this year’s annual 'Medical technology meeting place' in Berlin, which presents the latest research, new product developments and best practice examples from the greater-Berlin area. report: Bettina Döbereiner
UT Arlington researchers have been awarded a $744,300 grant from the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Orthopaedic Research Program to create an adaptive interface that fits between a prosthetic and a patient’s limb so that the fit and comfort of the prosthetic are improved.
In September 2015, Utrecht University and University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht will begin offering a two-year Biofabrication research master’s program in partnership with three foreign universities.
A recent study from the Heidelberg-based company Sciomics, a spin-off from scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), has presented an advanced method to predict the recurrence of bladder cancer after surgery. The method, which can help avoid frequent cystoscopy examinations in a majority of patients, is based on an analysis of the protein composition of cancer tissue obtained…
‘The disease “cancer” is increasingly classified into sub-groups. Today, we are already dealing with a number of orphan diseases,’ says Professor Richard Greil MD, head of LIMCR at University Hospital Salzburg.
Offering attractive procurement strategies will boost adoption of high-end tools
A British teenager, 17-year-old Fred Turner, has won a major accolade for building a DNA testing analyser in his own home for a few hundred euros.
Japanese scientists have cracked open a freaky new chapter in the sci-fi-meets-stem-cells era. A group in Yokohama reported it has grown a primitive liver in a petri dish using a person's skin cells.
Numerous cardiac muscle cells die following myocardial infarction, due to reduced blood flow in the affected muscle areas. What remains is a scar, which also mechanically affects cardiac pumping. The muscle itself has no, or hardly any, capacity to regenerate itself.
‘All human body cells contain the same DNA, but every type of cell – for example a muscle cell compared to that of a nerve – has a different gene expression pattern’, said Dr Sonja Stadler, speaking at the 2012 congress of DGKL (German Society for Clinical Chemistry).
Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have shed light on the activity of a protein pair found in cells that form the walls of blood vessels in the brain and retina, experiments that could lead to therapeutic control of the blood-brain barrier and of blood vessel growth in the eye.
Johns Hopkins surgeons have established a facial transplantation team and are in the process of obtaining approval from the University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) of their protocol to perform the complicated procedure.
Major advances in Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) lead to a tremendous interest in new surgical endoscopes. The advantages of minimally invasive surgery via natural body orifices, such as the mouth, are obvious: less post-operative pain, a minor infection rate, minor incisional hernia, shorter hospitalisation and, finally, better cosmetic results. Karoline Laarmann reports
The European Research Council (ERC) has earmarked about €2.5 mio. to fund the research being conducted by gastroenterologist and biochemist Professor Dr. Dr. Detlef Schuppan at Mainz University Medical Center. Professor Schuppan is a specialist in liver diseases ranging from fibrosis to cirrhosis (the terminal stage of fibrosis) to hepatic cancer.
Gathering in Austria, plastic surgeons proclaim the need for clarification and standards. Michael Krassnitzer reports
HI-RTE allows the assessment and real-time colour display of tissue elasticity. The current generation ultrasound modality has proven applications in breast, prostate, thyroid and pancreatic disease and where diagnostic biopsy is indicated, HI-RTE allows more accurate localization and targeting of lesions.
Too much unhealthy food, too little exercise – the risk factors for the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and Type 2 diabetes are not only similar but also form a life-threatening alliance.
Dr Bill Svensson believes that elastography has the potential to improve diagnosis of breast cancer, reduce the number of false positives in the detection of the condition and also lead to fewer biopsies performed as accuracy of imaging improves further. This June he highlighted the potential of elastography and the developments in the imaging modality at two sessions at the United Kingdom…
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. Evaluation of the axillary lymph nodes is essential to insure complete cancer removal. Fluorescence imaging instead of radioisotopes is an innovative method for sentinel lymph node detection.
Scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow are developing a technique based on a new discovery which could pave the way towards detecting Alzheimer’s disease in its earliest stages - and could help to develop urgently-needed treatments.
In 2005, when they founded the French ultrasound company SuperSonic Imagine, Jacques Souquet PhD and Claude Cohen-Bacrie had to convince radiologists that they not only offered a new product but also a completely new ultrasound technology that could measure entirely new parameters.
Who has not dreamed at least once to live in future times? Who would not want that one’s today incurable diseases may be cured in the future by medical progress? Long-time cryopreservation immediately after death is the betting ticket to that future.
Cornelis Van De Velde, Professor of Surgical Oncology at the Leiden University Medical Centre, in the Netherlands, and President of the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), describes the work and aims of the society within the EU.
