Pig embryos could provide sources of new organ and tissue transplants for people, and they may pose fewer risks than using material from adult animals
Ophthalmologists have implanted Artificial Silicon Retina microchips in the eyes of five patients to treat vision loss caused by retinitis pigmentosa. The implant is a 2mm chip that contains about 5,000 microscopic solar cells that convert light into electrical impulses. Already some patients have experienced improvements such as not bumping into objects around the house, and being able to read the time on a clock
It sounds like the perfect excuse to quaff more beer. New research with mice shows the beverage protects against the effects of some cancer-causing chemicals. But there’s a catch: it was non-alcoholic beer. Nonetheless, if the scientists can pinpoint the protective compounds involved, brewers may be able to produce beer particularly rich in them. While drinking too much alcohol increases the risk of cancer, for now it remains a mystery whether moderate tippling of alcoholic beer has any anti-cancer benefits
It is the news that all sloths have been waiting for. Scientists in Germany have found that too much exercise is bad for you
A course of injections in childhood might help protect people from heart disease later in life. And for those whose arteries are already clogged up, a dose of antibodies could provide immediate benefits. That is the enticing vision raised by animal studies
Scientists have cultured small pieces of heart tissue which beat in the same way as the whole organ. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology team hope the work will lead to new ways of repairing heart damage — via Die Puny Humans
Purdue University researchers are devising a way to fabricate better artificial bones using carbon nanotubes to mimic the natural fibre-like structure of real bone
Scientists working in South Africa say they have identified a gene that controls the human body’s response to HIV. The researchers say the gene determines the body’s response to infections
Australian Consumers’ Association health spokeswoman Nicola Ballenden says that E-Health initiatives intended to improve public health outcomes while cutting costs are being hijacked by greedy
software makers, drug marketers and pharmacists
Looking for a place to toss your old inkjet printers? A team of scientists working to create human tissue may have a good use for them. Inkjets that are ten years old are perfectly suited to create sheets of human skin and other tissue that one day may help burn victims and even manufacture organs
There’s a new vaccine which has had an incredible effect in clinical trials. The vaccine, composed of human dendrites holding dead HIV viruses, has dropped test patients’ viral load by up to 90% in one year
Brazil says it intends to break patents on commercial anti-AIDS drugs as part of its battle against the disease. The head of Brazil’s AIDS programme, Pedro Chequer, told the BBC it was the only way it could afford to keep up its anti-AIDS strategy. Mr Chequer said Brazil would make copies of up to five drugs next year. Brazil currently makes eight of the 15 drugs it offers in its anti-AIDS cocktail, which is free to those with the disease — via BoingBoing
Oragenics, has received permission from the FDA to conduct the first clinical trial in which genetically modified bacteria will be put into people’s mouths. The new bacteria, which are genetically neutered so they do not make the acid that eats away at teeth, would be designed to replace the acid-producing bacteria present in most mouths
A unique combination of drugs has made a 15-year-old girl the first known human to survive rabies without vaccination. A team of physicians gambled on an experimental treatment and induced a coma in Jeanna Giese to stave off the usually fatal infection, said Dr Rodney Willoughby, a pediatric disease infection specialist at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
The Charité Artificial Disc is a plastic replacement for one of two discs in the lower back. The Artificial Disc is expected to receive United States FDA approval by the end of the year. This is the first major breakthrough in back surgery since the 1940s,
says orthopedic surgeon Richard Guyer of the Texas Back Institute in Plano — via boingboing
A Brazilian woman who suffered a brain haemorrhage that left her paralysed on one side has regained her ability to walk and talk after undergoing a stem cell transplant. Doctors injected the stem cells into the brain of Maria da Graca Pomeceno, 54, five days after a brain haemorrhage left her a hemiplegic. The cells had been extracted from bone marrow in her pelvis. The new therapy is being tested for the first time in Brazil
A low-cost antibiotic which has performed well in tests should be given to all HIV children in developing countries to prevent infections such as pneumonia and reduce deaths. Dr Diana Gibb of Britain’s Medical Research Council said a trial involving HIV-infected children in Zambia was stopped early because it was so successful
A device that automatically pushes electrodes into the brain to seek out the strongest signals is taking the idea of neural implants to a new level. Scary as this sounds, its developers say such devices will be essential if brain implants are ever going to allow paralysed people to control artificial arms or work a computer. The problem with fixed implants is that the signal fades after just a few months. The researchers expect to fit a paralysed person with a moving implant within a year
The first human trial of an artificial bio
kidney has shown encouraging results, offering hope of a working implant for patients. Ten kidney patients at the University of Michigan tested the device, which works in the same way as dialysis but is partly made of human cells. Eventually, scientists hope the device will become an implantable long-term replacement for failing kidneys
The Cleveland Clinic says it is the first institution to receive review board approval of human facial transplant for someone severely disfigured by burns or disease. Several independent medical teams around the world also are pursuing the procedure. The Cleveland Clinic said its approval on 15 October followed ten months of debate on medical, ethical and psychological issues. It has no current patients or donors for the procedure — via meta-roj blog
RSS – Posts