Coming Soon: Battery-Free Pacemakers Powered by the Heart?
Written by Amy Norton
Scientists say they’ve taken a first step toward creating a pacemaker that runs on the heart’s own energy rather than batteries.
Pacemakers are electronic devices implanted to regulate your heartbeat — usually because of a condition that slows your heart’s normal rate. Traditional pacemakers have two parts: a battery-powered pulse generator implanted under the collarbone, and insulated wires that connect it to your heart. Read more.
Monkeys With Superpower Eyes Could Help Cure Color Blindness
Photo credit: Wired
Written by Adam Rogers
In the video, a preposterously cute, gray squirrel monkey named Dalton bonks his head against a computer screen in front of him. Wide-eyed and muttonchopped, Dalton has quite the setup—the screen, wide in squirrel-monkey terms, displays dots of varying sizes and colors. Below that is a monkey-sized basin, like a sink in a dollhouse kitchen remodeled with stainless steel fixtures. Read more.
Potential treatment for eye cancer using tumor-killing virus
Photo credit: iStock
Written by Hemant Khanna, University of Massachusetts Medical School
When most people think of the word “virus,” they often relate it to infections or diseases. The sole purpose of a virus is to attack and infect a normal cell, use it to replicate, and then kill it. Some examples include the flu virus and the deadly Ebola virus. Read more.
AIDS vaccine using engineered herpes virus works in monkeys
HIV infected T-cell (NIAID image) Photo credit: WNPRC
Written by Jordana Lennon
For the first time, scientists have used a genetically engineered herpes virus to achieve significant vaccine protection against the AIDS virus in monkeys. Only live attenuated strains of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the monkey version of HIV, have previously provided similar protection. Read more.
Published January 31st, 2019 by Wisconsin National Primate Research Center
Moving Closer to a Stem Cell-Based Treatment for AMD
Written by Dr. Francis Collins
In recent years, researchers have figured out how to take a person’s skin or blood cells and turn them into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that offer tremendous potential for regenerative medicine. Still, it’s been a challenge to devise safe and effective ways to move this discovery from the lab into the clinic. That’s why I’m pleased to highlight progress toward using iPSC technology to treat a major cause of vision loss: age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Read more.
Published January 29th, 2019 by National Institutes of Health
Study: Sleep Deprivation Speeds Up Alzheimer’s Disease
Photo credit: Stock photo
Written by Claire Hansen
Experts have long warned about the negative effects of sleep deprivation, and new research suggests that people with Alzheimer’s disease may be particularly affected.
In a study of mice and humans, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that sleep deprivation increases levels of the protein tau, which is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. In follow-up studies in mice, the researchers also found that sleeplessness speeds up the spread of toxic clumps of tau in the brain, a precursor to brain damage and dementia. Read more.
Researchers explore gut biology similarities across species and colleges
Written by Joe Wilensky
Praveen Sethupathy ’03, associate professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and Nicolas Buchon, assistant professor of entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, collaborate in the study of gut biology, gut microbes, and intestinal stem cells and their function and response to environment, diet and disease. Sethupathy studies microRNAs and the gut in mouse models and human organoids and Buchon studies host-microbe interactions and stem cell biology in the five-millimeter-long GI tract of the fruit fly (drosophila) or in disease vector mosquitoes. Read more.
A cure for cancer: how to kill a killer
A transparent tumour tomography showing T-cells attacking a tumour following treatment. Photo credit: The Guardian
Revolutionary work on the body’s immune system and a host of new drug trials mean that beating cancer may be achievable.
Last month, the Nobel prize in medicine was awarded for two breakthrough scientific discoveries heralded as having “revolutionised cancer treatment”, and “fundamentally changed the way we view how cancer can be managed”. One of them went to a charismatic, harmonica-playing Texan named Jim Allison for his breakthrough advances in cancer immunotherapy. His discovery had resulted in transformative outcomes for cancer patients and a radical new direction for cancer research. Read more.
Breathtaking New Microscope Reveals Mouse Embryos Growing in Real Time, Cell by Cell
Written by David Nield
Photo credit: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Using a newly developed microscopic technique, scientists have been able to create a detailed, 4D image of early mouse embryo development, down to the single cells involved – a fascinating look into the very first stages of life for mammals.
The imaging process is technically known as adaptive light-sheet microscopy, and it pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in imaging. Read more.
Study: Cesarean-Born Mice Show Altered Patterns Of Brain Development
Photo credit: Georgia State University
ATLANTA—Cesarean-born mice show altered patterns of cell death across the brain, exhibiting greater nerve cell death than vaginally delivered mice in at least one brain area, a finding by Georgia State University researchers that suggests birth mode may have acute effects on human neurodevelopment that may lead to long-lasting changes in the brain and behavior.
The team of neuroscientists examined the effect of birth mode (vaginal delivery versus Cesarean section) on neuronal cell death, an important process that reshapes neural circuits early in development. This process, which takes place in mice during the first week after birth, also occurs in humans. Their study’s findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read more.