Sonovia’s textiles are resistant to bacteria and fungus; firm hopes its tech will also work against viruses; has sent samples for testing to China.
Would you want to know if you’re at risk of Alzheimer’s disease, for example?
The integration of sequencing into health care doesn’t fit very well in the model of how medicine is practiced today, but is well aligned with the future vision of health care that so many of us have — a vision that focuses upon prediction and prevention.
Continue reading “Genome Sequencing for Healthy People: Is it Time?” »
Stem cells are possibly Nature’s best-stored secret. These cells, which might be discovered in multicellular organisms, including humans, no longer handiest have the capability to divide (mitosis) but additionally to form various structures such as cartilage, bone and lots of more. The procedure is called as differentiation.
Stem cell knee surgery can be used to successfully treat a wide range of acute and chronic knee situations and injuries. Thanks to advancements in regenerative medicine, we are capable of use stem cell therapy as a possible alternative to many invasive techniques consisting of, total knee joint replacement surgical treatment and arthroscopic knee surgical procedure, to treat knee pain. Additionally, stem cell therapy may additionally be ideally suited for people who do not qualify for surgical processes.
Gene therapy is the introduction of DNA into a patient to treat a genetic disease or a disorder. The newly inserted DNA contains a correcting gene to correct the effects of a disease, causing mutations. Gene therapy is a promising treatment for genetic diseases and also includes cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy. Gene therapy is a suitable treatment for infectious diseases, inherited disease and cancer.
Over the last few centuries, infectious diseases have been understood and tackled, through advances in sanitation, anti-microbial medications and vaccination. One day we may also be able to tackle genetic diseases – lifelong conditions arising from mutations that we inherit from our ancestors or that occur during our development.
China’s claims of how it’s handling coronavirus recovery should be taken with more than a few grains of salt.
Even before COVID-19 became a global crisis, Chinese leaders had been criticized for their handling of the situation and lack of transparency about the disease’s progression. Things now look like they’re on the upswing, and businesses even appear to be headed back to work — but whistleblowers and local officials tell Caixan that’s just a carefully crafted ruse.
Beijing has spent much of the outbreak pushing districts to carry on business as usual, with some local governments subsidizing electricity costs and even installing mandatory productivity quotas. Zhejiang, an province east of the epicenter city of Wuhan, claimed as of Feb. 24 it had restored 98.6 percent of its pre-coronavirus work capacity.
Music therapy can help improve brain and motor function in stroke patients, scientists say.
A new study has found taking part in music sessions can boost mood and improve concentration in patients recovering from stroke. Those participating in the two-year sessions alongside existing stroke rehabilitation treatment also reported physical benefits such as better arm function and gait.
Based on their trials, the researchers are preparing a proposal for an NHS-funded permanent music therapy sessions post on the stroke ward at the Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, where the study was conducted.
China has said that some vaccines for the novel coronavirus could be in clinical use next month as the number of global coronavirus cases soared past 100,000.
The country’s scientists are striving to develop immunisation products with five technologies simultaneously, according to officials.
Continue reading “The first coronavirus vaccine could be in ‘clinical use’ in April” »
Immunotherapy is an increasingly powerful form of cancer treatment where the patient’s own immune system is equipped with heightened abilities to take down the disease, and one promising arm of this is known as adoptive cell therapy. This involves using altered versions of a patient’s own cells to trigger a more strong-handed response from their own immune system. Scientists at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center are reporting an exciting advance in this area, demonstrating that engineered bone marrow cells can slow the growth of prostate and pancreatic cancers in mice.
The study builds on previous research where scientists demonstrated that a range of cancers, including melanomas, colon cancer and brain cancer, grow much more slowly in mice that are lacking a certain gene, known as p50, which seems to activate a stronger immune response. The Johns Hopkins researchers sought to further validate these earlier findings, while expanding the utility of a promising form of cancer therapy.
To do this, the team worked with what are known as immature myeloid cells, a type of white blood cell, which previous research had indicated could help switch on immune responses that fight tumors. In this case, the immature myeloid cells were taken from the bone marrow of mice engineered to lack the p50 gene, as a way of comparing them to the behavior of cells taken from mice who had the p50 gene in tact.
My editorial from today’s (3/18/19) Financial Times:
Far sooner than most people realise, the genetics revolution will transform the world within and around us. Although we think about genetic technologies primarily in the context of healthcare, these tools are set to change the way we make babies, the nature of the babies we make and, ultimately, our evolutionary trajectory as a species — and we are not remotely ready for what’s coming. Yet we must be, to optimise the benefits and minimise the potential harms of genetic technologies.
Continue reading “Human gene editing is too transformative to be guided by the few” »
Takeda said it has begun development of TAK-888, an anti-SARS-CoV-2 polyclonal hyperimmune globulin (H-IG) designed to treat high-risk individuals with COVID-19.
Takeda’s H-IGs are plasma derived-therapies that have previously shown effectiveness in treating of severe acute viral respiratory infections. Such therapies are designed to concentrate pathogen-specific antibodies from plasma collected from recovered patients or vaccinated donors in the future. By transferring the antibodies to a new patient, Takeda reasons, a person’s immune system can better respond to the infection and increase their chance of recovery.
Two big-name biopharmas—Takeda Pharmaceutical and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals—have separately entered the scramble to develop new treatments for SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus identified as the cause of the global COVID-19 outbreak. [NIH].
