Researchers from Japan reveal that they may just have found a way to repair cardiac damage in patients suffering from chronic heart attack and heart failure.
In a study published in Circulation, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have shown that changing heart cell programming by tweaking the expression of a few key genes can actually reverse the lasting damage caused by heart attacks.
Adult heart cells have very limited ability to form new heart tissue, so when the heart muscle is damaged by a heart attack, the damaged areas are filled in with inflexible scar tissue. The presence of scar tissue impairs heart function and leads to arrhythmias, progressive heart failure and eventual death.
While our immune system serves a very important function protecting us from infection and injury, when immune responses become too aggressive this can lead to damaging inflammation, which occurs in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. Inflammation is triggered when our bodies produce “alarm proteins” (interleukins), which ramp up our defenses against infection and injury by switching on different components of our immune system.
Researchers at UC San Francisco (UCSF) have engineered molecules that act like “cellular glue,” allowing them to direct in precise fashion how cells bond with each other. This discovery represents a major step toward building tissues and organs, a long-sought goal of regenerative medicine [1].
Longevity. Technology: Adhesive molecules are found naturally throughout the body, holding its tens of trillions of cells together in highly-organised patterns. They form structures, create neuronal circuits and guide immune cells to their targets. Adhesion also facilitates communication between cells to keep the body functioning as a self-regulating whole.
Now a new study, published in Nature, details how the researchers engineered cells containing customised adhesion molecules that bound with specific partner cells in predictable ways to form complex multicellular ensembles.
Biophysist and Biochemist Dr. Maximilian Plach talks about a groundbreaking new technology for editing genes, called CRISPR-Cas9. The tool allows scientists to make precise edits to DNA strands, which could lead to treatments for genetic diseases … but could also be used to create so-called “designer babies.” Max reviews how CRISPR-Cas9 works — and asks the scientific community to pause and discuss the ethics of this new tool. Max has earned his PhD in biophysics and computational biology at the University of Regensburg, Germany. He is now Chief Scientific Officer of 2bind, a dynamic and growing company focused on providing biophysical research services for biotech and pharma industries. It is therefore no wonder that Max closely follows the latest breakthroughs and developments in biotech and biomedical technology. He is a long viewer and listener of TED talks; the more exotic, the better. Or who doesn’t remember the talk about the world’s worst city flags? This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have engineered the first-ever “Vagina on a Chip” in the world that replicates the human vaginal tissue microenvironment in vitro, Scientific Americanreported on Wednesday.
It is composed of the human vaginal epithelium and underlying connective tissue cells and it replicates many of the physiological features of the vagina, according to Harvard.
Best of all, it can be inoculated with different strains of bacteria allowing researchers to study their effects on the organ’s health.
Synchron, a neurovascular bioelectronics medicine company, today announced publication of a first-in-human study demonstrating successful use of the Stentrode™ brain-computer interface (BCI), or neuroprosthesis. Specifically, the study shows the Stentrode’s ability to enable patients with severe paralysis to resume daily tasks, including texting, emailing, shopping and banking online, through direct thought, and without the need for open brain surgery. The study is the first to demonstrate that a BCI implanted via the patient’s blood vessels is able to restore the transmission of brain impulses out of the body, and did so wirelessly. The patients were able to use their impulses to control digital devices without the need for a touchscreen, mouse, keyboard or voice activation technology. This feasibility study was published in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery (JNIS), the leading international peer-review journal for the clinical field of neurointerventional surgery, and official journal of the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS).
Genes that helped people survive during the time of the Black Death are more likely to be found in people with autoimmune diseases alive today. Does this tell scientists anything about what surviving the COVID-19 pandemic might mean for the world’s population?
Winter and rainly season are worst for those who have chronic cough.even little rain increases throat pain.
This Primer by Mazzone and colleagues summarizes the epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of chronic cough and cough hypersensitivity. This Primer also discusses how cough hypersensitivity and chronic cough affect patients’ quality of life and future research directions for the field.