Medical
Kidney transplant procedure makes all donors compatible
Desensitisation is a technique that prevents rejection of transplanted kidneys, which means that donors and patients can be much more easily matched. A new study of 1,000 patients shows its promise at changing how organ transplants work. Incompatibility between donor and recipient is the biggest barrier to successful transplants. If the recipient’s immune system attacks the organ, then the transplant fails.
Rise of imaging techniques in biology demands data solutions
As the bioimaging revolution gives scientists ever-more detailed views on the inner workings of cells, there is growing demand for public infrastructure to store, share and link the massive datasets produced using high-resolution imaging techniques. Complementing large-scale, EMBL-led, intergovernmental initiatives such as Euro-BioImaging, the EMBL-EBI has expanded its EMPIAR data service to accommodate new high-resolution imaging modalities such...
Wearable graphene-based biomedical device monitors diabetes
A scientific team from the Center for Nanoparticle Research at IBS has created a wearable GP-based patch that allows accurate diabetes monitoring and feedback therapy by using human sweat. The researchers improved the device's detecting capabilities by integrating electrochemically active and soft functional materials on the hybrid of gold-doped graphene and a serpentine-shape gold mesh.
Individualised cancer treatment to target the tumour
They look like small, translucent gems but these tiny 'gel' slivers hold the world of a patient's tumour in microcosm ready for trials of anti-cancer drugs to find the best match between treatment and tumour. The 'gel' is a new 3D printable material developed by QUT researchers that opens the way to rapid, personalised cancer treatment by enabling multiple, simultaneous tests to find the correct therapy to target a particular tumour.
FOXA1 found to control specificity of cancer cells
A team of researchers with the Mayo Clinic has learned more about how a transcription factor known as FOXA1 forms cancer-specific genomic identifiers and how it regulates gene expression differently among four very different types of human cancer cell lines. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team describes how they used gene editing techniques and other tools to learn more about the unique binding process that allows t...
Sperm 'booster switch' could lead to unisex contraceptive
Sperm cells, as it turns out, can become 'hyperactive'. A new study published in the journal Science has revealed that a particular enzyme on their tails responds to the female sex hormone progesterone, activating a 'power kick' that boosts their swimming speed. The body produces various hormones all the time for different purposes. Progesterone is released, for example, just prior to and at the onset of pregnancy, particularly to prepare the ute...
Latest technique for imaging cells and tissues under the skin
Scientists have many tools at their disposal for looking at preserved tissue under a microscope in incredible detail, or peering into the living body at lower resolution. What they haven't had is a way to do both: create a three-dimensional real-time image of individual cells or even molecules in a living animal. Now, Stanford scientists have provided the first glimpse under the skin of a living animal, showing intricate real-time details in thre...
Medical DC/DC converters feature 2uA maximum patient leakage
Designed and certified for medical applications, XP Power has announced the JHL and JHM series of encapsulated, isolated and regulated DC/DC converters. The 3W JHL03, 6W JHL06 and 15W JHM15 are approved to the 3rd edition international medical safety standards EN60601-1:2006 and ANSI/AAMI ES60601-1:2005, feature a low 2uA maximum patient leakage current and offer 2 x MOPP.
Food-tracking wearable device could help fight obesity
Carrots and apples not only taste different. They make distinct sounds when chewed. This may seem like trivial knowledge, but it's not in the laboratory of University at Buffalo computer scientist Wenyao Xu, who is creating a library that catalogues the unique sounds that foods make as we bite, grind and swallow them. The library is part of a software package that supports AutoDietary, a high-tech, food-tracking necklace being developed by Xu and...
3D printing could help fix damaged cartilage
Athletes, the elderly and others who suffer from injuries and arthritis can lose cartilage and experience a lot of pain. Researchers are now reporting, however, that they have found a way to produce cartilage tissue by 3D bioprinting an ink containing human cells, and they have successfully tested it in an in vivo mouse model. The development could one day lead to precisely printed implants to heal damaged noses, ears and knees.