[TECH NEWS] Xeltis, a biomedical technology company developing growing, living and self-healing cardiovascular implants using tissue-engineering technology, has announced conditional approval by the Paul Erlich Institute (PEI) in Germany to commence the first clinical study of its tissue-engineered cardiovascular grafts. The prospective, single-center study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of Xeltis’ autologous tissue-engineered vascular grafts in pediatric patients requiring… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] A new drug candidate may be the first capable of halting the devastating mental decline of Alzheimer’s disease, based on the findings of a study published in PLoS ONE. When given to mice with Alzheimer’s, the drug, known as J147, improved memory and prevented brain damage caused by the disease. The new compound, developed by scientists at the… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] A new malaria vaccine with the potential to neutralize all strains of the most deadly species of malaria parasite has been developed by an Oxford University-led team. The scientists from the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford have shown that their vaccine induces an antibody response in animal models that is capable of neutralizing all the strains… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] For the first time, scientists have altered natural bioelectrical communication among cells to directly specify the type of new organ to be created at a particular location within a vertebrate organism. Using genetic manipulation of membrane voltage in Xenopus (frog) embryos, biologists at Tufts University’s School of Arts and Sciences were able to cause tadpoles to grow eyes… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Carnegie Mellon University’s Roberto R. Gil and Rongchao Jin have successfully used NMR to analyze the structure of infinitesimal gold nanoparticles, which could advance the development and use of the tiny particles in drug development. Their approach offers a significant advantage over routine methods for analyzing gold nanoparticles because it can determine whether the nanoparticles exist in a… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Collaborations between Johns Hopkins and National Taiwan University researchers have successfully manipulated the life span of common, single-celled yeast organisms by figuring out how to remove and restore protein functions related to yeast aging. A chemical variation of a “fuel-gauge” enzyme that senses energy in yeast acts like a life span clock: It is present in young organisms… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Neuron transplants have repaired brain circuitry and substantially normalized function in mice with a brain disorder, an advance indicating that key areas of the mammalian brain are more reparable than was widely believed. Collaborators from Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) transplanted normally functioning embryonic neurons at… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, have discovered how a form of the protein linked to Huntington’s disease influences the timing and severity of its symptoms, offering new avenues for treating not only this disease, but also a variety of similar conditions. In a paper being published Oct. 31 in Nature Chemical Biology, the laboratory of Gladstone… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Can the nerve signaling inhibitor tomosyn help retain long-term memory? A new study by two University of Illinois at Chicago biologists points to the link. Findings by Janet Richmond and David Featherstone, both professors of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, are reported in the Oct. 31 online early edition of the Proceedings of the… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Five decades ago, scientists discovered that cells undergo a limited number of divisions before they stop dividing. At that point the cells reach a state of limbo—called cellular senescence—where they neither die nor continue to multiply. The immune system sweeps out these dysfunctional cells on a regular basis, but over time becomes less effective at “keeping house.” As… Read more »
