[TECH NEWS] In a feat of technology tweaking that would rival MacGyver, a team of researchers from the University of California, Davis has transformed everyday iPhones into medical-quality imaging and chemical detection devices. With materials that cost about as much as a typical app, the decked-out smartphones are able to use their heightened senses to perform detailed microscopy and spectroscopy…. Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Researchers have shown they can reverse the aging process for human adult stem cells, which are responsible for helping old or damaged tissues regenerate. The findings could lead to medical treatments that may repair a host of ailments that occur because of tissue damage as people age. A research group led by the Buck Institute for Research on… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] In a study published Sept. 1 in Nature, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have found substances in the blood of old mice that makes young brains act older. These substances, whose levels rise with increasing age, appear to inhibit the brain’s ability to produce new nerve cells critical to memory and learning. The findings raise the question… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Diabetes appears to dramatically increase a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia later in life, according to a new study conducted in Japan by a group led by Yutaka Kiyohara, MD, an environmental medicine researcher at Kyushu University, in Fukuoka. In the study, which included more than 1,000 men and women over age… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] A small group of diverse individuals living on at least three continents, who call themselves The Contenders, have solved the structure of a protein that has stumped scientists for more than 10 years. And they did so from the comfort of their own homes, playing an online protein folding game called Foldit. The Contenders’ solution and its validation… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) have discovered that an ancient pathway called autophagy also mobilizes and exports cholesterol from cells. A team led by Yves Marcel, PhD, Director of the HDL Biology Laboratory, UOHI, has shown that autophagy, a pathway preserved during evolution, functions to engulf and digest cholesterol accumulated in artery walls. This… Read more »
Researchers at MIT and Switzerland’s ETH Zurich have found a way to program cells to determine whether they have become cancerous, and if they have, to order their own suicide. The new technology, described in the Sept. 2 issue of Science, offers the possibility of designing cell-death-inducing programs specific to any type of cancer, which could effectively kill tumors while… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Researchers have created the smallest electric motor ever devised. The motor, made from a single molecule just a billionth of a meter across, is reported in Nature Nanotechnology. The minuscule motor could have applications in both nanotechnology and in medicine, where tiny amounts of work can be put to efficient use. Tiny rotors based on single molecules have… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Like fine chefs, scientists are seemingly approaching a day when they will be able to make nearly any type of tissue from human embryonic stem cells. But within these batches of newly generated cells lurks a big potential problem: Any remaining embryonic stem cells—those that haven’t differentiated into the desired tissue—can go on to become dangerous tumors called… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] A calcium test performed with the assistance of a CT scanner seems to provide insight into the likelihood that certain patients at moderate risk of heart problems will have a heart attack or stroke, researchers say. The test to detect coronary calcium can help physicians determine whether the patients should take cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins) to reduce their cardiovascular… Read more »
