Tag: Medical Topics

Medical researchers at Melbourne’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute have made a new discovery about how a baby’s sex is determined — it’s not just about the X-Y chromosomes, but involves a ‘regulator’ that increases or decreases the activity of genes which decide if we become male or female. The study, ‘Human Sex Reversal is caused

Argonne researchers have demonstrated a new technique’s viability for membranes. Whether it’s tap water or a cup of coffee, almost everything we drink passes through some kind of filter. The ability to transform liquids this way is essential to daily life, yet it often rests on relatively delicate membranes that can quickly clog or degrade.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have found a potential new pathway to regulate immune response and potentially control inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system such as meningitis and sepsis. “We need to know what turns on inflammatory response to bacterial infection to be able to modulate the process,” said Subhrangsu Mandal,

Group A Streptococcus (GAS), sometimes known as “flesh-eating bacteria,” causes invasive infections that result in high mortality. GAS is susceptible to many antibiotics, but continues to cause devastating infections. Many studies have attempted to understand the mechanism for immune recognition of GAS; none has provided a clear explanation, until now. In a new study published

The CRISPR genome editing technique promises to be a “transformative leap” in genetic engineering and therapy, affecting almost every area of medicine. That includes plastic surgery, with potential advances ranging from prevention of craniofacial malformations, to therapeutic skin grafts, to new types of rejection-free transplants, according to a paper in the November issue of Plastic

By incorporating a gene-suppressing drug into an over-the-counter gel, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and their colleagues cut healing time by half and significantly improved healing outcomes compared to control treatments. Results from the combination therapy, which was tested in mice, were published online today in Advances in Wound Care. “Not only did

A University of Adelaide forensic pathologist is warning that potentially harmful substances found in herbal medicines may be playing a bigger role in deaths of ‘health tourists’ than previously thought. Professor Roger Byard is calling for closer checks during post-mortems for the presence of drugs and adulterants that originate from herbal remedies. “There is a

Currently, the medicinal use of cannabinoids, extracted from cannabis, is a subject of debate around the world. In Switzerland, more and more people are advocating for increased research into cannabis. Today, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is used in the medical field to deal with certain types of pain, muscle cramps, dizziness and loss of appetite. However, it

An interdisciplinary and international research group led by Dr. Volker Busskamp from the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden at the TU Dresden (CRTD) has decoded the regulatory impact on neuronal survival of a small non-coding RNA molecule, so-called miRNA, at the highest resolution to date. This deciphering of gene regulation primes applications for strengthening neurons

A KAIST research team led by Professor Keon Jae Lee from the Department of Material Science and Engineering has developed a machine learning-based acoustic sensor for speaker recognition. Acoustic sensors were spotlighted as one of the most intuitive bilateral communication devices between humans and machines. However, conventional acoustic sensors use a condenser-type device for measuring

Preterm birth remains a global epidemic linked to a lifetime of potential health complications. It also is difficult to study in living creatures — especially the uniquely precise biology of preterm birth in humans. Researchers report in PLoS Biology successfully inserting just enough human DNA into transgenic laboratory mice that it allowed the team to

Powdered protein supplements are one of the most commonly consumed nutritional supplements, whether by professional athletes or amateurs, even by those who use them for aesthetic purposes instead of sporting ones. This study, led by a researcher from the Area of Human Motility and Sporting Performance at the University of Seville, has analysed the quality

A new approach that distills deluges of genetic data and patient health records has identified a set of telltale patterns that can predict a person’s risk for a common, and often fatal, cardiovascular disease, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Although the method, which uses a form of artificial

An international research team led by the University of California, Irvine has identified a system of communication networks that exists among organs and tissues that regulate metabolism. Findings from their study provide, for the first time, a detailed “atlas” illustrating how the body creates and uses energy, and how imbalances in the networks may impact

The amount of physical activity that women undertake is not linked to their risk of early menopause, according to the largest study ever to investigate this question. Until now, there have been conflicting findings about the relation between physical activity and menopause, with some studies suggesting that women who are very physically active may be

Scientists report they were unable to reproduce the results of a well-known study showing that people are less likely to cheat on a task after making a list of the Ten Commandments. Their findings are published in a Registered Replication Report (RRR) in Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, a journal of the

Continuous mass distribution of azithromycin in northern Ethiopia, where the childhood eye infection trachoma is a major cause of blindness, is effective in preventing recurrence of trachoma but does not eliminate the infection entirely, according to a new study in PLOS Medicine by Jeremy Keenan and colleagues from the University of California in San Francisco,

A newly published study by researchers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine has identified a potential therapeutic target for treating obesity and diabetes. The scientists studied the biological function of an epigenetic modifier known as histone deacetylase 11 (HDAC11), and determined that deleting it in mice stimulates the formation of brown adipose tissue.

UCLA bioengineers have demonstrated that a gel-like material containing tiny magnetic particles could be used to manage chronic pain from disease or injury. Broadly, the study demonstrates the promising use of biomechanical forces that push and pull on cells to treat disease. “Much of mainstream modern medicine centers on using pharmaceuticals to make chemical or

When it comes to certain molecules, shape makes all the difference. The shape of limonene, for instance, a compound produced by citrus fruits, determines whether it tastes like orange juice or turpentine. In the case of therapeutics, the 3D shape of a molecule can be critical to activity. Now, scientists at Scripps Research and Bristol-Myers