September 4, 2017
(UPI) – Researchers at Columbia University have become the first to successfully bioengineer a functional vascularized lung scaffold to treat disease. The scaffold allows the removal of the pulmonary epithelium while maintaining the viability and function of the vascular network … Read More
September 4, 2017
(The Atlantic) – Every flood disaster is also a public-health disaster, and even as Harvey dissipates over the Gulf Coast, the beginnings of that secondary calamity were on display in the Houston area. During the worst of the flooding, hospitals … Read More
September 4, 2017
(US News & World Report) – Doctors may be no match for computers when it comes to Alzheimer’s. A study published in July in the journal Neurobiology of Aging found that artificial intelligence could detect signs of the disease in … Read More
September 4, 2017
(The Guardian) – Scientific pioneer, superstar surgeon, miracle worker – that’s how Paolo Macchiarini was known for several years. Dressed in a white lab coat or in surgical scrubs, with his broad, handsome face and easy charm, he certainly looked … Read More
September 4, 2017
(STAT News) – Vaccine giant Sanofi Pasteur has quietly pulled the plug on its Zika vaccine project, a move that underscores how difficult it may be at this stage to develop a vaccine against the virus. The company announced the … Read More
September 4, 2017
(Scientific American) – The government of St. Kitts and Nevis has launched an investigation into the clinical trial for a herpes vaccine by an American company because it said its officials were not notified about the experiments. The vaccine research … Read More
September 4, 2017
(MIT Technology Review) – The gene-editing system CRISPR is the hottest subject in biology because of the technique’s ability to change DNA letters and potentially cure genetic disease. So what could be better? What about a way to edit genes … Read More
September 4, 2017
(Scientific American) – Scientists have successfully used “reprogrammed” stem cells to restore functioning brain cells in monkeys, raising hopes the technique could be used in future to help patients with Parkinson’s disease. Since Parkinson’s is caused by a lack of … Read More
September 1, 2017
(BBC) – As families desperately clawed through red earth and debris that had buried their communities within just a few hours, another fear was already taking hold. Gushing muddy waters had poured into poor communities, killing at least 500 people, … Read More
September 1, 2017
(Wired) – Most of the time, siloed medical information is more of a nuisance than anything else. But when Hurricane Harvey hit the Houston area last week, evacuations and rescue efforts forced patients to seek treatment anywhere they could. And … Read More
September 1, 2017
(CNN) – Opioids are a class of drugs that include some prescription painkillers as well as illicit drugs such as heroin and street fentanyl. The majority of drug overdose deaths nationwide involve an opioid, and about 91 Americans die every … Read More
September 1, 2017
(Scientific American) – Parents considering whether to enroll a sick son or daughter in a clinical trial often face a barrage of conflicting emotions. On one hand, they hope that the experiment will lead to a breakthrough in treatment. On … Read More
September 1, 2017
(New York Times) – The law — part of Senate Bill 8, passed this spring — would require doctors to stop the fetus’s heart before performing a dilation-and-evacuation abortion, in which the cervix is dilated and the fetus is removed … Read More
September 1, 2017
(Vox) – A Utah police officer earlier this year manhandled and arrested a nurse because she wouldn’t let him break the law. The chain of events was caught on body camera video at the University of Utah Hospital. After consulting … Read More
September 1, 2017
(UPI) – The FDA has placed a full clinical hold on two clinical trials combining the cancer drug Keytruda with other therapies after an excess of deaths was reported. The agency announced on Thursday that two clinical trials of Keytruda, … Read More
September 1, 2017
(Science) – But such a feat has not been observed in previous CRISPR experiments, and some scientists are now questioning whether the repairs really happened that way. In a paper published online this week on the preprint server bioRxiv, a … Read More
September 1, 2017
(The Washington Post) – Needing a lifesaving transplant is truly awful for any child and family. For children with a disability, the challenges are even more immense. Lief has autism and is a non-speaking person who types to communicate. He … Read More
August 31, 2017
(The Guardian) – Almost half a million pacemakers have been recalled by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to fears that their lax cybersecurity could be hacked to run the batteries down or even alter the patient’s heartbeat. … Read More
August 31, 2017
(UPI) – Researchers at the National Institutes of Health recommend extending noninvasive prenatal testing to all 24 human chromosomes to detect genetic disorders. The standard method of genomic testing performed during pregnancy targets extra copies of chromosomes 21, 18 and … Read More
August 31, 2017
(The Economist) – But evidence that TCM works is scanty. Clinical trials in scientific journals have reported some examples of effective TCM treatments, for example against migraines and obesity. They have found some cases where TCM works well in combination … Read More
August 31, 2017
(Reuters) – Cholera has broken out in northeast Nigeria at a camp for people displaced by the eight year conflict with Boko Haram, aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said on Thursday, bringing disease to communities already underfed and living in … Read More
August 31, 2017
(STAT News) – Getting thousands of Houston-area families to shelters has been a massive humanitarian effort. But the aid doesn’t end there: Many of the displaced have chronic medical conditions like asthma or injuries from recent days that need medical … Read More
August 31, 2017
(ABC News) – Safety advocates and state health officials are formally calling on the Food and Drug Administration to ban high-dose opioid painkillers to prevent accidental overdose deaths among patients and people who abuse drugs. A petition filed Thursday asks … Read More
August 31, 2017
(NPR) – The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday announced what the agency calls a “historic action” — the first approval of a cell-based gene therapy in the United States. The FDA approved Kymriah, which scientists refer to as a … Read More
August 31, 2017
(The Conversation) – Scientists who build artificial intelligence and autonomous systems need a strong ethical understanding of the impact their work could have. More than 100 technology pioneers recently published an open letter to the United Nations on the topic … Read More
