The way the human brain works remains, to a great extent, a topic of controversy. One reason is our limited ability to study neuronal processes at the level of single cells and capillaries across the entire living brain without employing highly invasive surgical methods. This limitation is now on the brink of change.
Cellphire Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing next-generation platelet-based hemostatic therapeutics for application across multiple medical indications, announced today that the first patient has been dosed in the company's Phase 2 dose-ranging study of Thrombosomes®, a platelet-based freeze-dried hemostatic agent, in bleeding patients with thrombocytopenia. The study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of infusing multiple dose levels of Thrombosomes versus standard liquid stored platelets.
A team of researchers, led by a University of Minnesota associate professor, have developed a polymer “wafer” that, when placed under the tongue, can effectively deliver and preserve protein-based vaccines for diseases. The research could open the door for vaccines that can be more easily produced and distributed to communities around the world.
Not all embryo transfers succeed, which gives rise to the practice of freezing extra embryos from an IVF cycle for future transfers. This allows those with at-risk fertility, due to age or treatments such as chemotherapy, to delay their transfer. In the journal Biomicrofluidics, researchers introduce a standalone microfluidics system to automate the process of embryo vitrification of replacing water with cryoprotectants, which exposes embryos to a slow and constantly increasing concentration of cryoprotectants.
In an important step toward the clinical application of synthetic biology, Rice University researchers have engineered a bacterium with the necessary capabilities for diagnosing a human disease.
MD Anderson and Refuge have announced a strategic collaboration to advance new cell therapies for treating solid tumors. The agreement pairs Refuge's innovative technologies with the experience and capabilities of MD Anderson's Therapeutics Discovery division.
A leading South Australian immunologist has been awarded $3 million from the Federal Government to accelerate work on a locally developed Covid-19 vaccine, in what's anticipated to be the second line of defence against the virus.
A group of researchers from Osaka University developed a quadruped robot platform that can reproduce the neuromuscular dynamics of animals (Figure 1), discovering that a steady gait and experimental behaviors of walking cats emerged from the reflex circuit in walking experiments on this robot.
A new approach to tackling viruses by targeting the 'control centre' in viral RNA could lead to broad spectrum anti-viral drugs and provide a first line of defence against future pandemics, according to new research at the University of Birmingham.
Cell tissues tend to be highly ordered in terms of spatial distribution and alignment, so bioengineered cellular scaffolds for tissue engineering applications must closely resemble this orientation to be able to perform like natural tissue. In Applied Physics Reviews, from AIP Publishing, an international research team describes its approach for directing cell orientation within deposited hydrogel fibers via a method called multicompartmental bioprinting.
Living materials, which are made by housing biological cells within a non-living matrix, have gained popularity in recent years as scientists recognize that often the most robust materials are those that mimic nature.
jCyte's presentation at ARVO 2021, demonstrated that retinitis pigmentosa patients treated with the 6 million cell dose of jCell therapy had significant gains in a broad range of visual function tests - BCVA, visual field (KVF), contrast sensitivity (CS), and low luminance mobility (LLMT) – all which measure important and different aspects of functional vision. jCyte also engaged the Cleveland Clinic to identify an anatomical biomarker for patient response to jCell therapy in retinitis pigmentosa, which will help guide the upcoming pivotal study.
Martin J. Blaser, MD, has been awarded the 2020 Prize Medal by the Microbiology Society of Great Britain in recognition of his study of the microbiome and its interactions within the human body that provide protection against and lead to disease. Dr. Blaser, the Henry Rutgers Chair of the Human Microbiome and professor of medicine and microbiology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, joins a storied list of scientists, including Nobel Prize recipients, who also have been recognized with the Prize Medal due to the impact their work has had on medicine and the care of patients worldwide.
Augmented reality headsets give UC San Diego Health spine surgeons “x-ray vision” during procedures for accurate and personalized implant placement, while keeping their eyes on their patients.
Under normal, healthy circulatory conditions, the von Willebrand Factor (vWF) keeps to itself. The large and mysterious glycoprotein moves through the blood, balled up tightly, its reaction sites unexposed. But when significant bleeding occurs, it springs into action, initiating the clotting process.
Although bone has some capacity to regenerate, large bone defects cannot be healed without major medical procedures. Metallic implants are widely used, but their bioinertness poses a challenge. In Biointerphases, researchers showcase approaches that are alternatives to metallic implants and use natural polymer coatings to improve bone-implant integration, also known as osseointegration. Establishing a strong chemical interaction between a metal and a completely organic and natural polymer is a significant advancement in bone tissue engineering.
A study led by researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm shows that the last remaining populations of the Sumatran rhinoceros display surprisingly low levels of inbreeding.
The Halal Science Center, Chulalongkorn University, would like to invite all to join the virtual conference, International Halal Science and Technology Conference (IHSATEC) 2020-2021 and 14th Halal Science Industry and Business (HASIB), on June 1-2, 2021. The conference will be carried out via Zoom from 9.00 – 16.00 hrs. (GMT+7 Bangkok time zone). All participants are to submit articles for the oral or poster presentations for the academic session of Thailand’s Halal Assembly 2021 before May 1, 2021.
A large national clinical trial to evaluate the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for safety and efficacy in pregnant women is now open for enrollment at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
Researchers have developed a new superbug-destroying coating that could be used on wound dressings and implants to prevent and treat potentially deadly bacterial and fungal infections.
NIH supported early testing of the artificial retina. Now, scientists are testing whether manufacturing it on the International Space Station results in a viable treatment for people with blinding eye diseases.
You’ve probably heard that the first two vaccines approved for battling COVID-19 in the United States use a relatively new approach—injections of simple packets containing mRNA, a genetic material that instructs our cells to make coronavirus spike proteins. But the technology for generating sufficient amounts of those mRNA packets dates back to the 1980s, when F. William Studier, then a senior biophysicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, developed a way to harness the molecular machinery of a very different virus.
Worldwide, 1 in 4 people will suffer from a depressive episode in their lifetime.
While current diagnosis and treatment approaches are largely trial and error, a breakthrough study by Indiana University School of Medicine researchers sheds new light on the biological basis of mood disorders and offers a promising blood test aimed at a precision-medicine approach to treatment.
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are an emerging assistive technology, enabling people with paralysis to type on computer screens or manipulate robotic prostheses just by thinking about moving their own bodies.
Rodeo Therapeutics Corp., a drug-development startup founded by two leading researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a third scientific partner, has been sold to Amgen Inc., a publicly traded international biopharmaceutical company.
Under terms of the agreement, Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, California, will acquire all outstanding shares of Rodeo for $55 million, plus “future contingent milestone payments potentially worth up to an additional $666 million in cash,” the companies announced today. Total consideration to Rodeo stakeholders could potentially be worth up to $721 million in cash.
Bioengineering researchers at Lehigh University have identified a previously unknown interaction between receptors in human cells and the spike, or "S," protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Scientists at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and colleagues in Japan have revealed molecular mechanisms involved in eliminating unwanted cells in the body.
Picture viral RNA as a single component that you can break into one million pieces. Now imagine reassembling those pieces together, literally like a jigsaw puzzle. If there’s a chipped corner or if a piece won’t fit snugly as it should, consider that a virus mutation or variant. That’s genomic sequencing, in a nutshell, when it comes to identifying variants of COVID-19, according to Peter Stoilov, associate professor of biochemistry at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.
Researchers led by TMDU fabricate a material that will aid bone healing, help medical practitioners clearly assess the full damage to bones after an injury, and clarify probable patient outcomes.
Helping to strengthen the economic viability of biorefineries in the production of alternative fuels derived from biomass is critical to decreasing the use of fossil fuels and mitigating carbon dioxide emissions.
Patricia Bernal, a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Department of Microbiology of the University of Seville's Faculty of Biology, is working with the bacterium Pseudomonas putida, a biological control agent found in the soil and in plant roots and which, as such, has the ability to protect plants from pathogen attacks (organisms that cause diseases) also known as phytopathogens.
A novel form of polymerized estrogen developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute can provide neuroprotection when implanted at the site of a spinal cord injury — preventing further damage. This promising result, found in a preclinical model, was recently published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience, and it lays the groundwork for further advancement of this new biomaterial.
Cornell University researchers have created micron-sized shape memory actuators that enable atomically thin two-dimensional materials to fold themselves into 3D configurations. All they require is a quick jolt of voltage. And once the material is bent, it holds its shape – even after the voltage is removed.
A gene therapy for chronic pain could offer a safer, non-addictive alternative to opioids. Researchers at the University of California San Diego developed the new therapy, which works by temporarily repressing a gene involved in sensing pain. It increased pain tolerance in mice, lowered their sensitivity to pain and provided months of pain relief without causing numbness.
ASME’s VisualizeMED: Modeling and Simulation in Medicine will take place on April 14-15, 2021. This two-day virtual event is enabling the transformation of modeling and simulation in medicine by bringing together industry experts of technology and masters of technique who are effectively implementing it with the goal to increase the application and adoption on a global scale.
In APL Bioengineering, researchers have developed materials that can interface with an injured spinal cord and provide a scaffolding to facilitate healing. To do this, scaffolding materials need to mimic the natural spinal cord tissue, so they can be readily populated by native cells in the spinal cord, essentially filling in gaps left by injury. The researchers show how the pores improve efficiency of gene therapies administered locally to the injured tissues, which can further promote tissue regeneration.
Being able to make blind people see again sounds like the stuff of miracles or even science fiction. And it has always been one of the biggest challenges for scientists.
The heart cannot regenerate new tissue, because cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells, do not divide after birth. However, researchers have now developed a shape memory polymer to grow cardiomyocytes. Raising the material’s temperature turned the polymer’s flat surface into nanowrinkles, which promoted cardiomyocyte alignment. The research is part of the growing field of mechanobiology, which investigates how physical forces between cells and changes in their mechanical properties contribute to development, cell differentiation, physiology, and disease.
Researchers have developed new 4D hydrogels — 3D materials that have the ability to change shape over time in response to stimuli — that can morph multiple times in a preprogrammed or on-demand manner in response to external trigger signals.
Gene editing technology will play a vital role in climate-proofing future crops to protect global food supplies, according to scientists at The University of Queensland.
HSE University researchers have become the first in the world to discover genetic predisposition to severe COVID-19. The results of the study were published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.
Fool the novel coronavirus once and it can’t cause infection of cells, new research suggests. Scientists have developed protein fragments that bind to the Spike protein, effectively tricking the virus into “shaking hands” with a replica rather than the receptor that lets the virus into a cell.
NASA, in collaboration with other leading space agencies, aims to send its first human missions to Mars in the early 2030s, while companies like SpaceX may do so even earlier.
Researchers have produced a groundbreaking new reference genome for the Asian malaria vector mosquito Anopheles stephensi. The achievement will help scientists engineer advanced forms of defense against malaria transmission, including targeted CRISPR and gene drive-based strategies.