Toggle light / dark theme

(Photo courtesy of Clarius Mobile Health)

The ultrasound market currently stands as a $6 billion global industry.

Contrary to popular perception, the use of ultrasounds for women’s health and pregnancy follow-ups only represents less than 20% of the overall use for healthcare. For example, a diagnostic ultrasound is routinely used to diagnose an assortment of healthcare conditions such as cancer, gall stones, and cardiovascular diseases.

Read more

The gene drive is quickly becoming one of the most controversial technologies of our time. Its possibilities are at once spectacular and alarming: by using genetic engineering to override natural selection during reproduction, a gene drive could allow scientists to alter the genetic makeup of an entire species. This could be used to eliminate diseases and protect natural habitats —but could also go horribly wrong in the wrong hands.

Read more

In Brief

  • A study of 36 patients with brainstem lesions revealed that the majority of those in comas had damage in a specific area of the brainstem, while most conscious patients did not.
  • The identification of the areas of the brain responsible for consciousness could lead to new treatment options for patients in comas or vegetative states.

Human consciousness has been defined as awareness, sentience, a person’s ability to experience and feel, but despite the important role it plays in our lives and making us who we are, we actually know very little about how consciousness works.

Scientists currently believe that consciousness is composed of two components: arousal and awareness. The first is regulated by the brainstem, but the physical origins of the latter were always a mystery. Now, a team of researchers at Harvard think they may have discovered the regions of the brain that work with the brainstem to maintain consciousness.

Read more

Speculation on 3D printed tissue coming to humans sooner than we think is backed by new pre-clinical findings from 3D bioprinting company Organovo (NASDAQ: ONVO). Though it will still be 3 – 5 years before the U.S. based Organovo apply for clearance of their liver tissue, that is still sooner than perhaps even the FDA had in mind.

Pre-clinical trial data shows that 3D bioprinted liver tissue has been successfully planted into lab-bred mice. The human liver-cell tissue shows regular functionality and, at this stage, is being explored as a suitable patch for the organ.

Read more

A device was just invented by researchers, which can make out up to 17 different diseases just by analyzing the chemical makeup of a persons breath.

This is the worlds first singular device that can make an authenticated reading of a persons breath and the first to accurately check for a wide array of afflictions with just the one sample already mentioned including but not limited to Parkinsons disease and kidney cancer even.

The team of researchers led by Hossam Haick from the Technion-Israel Institute of technology told foreign media, “Since antiquity (~400 BC), physicians learned to evaluate their patients by exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs), among other means, that are linked to diseases. For example, the stools and urine of infant noblemen were smelt daily by their physicians.”

Read more

Excellent read on the brain’s inhibitory circuits v. excitatory circuits when involving the processing of smells.


Summary: Inhibitory neurons form neural networks that become broader as they mature, a new study reports.

Source: Baylor College of Medicine.

Scientists have discovered that networks of inhibitory brain cells or neurons develop through a mechanism opposite to the one followed by excitatory networks. Excitatory neurons sculpt and refine maps of the external world throughout development and experience, while inhibitory neurons form maps that become broader with maturation. This discovery adds a new piece to the puzzle of how the brain organizes and processes information. Knowing how the normal brain works is an important step toward understanding the nature of neurological conditions and opens the possibility of finding treatments in the future. The results appear in Nature Neuroscience.

Caloric restriction can help tumour supression.


Tumor suppressors stop healthy cells from becoming cancerous. Researchers from Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Medical University of Graz and the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbruecke have found that p53, one of the most important tumor suppressors, accumulates in liver after food withdrawal. They also show that p53 in liver plays a crucial role in the body’s metabolic adaptation to starvation. These findings may provide the foundation for the development of new treatment options for patients with metabolic or oncologic disorders. Results of this study have been published in The FASEB Journal.

Previously described as the ‘guardian of the genome’ and voted ‘Molecule of the Year’ in 1993, p53 is one of the most important proteins regulating cell growth and a major focus for oncology research. It is a protein that has the ability to interrupt the cell cycle and block the division of diseased cells. In order to better understand its physiological regulation, the researchers around Prof. Dr. Michael Schupp from Charité’s Institute of Pharmacology studied the regulation and function of p53 in normal, . After withholding food from mice for several hours, the researchers were able to show that p53 protein accumulates in the liver. In order to determine which type of cause this accumulation, the researchers repeated the experiment using cultured hepatocytes. They found that the starvation-induced accumulation of p53 was indeed detectable in hepatocytes, irrespective of whether these cells were of mouse or human origin.

“Our data also suggest that the accumulation of p53 is mediated by a cellular energy sensor, and that it is crucial for the metabolic changes associated with starvation,” explains Prof. Michael Schupp. The researchers were able to show that mice with an acute inactivation of the p53 gene in liver had difficulties in adapting their metabolisms to starvation. “Food intake seems crucial in determining the protein levels of p53 in liver, and p53 also plays an important role in normal liver metabolism,” says Prof. Schupp. The researchers are planning to study whether their observations are limited to liver cells, or whether this p53 accumulation also occurs in other tissues and organs. Prof.