The history books say Europeans brought leprosy to the Americas, but analysis of ancient DNA reveals that a form of the disease was present in Argentina and Canada much earlier
Category: biotech/medical – Page 43
Customizable chips mimic real-life blood vessel structures for disease research
Blood vessels are like big-city highways; full of curves, branches, merges, and congestion. Yet for years, lab models replicated vessels like straight, simple roads.
To better capture the complex architecture of real human blood vessels, researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University have developed a customizable vessel-chip method, enabling more accurate vascular disease research and a drug discovery platform.
Vessel-chips are engineered microfluidic devices that mimic human vasculature on a microscopic scale. These chips can be patient-specific and provide a non-animal method for pharmaceutical testing and studying blood flow. Jennifer Lee, a biomedical engineering master’s student, joined Dr. Abhishek Jain’s lab and designed an advanced vessel-chip that could replicate real variations in vascular structure.
Machine learning algorithm brings long-read sequencing to the clinic
Long-read sequencing technologies analyze long, continuous stretches of DNA. These methods have the potential to improve researchers’ ability to detect complex genetic alterations in cancer genomes. However, the complex structure of cancer genomes means that standard analysis tools, including existing methods specifically developed to analyze long-read sequencing data, often fall short, leading to false-positive results and unreliable interpretations of the data.
These misleading results can compromise our understanding of how tumors evolve, respond to treatment, and ultimately how patients are diagnosed and treated.
To address this challenge, researchers developed SAVANA, a new algorithm which they describe in the journal Nature Methods.
T cells take up residence in the healthy brain via a gut-fat-brain axis
The brain is a unique place. It is shielded from much of the body by the blood-brain barrier, meaning it’s protected from pathogens and potentially dangerous substances that might be in our blood. And historically, many scientists believed that separation extended to the immune system as well: the brain has its own specialized immune cells called microglia, but immune cells present in the rest of the body were long thought to steer clear of the brain unless there was a disease or other problem requiring their presence.
Now, a team of scientists from Yale School of Medicine (YSM) has shown that immune cells known as T cells reside in the healthy brains of mice and humans, trafficked there from the gut and fat. This is the first time T cells have been shown to inhabit the brain under normal, non-diseased conditions.
The findings are published in Nature.
AI tool enables automated evaluation of facial palsy, reports study
A “fine-tuned” artificial intelligence (AI) tool shows promise for objective evaluation of patients with facial palsy, reports an experimental study in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
“We believe that our research offers valuable insights into the realm of facial palsy evaluation and presents a significant advancement in leveraging AI for clinical applications,” comments lead author Takeichiro Kimura, MD, of Kyorin University, Mitaka, Tokyo.
Patients with facial palsy have paralysis or partial loss of movement of the face, caused by nerve injury due to tumors, surgery, trauma, or other causes. Detailed assessment is essential for evaluating treatment options, such as nerve transfer surgery, but poses difficult challenges.
Laser qubits in the sky over Long Island — scientists test quantum communication in the air
American scientists plan to implement a project to test quantum communication in free space. Using lasers, they want to launch qubits over the Long Island Sound.
It is noted, that three laser beams from the telescope on top of the Kline Tower on the Yale University campus will be directed across the Long Island Sound at a distance of nearly 43.5 km and captured on the opposite side by a similar telescope on the roof of the University Hospital Stony Brook.
The goal of the Quantum Laser Across the Sound project is to expand the ability to send and receive quantum information and demonstrating the potential for possible future quantum computing infrastructures. The telescope on top of the Kline Tower will send entangled photons 43.4 km across the Long Island Sound.
AI & Cancer: What Worked, What Failed, and Why It Matters
In this episode of The Moss Report, Ben Moss sits down with Dr. Ralph Moss to explore the real-world pros and cons of using artificial intelligence in cancer research and care.
From AI-generated health advice to PubMed citations that don’t exist, this honest conversation covers what AI tools are getting right—and where they can dangerously mislead.
Dr. Moss shares the results of his own AI test across five major platforms, exposing their strengths and surprising failures.
Whether you’re a cancer patient, caregiver, or simply curious about how AI is shaping the future of medicine, this episode is essential listening.
Links and Resources:
🌿 The Moss Method – Fight Cancer Naturally – (Paperback, Hardcover, Kindle) https://amzn.to/4dGvVjp.
Anti-Aging Cocktail Extends Mouse Lifespan by About 30 Percent
Scientists in Europe have tested an anti-aging drug cocktail in mice and found that it extended the animals’ lifespans by around 30 percent. The mice stayed healthier for longer too, with less chronic inflammation and delayed cancer onset.
The two drugs are rapamycin and trametinib, which are both used to treat different types of cancer. Rapamycin is also often used to prevent organ rejection, and has shown promise in extending lifespans in animal tests. Trametinib, meanwhile, has been shown to extend the lifespan of fruit flies, but whether that worked in larger animals remained to be seen.
So for a new study, a research team led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Germany investigated how both drugs, on their own and together, could extend lifespan in mice.