Medical

The immunoproteasome dismantles proteins and the resulting fragments are displayed on the surface of cells. This helps the immune system to recognise abnormal cells. However, in chronic inflammations and autoimmune diseases this “information channel” is overactive. Now researchers at the Technical University of Munich have determined the molecular mechanisms of inhibitors that can selectively thwart the human immunoproteasome - import...

The healthcare alliance partner of Avalue Technology, Bytec Healthcare, has been announced as one of the finalist for the industry’s largest technology and business awards, The Elektra Awards. Bytec’s Power on Pole Geni-Tec solution has been shortlisted for the Power System Product of the Year. The Geni-Tec Power on Pole integrates the Geni-Tec intelligent power system.

A study led by researchers at the University of Birmingham reveals the key role of different types of fibroblast cells in the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), opening up an avenue for research into treatment of the disease. Synovial Fibroblasts (SFs) are cells that make up part of the connective tissue, or synovium, around human joints. In RA patients, SF cells cause damage by invading and attacking the cartilage and bone around the...

Parents may soon be able to watch their unborn babies grow in realistic 3D immersive visualisations, thanks to technology that transforms MRI and ultrasound data into a 3D virtual reality model of a fetus, according to research being presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). MRI provides high-resolution fetal and placental imaging with excellent contrast. It is generally use...

When a microscopic lab worm grows an eye-popping oddity, scientists locate the mutated gene that caused it. It’s truly interesting. Yet, more important findings, medically relevant ones, may be hiding in traits invisible to the eye, even with the best microscope. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are exposing these secrets - micron-sized bumps and grooves - and the intricate web of gene mutations possibly behind them i...

Black light does more than make posters glow. Cornell researchers have developed a chemical tool to control inflammation that is activated by ultraviolet (UV) light. The method will allow scientists to study inflammation and the immune system, and may one day prove effective as a targeted therapy for inflammatory diseases, while minimising side effects to healthy tissues.

An enterprising researcher from The University of Manchester has developed a prototype tool that could help transform the lives of the blind and visually impaired. Vasileios Tsormpatzoudis has upgraded the white cane - which has been used as a mobility tool for centuries – by adding a low-cost embedded computer that functions in a similar way to a car parking sensor.

Research coauthored by Brigham Young University researchers may lead to a more accurate system for early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of prostate cancer. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, details a computer model that uses medical images to reproduce the growth patterns of prostate cancer on the anatomy of a patient's prostate.

MIT biologists have identified a biomarker that can reveal whether patients with a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer will be helped by paclitaxel (commercially known as Taxol), one of the drugs most commonly used to treat this cancer. The findings could offer doctors a new way to choose drugs for this type of breast cancer, known as triple-negative because it lacks the three most common breast cancer markers: estrogen receptor, p...

Scientists report in Nature Medicine using human pluripotent stem cells to grow human intestinal tissues that have functioning nerves in a laboratory, and then using these to recreate and study a severe intestinal nerve disorder called Hirschsprung's disease. The findings describe an unprecedented approach to engineer and study tissues in the intestine - the body's largest immune organ, its food processor and main interface with th...