Viruses are incompetent but smart little things. Unable to make proteins on their own, they hijack ours for their own nefarious purposes. But what if we gave the viruses broken proteins? An incredibly rare genetic disorder in a brother and sister pair does exactly that, making them immune to many classes of viruses—and suggesting new possibilities for antiviral treatments.
Much like bathroom-humor at the dinner table, hemorrhoids can be a taboo subject. The truth is, everyone has them.
Somebody ring the bell at the blood factory, because it’s almost time to get those assembly lines running. Almost. A team of British scientists say they’ve created red blood cells suitable for transfusion into humans, a breakthrough that could change the lives of millions—if it works.
Cancer research is tough stuff—but it’s also surprisingly gruesome, too. This Sci Show video explains how the latest insights into curing the disease include cannibalism, zombies and suicidal cells.
It is pretty obvious that the chances of a body accepting a tissue or part from its own are greater, than a donation. There have been two cases reported where … Continue reading
If you Google Map Guéckédou, the Guinean city smack dab in the Ebola virus’s deadly domain right now, you’d see just an abstract blotch of beige and yellow. Zoom all the way in on satellite view, and you can barely make out the outlines of buildings. Don’t even think about trying Street View. Google Maps simply reflects the state of mapping in parts of Guinea. There are no good maps of Guéckédou—until the good folks of the internet help create one.
After decades of work, a team of doctors say they’ve successfully engineered vaginas that have been implanted and grown in women. The vaginas were grown in a lab from the female patients’ own cells and later transferred to their bodies, where they formed into normal vaginas. The breakthrough bears some huge implications, too.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh showed this week that they could teach an old mouse’s thymus to bounce back to a healthy, youthful state, simply by manipulating a single protein that controls gene expression. It’s the first time scientists have been able to regenerate a living organ by gene manipulation, and it could have huge implications in health science.
It might look positively adorable in this image, but don’t be fooled: this pathogen, known as Entamoeba histolytica, eats human intestines alive, cell by cell.
While the world has been squabbling about Glassholes, doctors have quietly been testing the potential of Google Glass in medicine. Features that may seem silly to use in a cafe or on the subway have real advantages in the doctor’s office. Hand-free control? Remote diagnosis? On-demand medical records? Check check check. Now researchers are testing how Glass could benefit patients with Parkinson’s.
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