Medical

A team of researchers has made a surprising new discovery, finding a pair of previously unknown salivary glands. Nestled deep in the back of the nasopharynx, the discovery may help prevent damaging side effects from head and neck cancer radiotherapy.

Fat is best known for being an energy storage system, but it may also play a previously-unknown role in defense against infection. Scientists from the Universities of Queensland and Barcelona have found that cells can use fats to fight off bacteria.

Researchers in India have taken an impressive step forward with efforts to tackle cancer using magnetic nanoparticles, working the technology into a bandage that proved capable of killing skin cancer cells in experiments on mice.

When a patient has a hole in their cranium, it has to be filled either with bone harvested from another part of their body, or with a piece of steel or plastic. There may soon be an alternative, though, that stimulates the growth of natural bone.

Researchers have developed a new tool that could help form more effective brain cancer treatments, with an ability to classify the deadliest cells to help gauge how aggressive a patient’s disease might be.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are poised to become a huge health problem, and we desperately need new treatments. Now, researchers have engineered new antimicrobial molecules from wasp venom, which have shown promise in tests in mice.

Dopamine and serotonin are brain chemicals implicated in a range of neurological disorders including Parkinson’s and depression. A new tool is offering an unprecedented look at these neurotransmitters in action.

Tinnitus is an aggravating disorder, causing sufferers to constantly hear a ringing in their ears. A new system could help, though, by simultaneously zapping their tongue and delivering sounds to their ears.

A research group at the University of Iowa has built what is described as a "remote control" for diabetes management that uses electromagnetic fields (EMFs) to reduce blood sugar levels and improve the body’s response to insulin.

The pursuit of early-stage cancer screening methods that are both low-cost and non-invasive is a common goal among medical researchers, and a team in Australia is claiming a significant advance in this area.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2020 has been awarded to a trio of scientists for their pioneering work concerning hepatitis C, first identifying the novel virus and then enabling testing methods and drugs that saved millions of lives.

One of the ways physicians can gain some forewarning of impending heart failure is through the detection of excess fluid in the lungs, and MIT researchers have developed a new machine learning tool that could offer them a helping hand.