Medical science has come a long way from tribal shaman dispensing herbs and roots. Having already cured many diseases and conditions that were once a death sentence, medical researchers continue to strive to help us live longer and healthier lives. Great advances are being made in regrowing damaged organs, turning back our biological clocks, and the big one – finding a cure for cancer.
Last year the FDA approved the first artificial pancreas for general use, designed to automatically monitor and inject insulin in patients with type 1 diabetes. Now a team at Harvard has developed an even more sophisticated system than connects to a patient’s smartphone and learns their habits.
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A team of researchers has discovered that the norovirus bug can escape destruction by hiding in a rare type of cell found in the gut. Norovirus is the leading cause of non-bacterial gastroenteritis, which causes 267 million infections, and 200,000 deaths worldwide each year.
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Getting a flu shot is an unpleasant annual routine, thanks to the virus constantly evolving. Now researchers from Cornell University have developed a new vaccine that acts faster, lasts longer and fights multiple strains, potentially cutting back the jab from once a year to once a decade.
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Mini lab-grown organs are helpful test subjects for new drugs, but they don’t replicate how drugs affect other parts of the body. Now, researchers at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have combined several of these organ models into one system, to create a detailed “body-on-a-chip."
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Imagine if a bandage could release fresh doses of medication over time, or even different types of medication at specific times. Well, researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Harvard Medical School and MIT have developed just such a thing … and it could be controlled by a smartphone.
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Advanced surgical glues that seal wounds faster could mean big things when it comes to medical care. A new material is showing particular promise in this regard, with the ability to be squirted directly into a wound, seal it in 60 seconds and dissolve thereafter.
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Bacteria are evolving resistance to antibiotics at an alarming rate. One of the main issues is overprescription of antibiotics, and now a new test developed by scientists at Caltech could help doctors quickly prescribe the best type of antibiotic to fight a particular infection.
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The flu virus is a crafty foe, constantly adapting to our best weapons. But now a universal flu vaccine has been cleared for widespread human trials in the UK, which should be much more effective at destroying different forms of the virus.
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Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new way to manufacture medication. The technique could eventually allow hospitals, pharmacies and doctor’s offices to print drugs on demand, mixing different medications into one easy-to-administer dose.
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Scientists have struggled to develop a single substance that can both speed up wound healing and reduce the formation of scars. Scar reduction medications tend to interfere with the process of healing but now a team has created a patch that can reduce scarring and improve the pace of wound healing.
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