New Atlas

Medical Audio available

Alzheimer’s blood test breakthrough identifies disease a decade before symptoms appear 

Rich Haridy January 21, 2019

A compelling new study from an international team of researchers has described a novel protein that could be a useful blood-based biomarker to monitor the progression of Alzheimer's disease over a decade before any clinical symptoms appear.

In a sample of subjects with familial history of Alzheimer's disease, a new blood test could ...

Health & Wellbeing

Enzyme to help smokers quit by eliminating nicotine in the blood before it reaches the brain

Rich Haridy October 17, 2018

New research has revealed a promising new candidate to help smokers kick their damaging addiction. An enzyme has been engineered that can gobble up nicotine in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain, with the compound proving to be incredibly successful in early animal tests.

A new treatment for smoking cessation is ready to move into the first stages of human ...

Medical

How magnetized wire can detect cancer cells in your blood

Rich Haridy July 16, 2018

A fascinating cancer detection technique has been developed by scientists at Stanford University. The process involves a small magnetic wire being inserted into a vein where it attracts free-floating tumor cells in the blood.

A magnetic wire attracts free-floating tumor cells that have been magnetized by specially engineered nanoparticles

Medical

Cancer-killing nanoparticles sneak through defenses camouflaged in tumor cells

Michael Irving June 19, 2018

A new therapy designed at Penn State has turned one of cancer's tactics against it. The team camouflaged a cancer-killing drug using cells from the tumor itself, allowing them to sneak medicine past the tumor’s defenses like a nanoscale Trojan horse and deliver a killing blow from the inside.

Researchers at Penn State have camouflaged drug-delivering nanoparticles by wrapping them inside cancer cells

Health & Wellbeing

Antioxidant found to wind back the clock on blood vessel function by up to 20 years

Nick Lavars April 23, 2018

A new breakthrough at the University of Colorado is the latest advance in the burgeoning realm of anti-aging science, demonstrating how a chemically altered nutritional supplement may well reverse aging of the blood vessels, in turn giving cardiovascular health a vital boost.

Researchers have found that a commercially available supplement can improve dilation of a subjects’ arteries by ...

Medical

Magnetic nanoparticles designed to stop internal bleeding

Ben Coxworth March 5, 2018

Major internal bleeding is a very serious condition that requires immediate attention, and it's difficult to treat non-surgically. Scientists from Russia's ITMO University are working on an effective means of doing so, however, in the form of injectable magnetic nanoparticles.

A diagram of the model blood stream used to test the nanoparticles

Biology

Nanogenerators could turn our veins into blood flow power plants

Rich Haridy September 10, 2017

Using principles similar to those deployed in large hydroelectric power plants, a team of Chinese researchers has developed a tiny nanogenerator that can potentially sit inside a vein and generate electricity from blood rushing through it.

A new nanogenerator could potentially harvest electricity from the rushing of our blood through our veins

Biology

Clot-busting skin patch keeps the blood flowing with microneedles

Michael Franco November 28, 2016

According to the CDC, every year 60,000-100,000 people die in the US alone from blood clots formed from conditions known as deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolisms. Now, a new patch developed by researchers in North Carolina could help battle these life-threateners in a novel way.

An illustration showing how the microneedles dissolve in the presence of thrombin to release their clot-busting ...

Robotics

World’s first ciliary microrobots could change the way we take medicine

Lynda Delacey September 16, 2016

Science fiction is fast becoming reality, with scientists in South Korea developing an astonishingly fast-moving remote-controlled microrobot designed to travel through the human bloodstream to deliver treatment directly to the organs that need it.

The new type of highly maneuverable microrobot uses a propulsion system inspired by the ciliated organism, ...

Health & Wellbeing

Temporary tattoo could let diabetics monitor glucose levels without jabbing themselves

Ben Coxworth January 16, 2015

Finger-prick blood tests are currently an unpleasant necessity for diabetics. Perhaps before too long, however, the blood glucose information gathered in those tests could be attained using something much more fun and painless than a lancet – a temporary tattoo.

The tattoo measures glucose levels in fluid between the skin cells, which reflects levels in the ...