medicine stories

Why the next pill you swallow may be housed by silk

Friday, July 13, 2012 - 8:54am

Who would have guessed that something as fine as silk could be so sturdy? That's what a team of scientists are learning as they've proven that silk, reduced down to a thin film wrapped around antibiotics and vaccines can help extend their shelf life. It's a development that could be critical to bringing key medicines to the Third World.

Like a pinball machine, chip sorts cells via microscopic ramps

Eileen Marable

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - 8:19am

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have designed a lab-on-a-chip that moves blood through a tiny device, using ramps to gradually sift cells according to weight and size. It functions like a tiny pinball machine: targeted items are isolated by the ramps they can't navigate, and are funneled to the side like little gutter balls.

New dental fillings keep teeth healthy (still not painless)

Eileen Marable

Monday, May 7, 2012 - 8:54am

Dental visits are filled with that uneasy feeling until you hear whether you have a cavity. If you do have a cavity, that uneasy feeling is turned to dread. Would it make you feel better to learn that a new filling procedure could work to kill bacteria and even help regrowth in vulnerable area of the tooth?

Brain stem cell discovery could change treatment of brain injury

Travis Andrews

Saturday, April 21, 2012 - 12:52pm

Researchers have discovered a new brain stem cell, which could have great implications for the future of medicine. The stem cells can form various types of cells, including new brain cells, which could possibly be the key to healing many brain injuries.

Full-face transplant most extensive to date; man regains sense of smell

Eileen Marable

Thursday, March 29, 2012 - 7:00am

Last week surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center performed the most extensive face transplant ever completed. 37-year-old Richard Lee Norris received donor skin from his scalp to his neck as well as a new nose, tongue, jaw bones and teeth.

MRIs show optical issues in astronauts; is long-term travel at risk?

Eileen Marable

Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - 6:45am

Studies recently concluded on astronauts who have flown long-term missions that could point to serious problems with prolonged exposure to microgravity. This adds to the list of physical concerns NASA is addressing when considering long-term space travel.

Origami-inspired paper sensors could cheaply detect disease

Eileen Marable

Friday, March 9, 2012 - 11:13am

Origami paper folding has long been a traditional art form, but now researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have been inspired to use paper folding as a way to test for diseases. The idea expands on existing paper sensor tests, but the folding allows it to detect more complex substances and diseases.

Experimental drug turns fat monkeys thin, could work on humans

Evan Ackerman

Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - 1:59pm

Weight-loss drugs generally work in one of two ways: they suppress your appetite so that you eat less, or they attempt to reduce the amount of fat that your body absorbs. Neither of these methods deal with the fat that you already have, but a new drug that targets those cells has shown some promising results in primate trials.

We're getting close to drive-through gene sequencing

Evan Ackerman

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - 1:37pm

The first human genome cost $3 billion to sequence back in 2003. By 2009, the cost to sequence someone's genome had dropped to more like $50,000. Next year, the target is a mere $1,000, and it'll only take two hours to completely identify all six billion of the base pairs in your DNA to tell you what you're likely to die from first.

Stem cells successfully treat genetic disease for the first time

Evan Ackerman

Friday, October 14, 2011 - 7:28am

We're not even at the point where we're allowed to get all up in people's stem cells to help cure diseases, but researchers are already thinking ahead to how we can use stem cells to treat genetic diseases, which should be impossible. Or, it was impossible, until we just did it.

DVICE

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medicine stories

Why the next pill you swallow may be housed by silk

Like a pinball machine, chip sorts cells via microscopic ramps

New dental fillings keep teeth healthy (still not painless)

Brain stem cell discovery could change treatment of brain injury

Full-face transplant most extensive to date; man regains sense of smell

MRIs show optical issues in astronauts; is long-term travel at risk?

Origami-inspired paper sensors could cheaply detect disease

Experimental drug turns fat monkeys thin, could work on humans

We're getting close to drive-through gene sequencing

Stem cells successfully treat genetic disease for the first time

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