NIH scientists used multiphoton imaging of live human arteries and other research tools to gain a new and unexpected understanding of how hemoglobin helps regulate blood vessel dilation. The research may lead to new ways to treat malaria and other vascular diseases. Learn more about these studies.
A look inside human arteries reveals a new picture of hemoglobin’s role there and may lead to treatments for malaria and other vascular diseases.
This innovative sterilizer is ideal for remote areas, promoting sanitation and eco-friendly farming.
Seoul, South Korea, December 9: A South Korean company, Palsoo, has unveiled a portable sterilization system that utilizes regular tap water to eliminate 99.8% of airborne bacteria and viruses effectively.
This technology, which combines plasma activation with solar charging, offers a sustainable solution for sanitation in areas lacking electricity or facing harsh conditions.
During the CES 2025 Global Media Meet-up event at the AVING News MIK Basecamp in Seoul on December 9, the company’s CEO, Jang Palsoo, explained how the system works.
New research suggests Alzheimer’s drugs may improve cognition by increasing Aβ42 levels rather than just reducing plaques, challenging the amyloid cascade hypothesis and pointing to new therapeutic strategies focused on restoring soluble Aβ42 to maintain brain health.
In 2021, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, reported an astonishing new form of symbiosis: They found a unique bacterium that lives inside a ciliate—a unicellular eukaryote—and provides it with energy. The symbiont’s role is thus strongly reminiscent of mitochondria, with the key difference that the endosymbiont derives energy from the respiration of nitrate, not oxygen.
Now the researchers from Bremen set out to learn more about the environmental distribution and diversity of these peculiar symbionts. “After our initial discovery of this symbiont in a freshwater lake, we wondered how common these organisms are in nature,” says Jana Milucka from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. “Are they extremely rare and therefore eluded detection so long? Or do they exist elsewhere and if so, what are their metabolic capacities?”
Summary: Human number cognition may be rooted in the putamen, a deep brain structure traditionally associated with movement rather than abstract thought. Neurosurgery patients demonstrated activity in this area while processing numbers as symbols, words, and concepts, suggesting that numerical understanding emerged early in evolution.
Researchers also observed activity in expected areas like the parietal lobe, highlighting how different brain regions collaborate in number processing. These findings could improve surgical outcomes by protecting areas crucial for number cognition and open pathways to enhancing math learning through targeted interventions.
All DNA is prone to fragmentation, whether it is derived from a biological matrix or created during gene synthesis; thus, any DNA sample will contain a range of fragment sizes. To really exploit the true benefits of long read sequencing, it is necessary to remove these shorter fragments, which might other wise be sequenced preferentially.
DNA size selection can exclude short fragments, maximizing data yields by ensuring that those fragments with the most informational content are not blocked from accessing detection centers (for example, ZMWs) by shorter DNA fragments.
Next-generation size-selection solutions Starting with clean, appropriate-length fragments for HiFi reads can accelerate research by reducing the computation and data processing time needed post-sequencing. Ranger Technology from Yourgene Health is a patent-protected process for automating electrophoresis-based DNA analysis and size selection. Its fluorescence machine vision system and image analysis algorithms provide real-time interpretation of the DNA separation process.
Users of the healthcare app Alan whose queries were answered by a medical AI reported high satisfaction levels, but one exchange included “potentially dangerous inaccuracies”
In August, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval of Tecelra (afamitresgene autoleucel)— the first T-cell receptor therapy for solid tumors—for people with inoperable or metastatic synovial sarcoma. Tecelra is a gene therapy created from a patient’s own T cells. A sample of cells is removed and genetically modified to express a natural T-cell receptor that targets MAGE-A4, an antigen expressed on cancer cells. In the Phase II SPEARHEAD-1 trial, the overall response rate was 43%, and 39% of responders were still doing well a year later.
Summary: Research reveals that people with high blood pressure who also sleep less than six hours per night face increased risks of brain injury, accelerated brain aging, and impaired executive function. The study assessed 682 participants from the Framingham Heart Study, analyzing sleep patterns, blood pressure, cognitive performance, and brain MRIs.
These risks were not present in individuals with normal blood pressure, highlighting a concerning interaction between sleep deprivation and hypertension. Researchers suggest treating sleep problems and hypertension as potential interventions to protect brain health and delay cognitive decline.
Posted in biotech/medical | Leave a Comment on Efficient Liposome Loading onto Surface of Mesenchymal Stem Cells via Electrostatic Interactions for Tumor-Targeted Drug Delivery
📝 — Kono, et al.
In this paper, the authors attempted to load liposomes on the surface of MSCs by using the magnetic anionic liposome/atelocollagen complexes that we previously developed and assessed the characters of liposome-loaded MSCs as drug carriers.
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Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have a tumor-homing capacity; therefore, MSCs are a promising drug delivery carrier for cancer therapy. To maintain the viability and activity of MSCs, anti-cancer drugs are preferably loaded on the surface of MSCs, rather than directly introduced into MSCs. In this study, we attempted to load liposomes on the surface of MSCs by using the magnetic anionic liposome/atelocollagen complexes that we previously developed and assessed the characters of liposome-loaded MSCs as drug carriers. We observed that large-sized magnetic anionic liposome/atelocollagen complexes were abundantly associated with MSCs via electrostatic interactions under a magnetic field, and its cellular internalization was lower than that of the small-sized complexes.