Tag Archives: medicine

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Powerful new diagnostic method for identifying disease organisms

Still from magnetophoresis animation Paging Dr. McCoy: a technique that uses a magnetic field to selectively separate tiny magnetic particles, developed at Purdue and Duke universities, could be used to diagnose the presence of many diseases in a single sample within minutes, with a sensitivity up to a million times higher than current methods. (Via Science Daily.)

View an animation of the process, called non-linear magnetophoretic separation, here. (The image above is a still from this animation.)

(Image: Purdue University via Science Daily.)

[tags]medicine, technology, disease[/tags]

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Scientists envision growing human eyeballs

Three-eyed Tadpole 

Researchers at the University of Warwick have stumbled on a genetic switch in tadpoles that causes them to grow three eyes–and could conceivably help scientists to someday grow replacement human eyeballs, or at least specific bits of eye tissue, from stem cells. As neuroscientist Nicholas Dale, co-leader of the study, puts it, "If you knew all the genes, and how to turn them on, that you needed to make an eye, you could start with very early embryonic cells and turn on all the right genes and grow an eye in a dish." (Via LiveScience.)

Now there’s an appropriate mental image for the Hallowe’en season… (Image: Masse, K., Bhamra, S., Eason, R., Dale, N. and Jones, E./Nature.)

[tags]stem cells, medicine, biology[/tags]

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HIV ‘cured’?

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HIVparticles A new type of "combination therapy" is being hailed by researchers as being an effective cure for the HIV virus. I’m sure I’ve read similar headlines before, but given recent advances in biotechnology, I’ve a little more hope of this being the real deal. However, although I’m no biologist, I’m not entirely sure "cure" is the right word – the article mentions that the therapy "prevents HIV from mutating and spreading", which doesn’t sound quite the same as actually eradicating it from the host body. Still, it’s satisfying to think that perhaps the most frightening disease of the Twentieth Century may soon be little more than a bad memory. [Via OurTechnologicalFuture] [Image from ScienceDaily article, credited to CDC/Dr. A. Harrison; Dr. P. Feorino]

[tags]HIV, medicine, biotech, therapy[/tags]
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Fleshjet? Bio-printing making progress

Printed cell scaffold Bioprinting – the re-purposing of inkjet technology for constructing biological tissues – is something we’ve remarked on before here at Futurismic. But it seems deserving of another mention, as a new method called "pressure assisted spinning" promises to handle the living cells more gently by using air pressure instead of mechanical force, enabling the construction of tissue scaffolds ready to act as a medium for growing new bones and organs – or for use as bandages. [Image by Suwan Jayasinghe; copied from NewScientist article]

[tags]biology, medicine, bioprinting, technology[/tags]
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PRSCRPTN 4U kthxbai – consulting your doctor by SMS

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Tattooed guy using a cellphone I think the most surprising thing about this is that it’s taken so long for someone to do it. Brooklyn medical practitioner Dr. Jay Parkinson offers a unique service to his young hipster-freelance clientele – for a yearly fee, they can get two home visits and unlimited consultations by text message or email. Not only does this make it far easier for his patients to get the advice they need at the time they really need it, it keeps Dr. Parkinson’s practice overheads nice and low, and leaves him time to indulge in his own creative pursuits as a photographer. The first practice in my town to offer this service will be getting my subscription fee in cash, with a smile. [Image by ElvertBarnes]

[tags]health, medicine, doctor, consultation, technology, business[/tags]