Category Health/Medical

Getting COVID vaccines into the arms of the world’s population is an international priority—but will today’s jabs stay effective against virus variants that are spreading across the globe?

It is one of the big questions about the pandemic, with Pfizer chief Albert Bourla recently acknowledging that it is likely a booster will be needed to help extend the protection conferred by its vaccine and ward off new variants.

A recent study presented a mixed picture. It found that the antibody response of current vaccines could fail against variants. However, a second immune response in the form of killer T cells—which attack already infected cells and not the virus itself—remained largely intact.

Several startups are working on developing shots ...

Machine learning helps some of the best microscopes to see better, work faster, and process more data. Collaboration between deep learning experts and microscopy experts leads to an significantly improved data-intensive light-field microscopy method by using AI and ground-truthing it with light-sheet microscopy. The result is the power of light-field microscopy available to biologists in near real time vs. days or weeks, AND the expansion of biologists’ ability to use this microscopy for many things more things requiring the most detailed observation.

To observe the swift neuronal signals in a fish brain, scientists have started to use a technique calle...

Latest advance in targeted delivery of therapeutic proteins. A team of researchers at the Center for Bioactive Delivery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Institute for Applied Life Sciences has engineered a nanoparticle that has the potential to revolutionize disease treatment, including for cancer. This new research, which appears today in Angewandte Chemie, combines two different approaches to more precisely and effectively deliver treatment to the specific cells affected by cancer.

Two of the most promising new treatments involve delivery of cancer-fighting drugs via biologics or antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Each has its own advantages and limitations...

Alzheimer’s disease is caused by protein deposits in the brain and the rapid loss of brain matter. But a Mediterranean diet rich in fish, vegetables and olive oil might protect the brain from these disease triggers. In Alzheimer’s disease, neurons in the brain die. Largely responsible for the death of neurons are certain protein deposits in the brains of affected individuals: So-called beta-amyloid proteins, which form clumps (plaques) between neurons, and tau proteins, which stick together the inside of neurons. The causes of these deposits are as yet unclear. In addition, a rapidly progressive atrophy, i.e. a shrinking of the brain volume, can be observed in affected persons...