Category Health/Medical

A new kind of wearable health device would deliver real-time medical data to those with eye or mouth diseases, according to Huanyu ‘Larry’ Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Professor in the Penn State Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM).

Cheng recently published a paper in Microsystems & Nanoengineering on new micro- and nano-device technology that could revolutionize how certain health conditions are monitored and treated.

“We sought to create a device that collects both small and large substances of biofluid...

Good news: The bacteria living on your toothbrush reflect your mouth – not your toilet. To obtain toothbrushes for the study, Hartmann’s team launched the Toothbrush Microbiome Project, which asked people to mail in their used toothbrushes along with corresponding metadata. Hartmann’s team then extracted DNA from the bristles to examine the microbial communities found there. They compared these communities to those outlined by the Human Microbiome Project, an NIH initiative that identified and catalogued microbial flora from different areas of the human body.

“Many people contributed samples to the Human Microbiome Project, so we have a general idea of what the human microbiome looks like,” Blaustein said...

Scientists discovered that AIM2 is important for the proper function of regulatory T cells, or Treg cells, and plays a key role in mitigating autoimmune disease. Treg cells are a seminal population of adaptive immune cells that prevents an overzealous immune response, such as those that occurs in autoimmune diseases.

Many molecules in our bodies help our immune system keep us healthy without overreacting so much that our immune cells cause problems, such as autoimmune diseases. One molecule, called AIM2, is part of our innate immunity — a defense system established since birth — to fight pathogens and keep us healthy...

Certain anchor proteins inhibit a key metabolic driver that plays an important role in cancer and developmental brain disorders. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the University of Innsbruck, together with a Europe-wide research network, discovered this molecular mechanism, which could open up new opportunities for personalized therapies for cancer and neuronal diseases. They published their results in the journal Cell.

The signaling protein MTOR (Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin) is a sensor for nutrients such as amino acids and sugars. When sufficient nutrients are available, MTOR boosts metabolism and ensures that sufficient energy and cellular building blocks are available...