Category Health/Medical

Cracking Epigenetic Inheritance: Biologists discovered the Secrets of How Gene Traits are passed on

 The evicted histone hexamer and its chaperons from the replisome structure. (A-B) The architecture of the parental histone hexamer. (C-D) The histone-chaperone complex on the replisome. (E-F) The structure of an intact nucleosome. Modified from Li et al, Nature (2004)

A research team led by Professor Yuanliang ZHAI at the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong (HKU) collaborating with Professor Ning GAO and Professor Qing LI from Peking University (PKU), as well as Professor Bik-Kwoon TYE from Cornell University, has recently made a significant breakthrough in understanding how the DNA copying machine helps pass on epigenetic information to maintain gene traits at each cell division...

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Nanosurgical Tool could be Key to Cancer Breakthrough

A groundbreaking nanosurgical tool — about 500 times thinner than a human hair — could be transformative for cancer research and give insights into treatment resistance that no other technology has been able to do, according to a new study.

The high-tech double-barrel nanopipette, developed by University of Leeds scientists, and applied to the global medical challenge of cancer, has — for the first time — enabled researchers to see how individual living cancer cells react to treatment and change over time — providing vital understanding that could help doctors develop more effective cancer medication.

The tool has two nanoscopic needles, meaning it can simultaneously inject and extract a sample from the same cell, expanding its potential uses...

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‘Like a Lab in your Pocket’ — new test strips raise game in gene-based diagnostics

The new testing strips will make rapid antigen testing as powerful as PCR testing.
Photo: Getty Images

Biosensing technology developed by engineers has made it possible to create gene test strips that rival conventional lab-based tests in quality. When the pandemic started, people who felt unwell had to join long queues for lab-based PCR tests and then wait for two days to learn if they had the COVID-19 virus or not.

In addition to significant inconvenience, a major drawback was the substantial and expensive logistics needed for such laboratory tests, while testing delays increased the risk of disease spread.

Now a team of bio]medical engineers at UNSW Sydney have developed a new technology offering test strips which are just as accurate as the lab-based detection...

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World-first Trial of Regenerative Hearing Drug is Successfully Completed

World-first trial of regenerative hearing drug is successfully completed
Mean pure-tone air-conduction thresholds in the treated ear of all patients that completed 12 weeks follow-up (N = 42). Presented timepoints are baseline (black), 6 (blue) and 12 (red) weeks, error bars indicate standard deviations. Pure-tone thresholds are displayed in decibel hearing level (dB HL), frequency in kilohertz (kHz). Credit: Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45784-0

Researchers at UCL and UCLH have successfully completed the first trial of a therapy designed to restore hearing loss. The REGAIN trial, the results of which were published in Nature Communications, was the first study of a treatment aimed at restoring lost hearing, focusing on a drug with the technical name gamma-secretase inhibitor LY3056480.

The researchers found that while the t...

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