Category Health/Medical

Imagine a day when a bioprinter filled with a patient’s own cells can be wheeled right to the bedside to treat large wounds or burns by printing skin, layer by layer, to begin the healing process. That day is not far off. Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) scientists have created such a mobile skin bioprinting system – the first of its kind – that allows bi-layered skin to be printed directly into a wound.

“The unique aspect of this technology is the mobility of the system and the ability to provide on-site management of extensive wounds by scanning and measuring them in order to deposit the cells directly where they are needed to create skin,” said Sean Murphy, Ph.D...

The tips of our chromosomes have telomeres. They work as a protective cap that prevents our genetic material from unfolding and corroding away. When they do not work properly, telomeres can lead to the total erosion of our genetic material and can trigger cancer and age-related diseases. In a study now published in EMBO Journal, a research team from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC; Portugal), led by Jose Escandell and Miguel Godinho Ferreira, discovered a key aspect of the regulation of telomeres.

There is an increasing number of human syndromes attributed to telomeres malfunction...

Researchers in the Syracuse University College of Engineering and Computer Science have developed a material – a new kind of shape memory polymer (SMP) – that could have major implications for health care.

SMPs are soft, rubbery, “smart” materials that can change shape in response to external stimuli like temperature changes or exposure to light. They can hold each shape indefinitely and turn back when triggered to do so.

SMPs have many potential biomedical applications...

Scientists at the University of British Columbia have discovered a new protein “switch” that could stop the progression of blood-poisoning, or sepsis, and increase the chances of surviving the life-threatening disease.

Sepsis, an inflammatory disease that arises when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs, causes an estimated 14 million deaths every year. In a study published recently in Immunity, researchers examined the role of a protein called ABCF1 in regulating the progression of sepsis.

“Sepsis triggers an uncontrolled chain-reaction of inflammation in the body, leading to tissue damage, organ failure, and death,” said Hitesh Arora, co-lead author of the study who conducted this research as a PhD student at the Michael Smith...