Category Health/Medical

Doctoral students Alan Chiu, left, and Duo An hold a sample of TRAFFIC (Thread-Reinforced Alginate Fiber for Islets enCapsulation). In the background, left to right, are Minglin Ma, Dan Luo, Meredith Silberstein and Dr. James Flanders. Credit: Lindsay France/University Photography

For the more than 1 million Americans who live with type 1 diabetes, daily insulin injections are literally a matter of life and death. And while there is no cure, a Cornell University-led research team has developed a device that could revolutionize management of the disease. In Type 1 diabetes, insulin-producing pancreatic cell clusters (islets) are destroyed by the body’s immune system...

The Human Connectome

A new and relatively simple technique for mapping the wiring of the brain has shown a correlation between how well connected an individual’s brain regions are and their intelligence, say researchers at the University of Cambridge. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort among scientists to map the connections in the brain – connectome’ – and to understand how this relates to human behaviours, such as intelligence and mental health disorders.

Now, in research published in the journal Neuron, an international team led by scientists at the University of Cambridge and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, has shown that it is possible to build up a map of the connectome by analysing conventional brain scans taken using an MRI scanner...

Prof Chen Peng (left) holding the new microneedle fat burning patch with Asst Prof Xu Chenjie. Credit: NTU Singapore

A new approach to reducing bulging tummy fats has shown promise in laboratory trials. It combines a new way to deliver drugs, via a micro-needle patch, with drugs that are known to turn energy-storing white fat into energy-burning brown fat. This innovative approach developed by scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) reduced weight gain in mice on a high fat diet and their fat mass by more than 30% over four weeks.

The new type of skin patch contains hundreds of micro-needles, each thinner than a human hair, which are loaded with the drug Beta-3 adrenergic receptor agonist or another drug called thyroid hormone T3 triiodothyronine...

TA-treatment enhanced neurogenesis and increased numbers of DCX positive cell numbers in the dentate gyrus of APP/PS1 mice. A: control group; B: APP/PS1 group; C: APP/PS1+TA group. Scale bar in image A: 100 μm. *** = P < .001 compared with the control group; ### = P < .001 compared with the APP/PS1 group. One-way ANOVA with Bonferroni repeated measures post hoc tests. N = 6 per group.

A drug developed for diabetes could be used to treat Alzheimer’s after scientists found it “significantly reversed memory loss” in mice through a triple action. The research, published in Brain Research, could bring substantial improvements in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease through the use of a drug originally created to treat type 2 diabetes...