Category Health/Medical

A new pencil-like wireless spectrometer can be used with a smartphone to collect 3-D spectral images of the body and other objects. This design could make the device useful for point-of-care diagnostics. Credit: Dan Wang, Beijing University of Chemical Technology

Easy-to-use spectrometer less than $300, holds promise for remote medical diagnostics. A new smartphone-compatible device that is held like a pencil could make it practical to acquire spectral images of everyday objects and may eventually be used for point-of-care medical diagnosis in remote locations. Spectral images, which contain more color information than is obtainable with a typical camera, reveal characteristics of tissue and other biological samples that can’t be seen by the naked eye...

This image shows the selective response of a subplate neuron to sounds of different frequencies (horizontal axis) and volume levels (vertical axis). Warmer colors indicate a stronger response. Subplate neurons are among the first neurons to form in the cerebral cortex and were previously thought to serve a primarily structural role in brain development. A new study suggests that these neurons do, in fact, transmit sensory information. This cell only responded to higher frequencies, especially at low volume levels; increased volume expanded the cell’s frequency range of response. Prior to this study, the ability of the cortex to selectively respond to certain sounds was thought to emerge later in brain development. Credit: Patrick Kanold

Brain cells that support early structural development...

Chloroquine is used to overcome the liver, a major problem in nanomedicine. Credit: Houston Methodist

A new study shows that a 70-year-old malaria drug can block immune cells in the liver so nanoparticles can arrive at their intended tumor site, overcoming a significant hurdle of targeted drug delivery, according to a team of researchers led by Houston Methodist. Many cancer patients do not respond to chemotherapies because the drugs never reach the cancer cells. Even in nanomedicine, which is one of the best new methods for delivering drugs to a tumor, only about 1% of a dose of nanoparticles will successfully arrive at the intended tumor site, while the rest are filtered out by the immune cells of the liver and spleen.

Using chloroquine, the researchers not only increased the circulation...

This is a Leopard gecko. Credit: Vickaryous Lab

Discovery of which cells are behind the gecko’s ability to re-grow its tail has implications for spinal cord treatment in humans. A U of G researcher is the first to discover the type of stem cell that is behind the gecko’s ability to re-grow its tail, a finding that has implications for spinal cord treatment in humans. Many lizards can detach a portion of their tail to avoid a predator and then regenerate a new one. Unlike mammals, the lizard tail includes a spinal cord.

Prof. Matthew Vickaryous found that the spinal cord of the tail contained a large number of stem cells and proteins known to support stem cell growth...