Category Health/Medical

Cardiomyocyte‐Specific Telomere Shortening is a Distinct Signature of Heart Failure in Humans. Journal of the American Heart Association, September 2017 DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.116.005086

Each cell in the body has 23 pairs of chromosomes, with 4 telomeres on each pair covering the end, protecting it from deterioration or fusion with adjacent chromosomes. While there is a length range for a healthy telomere, research found for the first time that people with heart failure have shorter telomeres in cardiomyocytes.

A team of researchers from Penn Medicine, in collaboration with the University of Connecticut, is the first to have developed a method for measuring the length of telomeres using human heart tissues...

Stereolithographic Printing of Ionically-Crosslinked Alginate Hydrogels for Degradable Biomaterials and Microfluidics. Lab Chip, 2017; DOI: 10.1039/C7LC00694B

Brown University engineers have demonstrated a technique for making 3D-printed biomaterials that can degrade on demand, which can be useful in making intricately patterned microfluidic devices or in making cell cultures than can change dynamically during experiments. “It’s a bit like Legos,” said Ian Wong, an assistant professor in Brown’s School of Engineering and co-author of the research. “We can attach polymers together to build 3D structures, and then gently detach them again under biocompatible conditions.”

They made their new degradable structures using a type of 3D printing called stereolithography...

The MasSpec Pen rapidly and accurately detects cancer in humans during surgery, helping improve treatment and reduce the chances of cancer recurrence. Credit: University of Texas at Austin

A team at The University of Texas at Austin has invented a powerful tool that rapidly and accurately identifies cancerous tissue during surgery, delivering results in about 10 seconds more than 150 times as fast as existing technology. The MasSpec Pen is an innovative handheld instrument that gives surgeons precise diagnostic information about what tissue to cut or preserve, helping improve treatment and reduce the chances of cancer recurrence.

“If you talk to cancer patients after surgery, one of the first things many will say is ‘I hope the surgeon got all the cancer out,’ ” says Livia Schiavinato Eber...

Active protection via vaccination is mediated by neutralizing antibodies at the cervix HPV Cervical canal Neutralizing antibodies Blood vessel Epithelial tear Basement membrane Cervical epithelium Stanley M. Vaccine 2006; 24:S16–S22; Giannini S, et al. Vaccine 2006; 24:5937–5949; Nardelli-Haefliger D, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst 2003; 95:1128–1137; Poncelet S, et al. IPvC 2007; Abstract.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with almost 300,000 deaths occurring each year. More than 80% of these deaths occur in developing nations. The advent of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines has significantly reduced the number of those who develop and die from cervical cancer...