Category Health/Medical

Synthetic process of metal-organic framework nanosheet array. Figure 1 Metal salts and substrate are firstly mixed together in an aqueous solution, and then introduces the organic ligand. Next, the MOF nanosheet array grows on the surface of substrate via a dissolution-crystallization mechanism.

UNSW Sydney chemists have invented a new, cheap catalyst for splitting water with an electrical current to efficiently produce clean hydrogen fuel. The technology is based on the creation of ultrathin slices of porous metal-organic complex materials coated onto a foam electrode, which have are highly conductive of electricity and active for splitting water...

The internal components of a battery-free pacemaker introduced this week by Rice University and the Texas Heart Institute. The pacemaker can be inserted into the heart and powered by a battery pack outside the body, eliminating the need for wire leads and surgeries to occasionally replace the battery. Courtesy of Rice Integrated Systems and Circuits

Researchers test microwave-powered device. A wireless, battery-less pacemaker that can be implanted directly into a patient’s heart is being introduced by researchers from Rice University and their colleagues at the Texas Heart Institute (THI) at the IEEE’s International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in Honolulu June 4-9...

Cancer immunotherapy under the microscope: In the center of the image, three killer cells (violet, smaller) attack a cancer cell (violet, larger; leukemia cells are shown here). Credit: Schliemann et al.: Cancer Immunol Res 2015, 3: 547

The use of immunotherapy to treat cancer is celebrating its first successes but there are still many knowledge gaps in the underlying mechanisms of action. In a study of mice with soft tissue tumors, ETH researchers have now shown how endogenous killer cells track down the tumors with the help of dormant viruses. The promising drug is F8-TNF. When injected into the bloodstream, it lures killer cells towards sarcomas which destroys the tumors...

Scientists at NIH used electrical recordings to study how the human brain remembers.
Credit: Courtesy of Zaghloul lab, NIH/NINDS

In a pair of studies, scientists at the National Institutes of Health explored how the human brain remembers. One study suggests that the brain etches each memory into unique firing patterns of individual neurons. Meanwhile, the second study suggests that the brain replays memories faster than they are stored. The studies were led by Kareem Zaghloul, M.D., Ph.D., a neurosurgeon-researcher at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Persons with drug resistant epilepsy in protocols studying surgical resection of their seizure focus at the NIH’s Clinical Center enrolled in this study. To help locate the source of the seizures, Dr...