Category Health/Medical

Brain scans are from glioblastoma trial from manuscript. Credit: Clinical Cancer Research/American Association for Cancer Research

Dendritic cell vaccine supports further study in larger trials. A phase 1 study of 11 patients with glioblastoma who received injections of an investigational vaccine therapy and an approved chemotherapy showed the combination to be well tolerated while also resulting in unexpectedly significant survival increases, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute report. Patients treated with the study drug (dose-intensified temozolomide and vaccines) were continuously monitored for toxicity and adverse events. Study patients experienced known side effects with temozolomide, including nausea, lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia and fatigue.

There were no treatment limiting a...

PNPLA1 is involved in acylceramide synthesis.

The gene responsible for generating acylceramide, the key lipid in forming the skin barrier that protects us from pathogens, allergens and other harmful substances. This finding could prove crucial in developing medicines for treating atopic dermatitis and ichthyosis. Defects of the skin barrier can trigger skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis, which afflicts ~10% of the population in some developed countries. Acylceramide, a lipid only found in skin, plays a pivotal role in forming this barrier. Although most of the genes needed to generate this special lipid have been recently identified, the gene responsible in the final step to produce acylceramide has been missing...

Amorphous silicon core inside a 1.7-micron inner-diameter glass capillary Image: Penn State

A new method to improve semiconductor fiber optics may lead to a material structure that might one day revolutionize the global transmission of data, according to an interdisciplinary team. Researchers are working with semiconductor optical fibers, which hold significant advantages over silica-based fiber optics, the current technology used for transmitting nearly all digital data. Silica – glass – fibers can only transmit electronic data converted to light data. This requires external electronic devices that are expensive and consume enormous amounts of electricity...

A team of biomedical engineering researchers has created a revolutionary 3D-bioprinted patch that can help heal scarred heart tissue after a heart attack. Two of the researchers involved are biomedical engineering Associate Professor Brenda Ogle (right) and Ph.D. student Molly Kupfer (left). Credit: Patrick O’Leary, University of Minnesota

A team of biomedical engineering researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, has created a revolutionary 3D-bioprinted patch that can help heal scarred heart tissue after a heart attack. The discovery is a major step forward in treating patients with tissue damage after a heart attack. The research study is published in Circulation Research, a journal published by the American Heart Association. Researchers have filed a patent on the discovery.

Ac...