Category Health/Medical

Tiny Chips promise Swift Disease Diagnosis from a Single Breath

Out of thin air: Researchers create microchips capable of detecting and diagnosing diseases
Site-selective immobilization of different bioreceptors on individual field-effect transistors, achieved through the use of thermal scanning probe lithography. Each bioreceptor can be tuned to detect a different disease. Credit: NYU Tandon School of Engineering

In a world grappling with a multitude of health threats—ranging from fast-spreading viruses to chronic diseases and drug-resistant bacteria—the need for quick, reliable, and easy-to-use home diagnostic tests has never been greater. Imagine a future where these tests can be done anywhere, by anyone, using a device as small and portable as your smartwatch. To do that, you need microchips capable of detecting miniscule concentrations of viruses or bacteria in the air.

Now, new research shows it’s possible to develop and buil...

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Your Immune Cells are what they Eat

Two T cells whose nutritional choices have changed their identity. On the left, a blue T cell prefers acetate and is active, able to continue fighting. On the right, a red T cell prefers citrate and is exhausted, no longer able to fight effectively.
Click here for a high-resolution image.
Credit: Salk Institute

Salk scientists establish novel Link between cell nutrition and identity, say targeting nutrient-dependent activity could improve immunotherapies.

The decision between scrambled eggs or an apple for breakfast probably won’t make or break your day. However, for your cells, a decision between similar microscopic nutrients could determine their entire identity...

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Prefrontal Cortex Lesions reveal Brain’s Strategies for Delayed Gratification

brain
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

You’re standing at a bus stop, waiting for a ride that seems like it will never come. At first, you’re hopeful that it will be here any second. But as the minutes laggardly drag on, doubt creeps in. Should you keep waiting, or is it smarter to start walking or call for a ride?

“It’s a classic dilemma. “Do you persist with the belief that the bus is on its way, or do you cut your losses and move on to something else?” asks Joe Kable, a psychologist in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. The question isn’t just whether you have the patience to wait, he says. “It’s about understanding when it pays off to stick with something and when cutting your losses is the better choice.”

Kable draws parallels to two competing ideas ...

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Industry-funded Study Suggests Coffee really is the Fountain of Youth

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

CNC-Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology researchers in Portugal report that regular, moderate coffee consumption (three cups per day) not only contributes to a longer life but also enhances the quality of those additional years by reducing the risk of major age-related diseases and maintaining better overall health.

Coffee consumption’s perception has shifted from potentially harmful to potentially beneficial over the last several decades. Scientific understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which coffee’s primary components, namely caffeine and chlorogenic acids, influence fundamental biological processes and are understood to have alertness, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, though how these might be involved in aging remains unclear.

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