Category Health/Medical

The new active ingredient consists of DARPins (red and orange) bend the HER2 receptors (blue) so no more growth signal is transmitted into the cell interior (below the cell membrane in yellow). Credit: © UZH

An active substance that kills the cancer cells very effectively without harming healthy cells has now been developed. In Switzerland alone, >5,700 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and almost 1,400 of those affected die of the disease. In many very invasive forms of breast cancer, the cells have too much of the receptor HER2 on their surface. This leads to uncontrolled growth of the cells. Various antibodies such as trastuzumab and pertuzumab, which recognize the HER2 receptor, have been used in breast cancer therapy for many years now...

After living more than a year with a wearable total artificial heart device, Stan Larkin, 25, returned to the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center for a heart transplant. Credit: University of Michigan Health System

Over a year after leaving hospital without a human heart, Stan Larkin, 25, trades his wearable total artificial heart for a real one. The first patient in Michigan ever discharged with a SynCardia temporary total artificial heart in 2014, Larkin was back at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center in May for a heart transplant. The surgery performed by Jonathan Haft, M.D., was a unique national triumph in efforts to replace the failing heart as heart disease grows and donor hearts remain scarce.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster,” Larkin, 25, sa...

Dentin’s biological structure: tubules and mineral nanoparticles are embedded in a network of collagen fibers. Credit: Jean-Baptiste Forien, © Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Why it is superior to any synthetic filling material at making teeth last. Dentin is one of the most durable biological materials in the human body. Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin were able to show the reason for this can be traced to its nanostructures and specifically to the interactions between the organic and inorganic components...

Nuclear and cytoplasmic PTEN signaling. PTEN localizes to both the cytoplasm and the nucleus and shuttles between each by a variety of mechanisms. PTEN function is, at least in part, determined by its subcellular localization.

Pten (short for phosphatase and tensin homolog) is a tumor suppressor that is defective in about 20-25% of all patients with cancers. Mayo Clinic researchers now have discovered that Pten safeguards against tumor formation by keeping chromosome numbers intact when a cell splits into 2 daughter cells. In this study, the last 3 amino acids of the Pten protein, which are often missing in human cancers, were found to be critical for forming an intact mitotic spindle, a structure required for accurate chromosome segregation.

Pten is the most prominent human tumor suppress...