Category Health/Medical

Schematic representation of the structural organization of active human retroelements and their transcripts. Alu, SVA and LINE-1 belong to the non-LTR group of currently active human retroelements. Each panel shows the schematic of the element with the expected transcript (represented as a line and labeled RNA) shown below it.

Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) have uncovered a potential genetic trigger of systemic autoimmune disease. The study, the culmination of more than 10 years of research discovered virus-like elements within the human genome linked to the development of 2 autoimmune diseases: lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome.

More than 80 types of autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome, affect up to 22 million people in the US...

Solitaire is one of two approved stent retrievers used to treat some strokes.

“Stent retrievers are a major advance in acute ischemic stroke care and will have significant impact on the evolution of stroke systems of care,” according to Loyola Medicine neurologists Rick Gill, MD and Prof. Michael J. Schneck, MD.

87% of strokes are ischemic, ie caused by clots that block blood flow to a portion of the brain. In selected patients, stent retrievers can be used to remove such clots. Loyola used stent retrievers on 34 patients in 2015, and 21 patients during the first six months of 2016.

A stent retriever is a self-expanding mesh tube attached to a wire, which is guided through a catheter...

Top view of the sieve, zooming in on the inverted pyramids. Credit: University of Twente

To study brain cell’s operation and test the effect of medication on individual cells, the conventional Petri dish with flat electrodes is not sufficient. For truly realistic studies, cells have to flourish within 3D surroundings. Bart Schurink, researcher at University of Twente’s MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, has developed a sieve with 900 openings, each of which has the shape of an inverted pyramid. On top of this array of pyramids, a micro-reactor takes care of cell growth.

A brain-on-a-chip demands more than a series of electrodes in 2D, on which brain cells can be cultured...

Bacteria that have the potential to abet breast cancer are present in the breasts of cancer patients, while beneficial bacteria are more abundant in healthy breasts, where they may actually be protecting women from cancer. These findings may lead ultimately to the use of probiotics to protect women against breast cancer.

In the study, Reid’s PhD student Camilla Urbaniak obtained breast tissues from 58 women who were undergoing lumpectomies or mastectomies for either benign (13 women) or cancerous (45 women) tumors, as well as from 23 healthy women who had undergone breast reductions or enhancements. They used DNA sequencing to identify bacteria from the tissues, and culturing to confirm that the organisms were alive.

Streptococcus thermophilus

Women with breast cancer had elevated levels ...