Science

#JustSaysInPigs: Cardior’s miR-132 inhibitor brings home the bacon in pig heart failure study

January 31, 2020

DUBLIN – The witty Twitter account @justsaysinmice, run by Northeastern University research scientist Jim Heathers, offers a very useful corrective to the misleading and unwarranted hype that often accompanies preclinical studies in mice. What looks good in murine models is all too often lost in translation, for a whole host of reasons, and never has any useful effect in patients. That’s not a concern for a group led by Thomas Thum, of the Institute of Molecular and Translational Therapeutic Strategies at Hannover Medical School in Germany, who just published in Nature Communications the outcome of what is probably the largest ever pig study in heart failure.

BioWorld MedTech’s Diagnostics Extra for Jan. 30, 2020

January 30, 2020

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Keeping you up to date on recent developments in diagnostics, including: Increasing early disease detection; Adapting NGS for coronavirus surveillance; AD and HHV: Still a mystery; Increasing accuracy of malaria diagnoses

‘Confused and disorganized’

Stress, identity crises part of growing up – for organoids

January 29, 2020

By Anette Breindl

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When developmental neurobiologist Arnold Kriegstein talks about his work, it sounds for all the world like he is talking about the brains of teenagers. They are stressed. Their identity is mixed up. But putting them in a good environment is helpful to their development. Kriegstein, though, was describing brain organoids.

BioWorld MedTech’s Orthopedics Extra for Jan. 29, 2020

January 29, 2020

By Holland Johnson

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Keeping you up to date on recent developments in orthopedics, including: Tiny salamander's huge genome may harbor the secrets of regeneration; New injection technique may boost spinal cord injury repair efforts; ACL tears cause harmful changes in brain structure

BioWorld MedTech’s Oncology Extra for Jan. 28, 2020

January 28, 2020

By Mark McCarty and Anette Breindl

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Keeping you up to date on recent developments in oncology, including: SABR showing promise for spinal metastases; Chromosome amplification drives cancer progression via effects on secretion; IMRT shows well in study of upper-tract urothelial carcinoma

Feisty old folks

Sprightly genomes bring insights into healthy aging, early-onset illness

January 28, 2020

By John Fox

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Australian researchers led by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney have compiled the first reference genome database of healthy older Australians, which potentially can predict disease-linked gene variants more accurately than has been previously possible.

Bringing glaucoma risk into focus

Multitrait analysis predicts glaucoma susceptibility, progression

January 28, 2020

By John Fox

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An international collaborative study led by geneticists at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer Medical Research Institute (QIMR) in Brisbane, Australia, has used a multivariate approach to develop a polygenic risk score (PRS) for glaucoma.

BioWorld MedTech’s Cardiology Extra for Jan. 27, 2020

January 27, 2020

By Liz Hollis

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Keeping you up to date on recent developments in cardiology.

Universal T-cell receptor could chase down multiple tumor types

January 27, 2020

By Nuala Moran

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LONDON – Researchers have discovered a T-cell receptor (TCR) that is both capable of targeting a range of solid tumors and independent of human leukocyte (HLA) type, opening up the prospect of developing a universal anticancer T-cell therapy.