A ‘super-cool’ method for improving donated liver preservation

A new method for super-cooling human donor livers to subzero centigrade temperatures without freezing can triple the time that a donor organ stays safe and viable during transportation from the donor to the recipient. This development could greatly expand the availability of healthy livers for transplantation, improve organ utilization, and reduce some of the time … Read more

Feeling legs again improves ampu-tees’ health

While walking, people with intact legs feel when they move their knee or when their feet touch the ground. The nervous system constantly draws on sensory feedback of this sort to precisely control muscles. People using a leg prosthesis, however, do not know precisely where the prosthesis is located, how it is moving, or what … Read more

Social network interventions can lead to potential health benefits

Social network interventions can have a significant effect on a range of health behaviors and outcomes both in the short and long term, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine by Ruth Hunter of Queen’s University Belfast, UK, and colleagues. There has been a growing interest in understanding the effects of social networks … Read more

Novel molecules designed by artificial intelligence in 21 days are validated in mice

Insilico Medicine, a global leader in artificial intelligence for drug discovery, today announced the publication of a paper titled, “Deep learning enables rapid identification of potent DDR1 kinase inhibitors,” in Nature Biotechnology. The paper describes a timed challenge, where the new artificial intelligence system called Generative Tensorial Reinforcement Learning (GENTRL) designed six novel inhibitors of DDR1, … Read more

Map of broken brain networks shows why people lose speech in language-based dementia

For the first time, Northwestern Medicine scientists have pinpointed the location of dysfunctional brain networks that lead to impaired sentence production and word finding in primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a form of dementia in which patients often lose their language rather than their memory or thought process. With this discovery, the scientists have drawn a … Read more

Poor water quality linked to sugary drink consumption in regional and remote Australia

Consumption of sugary drinks is common among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants and toddlers, and it could be down to water quality, according to a study from The Australian National University (ANU). Lead author, Dr Katie Thurber, says there are clear opportunities to improve nutrition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, as well … Read more

Cracking the code of a brain cancer that keeps coming back

One of the most common brain cancers in children, Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) medulloblastoma, also is one of the more survivable for most kids. Unfortunately, for a subset of patients the cancer resists treatment and relapses with a vengeance to then turn deadly. Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center used a powerful new computer-assisted technology called single-cell … Read more

Pancreas on a chip

By combining two powerful technologies, scientists are taking diabetes research to a whole new level. In a study led by Harvard University’s Kevin Kit Parker, microfluidics and human, insulin-producing beta cells have been integrated in an “Islet-on-a-Chip”. The new device makes it easier for scientists to screen insulin-producing cells before transplanting them into a patient, test … Read more

Brain stem cells have a good memory

The cerebral cortex acts as the control centre of our cognitive processes. During embryogenesis, dozens of types of neurons with distinct functions come together to form the circuits that drive our thoughts and actions. These neurons are generated by progenitor cells, which produce them one after the other in a very precise order. While neuroscience … Read more