Health & Medicine
Centhaquine: A new resuscitative agent for haemorrhagic shock
Triggered by severe blood loss, haemorrhagic shock is a type of hypovolemic shock, an often-fatal condition. Treatments are available but haven’t been updated for a long time – there is a need for a new resuscitative agent to help patients survive and recover. Luckily, Dr Anil Gulati, of Pharmazz, Inc., has developed centhaquine, aka Lyfaquin®. This drug has shown very […]
Using β3 integrin to control reactive astrocytes, and help neurons survive
The long-ignored astrocyte is of more interest than ever in neuroscience. When the central nervous system is damaged, astrocytes undergo astrogliosis, morphing into reactive astrocytes to protect neurons from further damage. But, as it turns out, this process could be doing more harm than good by not allowing damaged neurons to mend themselves. Professor Lisette Leyton of the University of […]
Fertility preservation options in gender reassignment
39% of transgender men and 21.9% of transgender women express the desire to become parents. This is complicated by gender confirmation therapies usually occurring at a young age, before consolidation of parental desire. These therapies can involve hormone treatment and gender confirming surgery which can remove the possibility of reproduction. Fertility preservation knowledge and information is limited for transgender people. […]
Can animal-free research be the future of medical science?
Professor Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga from Radboud University, the Netherlands, aims to improve biomedical and medical research, reduce the use of unnecessary animal studies and replace animal studies by using better alternatives. Throughout her career she has researched and highlighted the disadvantages of animal studies, such as the substandard quality of results produced and lack of evidence for translatability to human clinical […]
A mathematical model to predict cancer nanomedicine delivery
Dr Zhihui Wang is a researcher at the Houston Methodist Research Institute. He is a leading expert in the fields of computational biology, modelling-aided drug target discovery, biophysical modelling of drug transport, and multiscale cancer modelling. Together with Dr Prashant Dogra, the team have developed a computational model that improves our understanding of the relationship between key nanoparticle properties, the […]
Atherosclerotic disease-related stroke: Predicting recurrence using plaque morphology
Stroke caused by a blood clot is a major cause of death and disability worldwide. Intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) is a subtype of stroke whereby a build-up of material causes cerebral arteries to narrow and eventually causes onset of a stroke. ICAD-related strokes have the highest rates of stroke recurrence and death, leading to an urgent need for further research. […]
Collaborative facilitation of mental health of disaster responders
Preparation to reduce stressors and respond to stress reactions before and around a response to a natural disaster can facilitate greater mental wellbeing after the disaster. To protect their mental health, the individual disaster responders’ actions are just as important as the organisational support. A review by Maki Umeda and collaborators at University of Hyogo (Japan), Kobe University (Japan) and […]
Can aquatic exercise be used as an effective therapy for age-related conditions?
Professor Eadric Bressel of Utah State University has been assessing the positive impact that aquatic exercise can have on motor function. Through a series of experiments, Professor Bressel and collaborators have demonstrated that partial water immersion can improve motor skills and cognitive functions such as memory recall in both young and older adults. This important work indicates a promising therapy […]
Statistics in the era of COVID-19: Measuring lockdowns with doubling time
The key to understanding SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) transmission is understanding the exponential growth of viral transmissions. The problem is that the concept of exponential growth is challenging for many to understand and interpret, including policymakers who need to make quick and informed decisions. Dr Biljana Stangeland, Executive Director/Chief Scientific Officer at Alv B, Norway, has been using doubling time – the […]
Walking anxiety: Potential rehabilitation for functional gait disorders
Functional gait disorders refer to neurological problems with walking which do not have a structural cause. Researchers have struggled to understand the mechanisms that underlie this elusive disorder, and clinicians have been unsure how to offer care or even how to diagnose it accurately. Professor Diego Kaski, however, has led a group of collaborators with a bold new approach, inspired […]