Health & Medicine

The importance of image viewing conditions for timing and precision in minimally invasive surgery

Minimally invasive medical procedures such as laparoscopic surgery are challenging because they involve navigating the instruments in use via image views from tiny cameras attached to them. Surgeons need to interpret visual information correctly to guide their instruments with precision. Understanding how the brain adapts to these procedures will help improve fine surgical skills. Dr Birgitta Dresp-Langley, Research Director at […]

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Health & Medicine

Combatting antimicrobial resistance using novel small fusion proteins

Antibiotic resistance is a public health burden worldwide. Alternatives to antibiotics that can counter the detrimental effects of resistant ‘superbugs’ are urgently needed. Dr Xristo Zarate at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon in Mexico and his collaborators have worked extensively on developing novel small carrier proteins, like SmbP and CusF3H+, for recombinant protein and peptide expression and purification in […]

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Health & Medicine

Leaving a legacy of ill health: The trans-generational effects of smoking

The University of Bristol is a respected authority in research at the intersection of epigenetics and epidemiology. Founded by Jean Golding, Emeritus Professor of Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, also known as Children of the 90s) is one of the world’s most comprehensive ongoing data sets spanning generations. Findings from this multi-generational […]

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Health & Medicine

Early Action Review: Preventing local outbreaks from becoming pandemics

If we are to avoid the fallout of another global pandemic, we need to be better prepared. Dr Stella Chungong and Dr Landry Ndriko Mayigane of the Health Security Preparedness Department in the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme are encouraging countries to implement early action reviews (EARs) of disease outbreaks. EARs are based on a 7-1-7 metric to assess […]

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Health & Medicine

CRISPR gene editing: Can we make cancer cells easier to kill?

Lung cancer accounts for approximately one in five cancer deaths globally. The high death toll makes the development of new treatments and improvement of old ones a top priority. One of the challenges with traditional chemotherapy is that tumours can develop resistance to treatment. For several years, Eric B Kmiec, PhD, at the Gene Editing Institute of ChristianaCare, USA and […]

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Health & Medicine

A matter of choice: Free to choose medicine in the 21st century

The US Food and Drug Administration’s system for medicine approval is lengthy and expensive, and only 1 in 12 drugs in human clinical trials obtain approval. Bartley J Madden of the Madden Center for Value Creation at Florida Atlantic University proposes an alternative free to choose medicine (FTCM) pathway. He suggests that with the advice of their doctors, patients should […]

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Health & Medicine

A role for ultraviolet radiation in multiple sclerosis

There are more cases of multiple sclerosis (MS), a condition caused by impaired immune responses, in northern countries compared to southern countries. Dr George E Davis, who is affiliated with the Riverview Psychiatric Centre, Maine, USA, has explored the links between latitude, MS, and UV radiation. He puts forward the idea that UV radiation levels during month of conception offer […]

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Health & Medicine

The cataract epidemic

Cataracts are caused by lifetime exposure to solar radiation affecting the eye lens and compromising visual ability and everyday activities. It can be treated with surgery; however, due to the increasing number of cataract cases, it is becoming a serious burden in healthcare systems worldwide. Dr Konstantin Galichanin at Uppsala University, Sweden has been studying how ultraviolet radiation leads to […]

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Health & Medicine

Who will care for the mental healthcare professionals? A wake-up call from the Netherlands

The COVID-19 pandemic taught us many lessons; one is that mental healthcare workers are not immune to the ravages of mental health problems. The pandemic put them under considerable stress in ways unimaginable before; many are still feeling it. Dr Anneloes van den Broek and Dr Lars de Vroege, senior researchers and clinical psychologists in mental healthcare in the Netherlands, […]

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Health & Medicine

Antimicrobial stewardship programmes: Remote consultations can help reduce antibiotic resistance

The increased use of antibiotic therapy to treat infectious diseases is driving up antimicrobial resistance as well as economic and healthcare costs. Antimicrobial stewardship programmes are crucial to monitor and evaluate medication use. Valéria Cassettari, Newton Novato, and Maria Helena Flesch Onuchic at NotreDame Intermédica Advanced Outpatient Clinic in São Paulo, Brazil, explored the impact of remote consultations with an […]

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