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Category: biotech/medical

A pressure sensor printed directly on a hand is a step toward new biomedical devices, “on the fly” wearable technology, and more…

(Inside Science) — Wearable technology may soon be at your fingertips — literally. Researchers have developed a pressure sensor that can be 3D printed directly on your hand. The device, sensitive enough to feel a beating pulse, is made from soft, stretchy silicone that conforms to the curves of your fingertip.

It’s a step toward a more seamless integration of human and machine, said Michael McAlpine, a materials scientist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. His team didn’t print the device on a real hand yet — just an artificial one. “But,” he said, “it sets the stage for future work in 3D printing electronic devices directly on the body.”

Someday, that could mean technology evocative of the cyborgs and bionic humans of science fiction. In the nearer term, 3D printed gadgets on and in the body could aid medical treatment, health monitoring and surgery.

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A new tool to address loss of proteostasis and destroy target proteins. It could potentially be used to destroy amyloids in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, heart disease and amyloidosis which are driven by misfolded protein aggregation.

A new therapy could be the basis for addressing one of the primary reasons we age, loss of proteostasis and the resulting accumulation of Amyloidosis. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Amloidosis, Lipofuscin and so on could all potentially be targets for this technique.

“University of Dundee researchers have shown that it is possible to rapidly target and destroy specific proteins in cells, raising the possibility of developing new ways of targeting ‘undruggable’ proteins in diseases.”

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An important breakthrough has been made in the eradication of AIDs. Scientists have found they can successfully snip out the HIV virus from mouse cells using CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

Right now patients with the deadly virus must use a toxic concoction of anti-retroviral medications to suppress the virus from replicating. However, CRISPR/Cas9 can be programmed to chop out any genetic code in the body with scissor-like precision, including, possibly, all HIV-1 DNA within the body. And if you cut out the DNA, you stop the virus from being able to make copies of itself.

First published in the journal Molecular Therapy, the team is the first to show HIV can be completely annihilated from the body using CRISPR. And with impressive effect. After just one treatment, scientists were able to show the technique had successfully removed all traces of the infection within mouse organs and tissue.

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“Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known” — Sagan.

IMPORTANT NEW VIDEO: Mystical experiences induced by psychedelics predict long term positive changes in attitudes, mood, behavior and spirituality in patients. A group of scientists at prestigious research institutions — NYU, Johns Hopkins, MAPS and the Imperial College of London — are conducting studies with psilocybin, MDMA and LSD — which seem to induce mystical-type experiences — to treat end-of-life distress, alcohol and drug addiction, and PTSD. This video explains the nature of The Mystical Experience. Edited by Omid Pakbin music by FluxSeeds / filmed by Jason Goodman, creator of Salt Stage / produced with Ben Jacobson.

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Until now, all artificial retinal research has used only rigid, hard materials. The new research, by Vanessa Restrepo-Schild, a 24 year old Dphil student and researcher at the Oxford University, Department of Chemistry, is the first to successfully use biological, synthetic tissues, developed in a laboratory environment. The study could revolutionise the bionic implant industry and the development of new, less invasive technologies that more closely resemble human body tissues, helping to treat degenerative eye conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa.

Just as photography depends on camera pixels reacting to light, vision relies on the retina performing the same function. The retina sits at the back of the human eye, and contains protein cells that convert light into electrical signals that travel through the nervous system, triggering a response from the brain, ultimately building a picture of the scene being viewed.

Vanessa Restrepo-Schild led the team in the development of a new synthetic, double layered retina which closely mimics the natural human retinal process. The retina replica consists of soft water droplets (hydrogels) and biological cell membrane proteins. Designed like a camera, the cells act as pixels, detecting and reacting to light to create a grey scale image. The Colombian native said: “The synthetic material can generate electrical signals, which stimulate the neurons at the back of our eye just like the original retina.”

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Staff members who die will be put in cold storage until medical science can revive them.

Since congressional Republicans voted in a bill containing the Trump administration’s roll back of the Affordable Care Act, healthcare is once again a topic on everyone’s lips. In the absence of any universal healthcare scheme, employer-provided medical coverage is a crucial benefit for employees, tempting people to stay at jobs they might otherwise have left, or apply for positions they wouldn’t otherwise consider.

In the contest to attract new hires, tech companies often supplement already generous salaries with comprehensive benefit packages, and in this vein one company has hit on a novel idea: A health plan that covers its employees beyond death and into the realms of a speculative future rebirth.

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