Lung Chip Mimics Radiation Injury
Researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have developed a microfluidic chip that can recreate some of the features of radiation-induced lung injury. The lungs are very sensitive to radiation, and this can limit the application of radiotherapy to treat cancer. Accurately modeling radiation-induced lung injury could assist in developing new methods to prevent and treat the phenomenon, but it has been difficult to study this before the advent of advanced organ-on-a-chip models. The lung chip presented here contains human lung alveolar epithelial cells interfacing with lung capillary cells. The goal is to recrea...
Source: Medgadget - November 1, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Oncology Radiation Oncology harvard wyssinstitute Source Type: blogs

Why Do Cells Die?
You might know that tiny individual units called cells make up your body. But did you know some of your cells die every day as a part of their normal life cycle? These deaths are balanced by other cells splitting into two identical cells, a process called mitosis. A confocal microscope films two cells: The cell on the left undergoes a type of cell death called apoptosis, and the one on the right undergoes mitosis. Credit: Dr. Dylan Burnette, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Regulated Cell Death For the most part, cells die in a controlled way in response to specific signals that tell them to. The cell ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - November 1, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Cells Cellular Processes Common questions Source Type: blogs

Towards Senolytic Immunotherapies that Use Cytotoxic T Cells
As researchers here point out, cytotoxic T cells can in principle attack and destroy lingering senescent cells in aged tissues. That they don't do enough of this in old age is clear, but that they are capable of it at all opens the door to finding ways to encourage greater activity. Deciduous Therapeutics runs a development program focused on encouraging a different set of immune cells to kill senescent cells, while engineered T cells equipped with chimeric antigen receptors have been tested in animal models for their ability to kill senescent cells. It is likely that other groups will try a variety of senolytic immunother...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 1, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs

Towards Clearance of Senescent Cells to Improve Heart Regeneration
Senescent cells accumulate with age in tissues throughout the body. Cells enter a senescent state constantly throughout life, largely the result of cells reaching the Hayflick limit on replication, but also due to stress, injury, and damage. A senescent cell ceases replication and instead produces a potent mix of pro-growth, pro-inflammatory signals. The primary purpose of senescence in an adult is to signal to the immune system that a cell needs to be removed, and potentially that the surrounding region of tissue requires further attention, such as in the case of an injury or toxic environment that is damaging other cells...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 31, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Bacteria Tag Team Tumors with T Cells
A team at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a technique to enhance chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy in solid tumors. The technique involves engineering E. coli bacteria, that naturally tend to accumulate in the immune privileged core of solid tumors. The bacteria have been engineered to interact with tumor cells and deposit a synthetic antigen on the cells that can then be targeted by CAR T cells. The approach could enhance CAR T cell therapy in solid tumors, which hasn’t worked as well as CAR T cell therapy for blood-borne cancers to date. Creating such bacterial/T...
Source: Medgadget - October 31, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: News CAR T columbia columbiauniversity Source Type: blogs

How Can You Use AI In Your Healthcare RIGHT NOW?
This study from March 2023 reports how an app developed to help patients’ bowel preparation can increase compliance and thus, the number of successful colonoscopies. In some cases, health chatbots are also able to connect patients with clinicians for diagnosis or treatment, but that is one step further down the line. The general idea is that in the future, these talking or texting smart algorithms might become the first contact point for primary care. Patients will not get in touch with physicians, nurses, or any medical professional with every one of their health questions but will turn to chatbots first. If the ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - October 31, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andrea Koncz Tags: imported Healthcare AI artificial intelligence digital health Source Type: blogs

5 Ways You Can Use AI In Your Healthcare RIGHT NOW
This study from March 2023 reports how an app developed to help patients’ bowel preparation can increase compliance and thus, the number of successful colonoscopies. In some cases, health chatbots are also able to connect patients with clinicians for diagnosis or treatment, but that is one step further down the line. The general idea is that in the future, these talking or texting smart algorithms might become the first contact point for primary care. Patients will not get in touch with physicians, nurses, or any medical professional with every one of their health questions but will turn to chatbots first. If the ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - October 31, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andrea Koncz Tags: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine AI digital health Healthcare Source Type: blogs

Bonus Features – October 29, 2023 – 66% of patients prefer email or text for reminders about medical bills, 94% of clinicians said lack of timely access to insights within EHR impacts patient care, and 28 more
This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job. News CMMI released the 2022 performance results for the direct contracting value-based care model, which has since been redesigned and renamed the ACO REACH Model. All told, participating entities achieved net savings of more t...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - October 29, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Brian Eastwood Tags: Healthcare IT 1upHealth ACO REACH AGS Health Avenda Health Bluefin California HHS Carestream Dental CB Insights Cedar Gate Technologies CMMI CORE eClinicalWorks Fivetran Found Freshpaint FutureRx GSR Ventures Healthcare Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 30th 2023
In conclusion, reported adherence to a healthy lifestyle is associated with reduced risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Adherence to all four lifestyle factors resulted in the strongest protection. « Back to Top (Source: Fight Aging!)
Source: Fight Aging! - October 29, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Sizable Mortality Risk Differences for Healthy versus Unhealthy Lifestyles in Later Life
In conclusion, reported adherence to a healthy lifestyle is associated with reduced risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Adherence to all four lifestyle factors resulted in the strongest protection. Link: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-04247-9 (Source: Fight Aging!)
Source: Fight Aging! - October 27, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs

Understanding RNA-Modifying Enzymes: Q & A With Jeffrey Mugridge
Credit: Courtesy of Jeffrey Mugridge. “One of the best aspects of research is the excitement of discovery, being the first person in the world to know a small detail about the system you’re studying,” says Jeffrey Mugridge, Ph.D., an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Delaware in Newark. We talked with Dr. Mugridge about how a pet store job sparked his early interest in science, why he decided to change his career trajectory after graduate school, and what he believes is key to being a successful researcher. Q: How did you first become interested in science? A: ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - October 25, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Profiles RNA Source Type: blogs

Regulators Will Likely Continue to Make Development Difficult, Even After Aging is Recognized as a Medical Condition
It is the nature of regulators at the FDA to aim for zero risk at any cost, and this is particularly apparent in the case of preventative therapies intended to be deployed widely in comparatively healthy people. Absent unusual political pressure, any number of ongoing deaths while therapies are assessed is treated as an acceptable cost to avoid even small numbers of deaths that may occur due to use of a new therapy. Thus even after aging is recognized as a medical condition by regulators, it is likely that they will make it too expensive to assess potential therapies. Instead, companies will gain clinical approval for trea...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 25, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs

In Search of Mammalian Gene Duplications Correlated with Species Longevity
Duplication of a genetic sequence is a common occurrence over evolutionary time, one of the mechanisms by which species evolve. Noteworthy duplications include the many versions of cancer suppressor gene TP53 that are observed in the elephant genome. Large animals have many more cells than small animals, and so the evolution of greater size must be accompanied by the evolution of ways to greatly reduce cancer risk per cell. Researchers here report on the results of searching for specific gene duplications in mammalian species that correlate with species longevity. This provides starting points for further study of t...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 24, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

My breast cancer journey: Why mammograms matter
25 years ago, at the age of 42, I had my first mammogram, which was part of my routine checkup. I had no symptoms at the time. I was devastated when the radiologist discovered a shadow in my left breast. To confirm this, a biopsy was scheduled, and indeed, the biopsy confirmed that I had Read more… My breast cancer journey: Why mammograms matter originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 24, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Conditions Oncology/Hematology Source Type: blogs

Turning adversity into hope: my path to a career in medicine
I have wanted to work in medicine ever since my eleven-year-old cousin passed out during my uncle’s birthday party. He suddenly fainted when we were supposed to cut the cake. We rushed to the emergency room. Doctors diagnosed him with blood cancer after a couple of months, which was too late for him to survive. Read more… Turning adversity into hope: my path to a career in medicine originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 23, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Conditions Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs