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NEWS ABOUT: medical breakthrough

medical breakthrough stories: 72 news summaries

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New 'Spider Pill' Roams Body Hunting Cancer

Camera pill first to be fully remote-controlled

Oct 12, 09 10:47 AM CDT
(Newser) - It sounds like something out of science fiction, but a tiny robotic spider could save your life. Scientists have created a pill-sized camera that, once swallowed, can deploy mechanical legs and roam the body looking for cancer or other maladies, the Daily Telegraph reports. The “spider pill” is controlled... More »

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cancer • medical breakthrough • camera • robot • pills

Coffee Can Make You Hallucinate, Study Says

Too much caffeine increases odds of seeing, hearing things

Jul 13, 09 1:19 PM CDT
(Newser) - Caffeine junkies shouldn’t always trust their ears, according to a new study. Subjects who drank the equivalent of seven cups of coffee proved three times more likely to hear voices, and slightly more likely to experience other hallucinations, than those consuming less than a cup’s worth. Researchers theorize... More »

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medical breakthrough • coffee • study • caffeine • stimulant • hallucination

 Asthma 
 Breakthrough 
 Holds Promise 

'Cellular pump' suggests possible treatments

Jun 16, 09 2:34 PM CDT
(Newser) - Scientists have found a “cellular pump” that appears central to the development of asthma, pointing the way to possible new treatments, the BBC reports. The pump, called SERCA2, helps airway muscles relax. People with asthma had reduced SERCA2 levels, researchers found; replacing it in airway muscle cells could help... More »

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medical breakthrough • treatment • medical treatment • asthma • health research

(Newser) - A French man who received a groundbreaking face and double hand transplant to repair damage from severe burns has died from a massive infection, reports the Independent. The patient, 30, suffered a heart attack during surgery to battle a super bug invasion in his face. Despite the problem, his body... More »

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medicine • medical breakthrough • France • face transplant • burn victim • hand transplant • Laurent Lantieri

'Rogue' Protein Spread Key to Alzheimer's 

Discovery casts light on tangles found in brains of disease sufferers

Jun 8, 09 8:29 AM CDT
(Newser) - A protein linked to Alzheimer’s can run amok in the brain, affecting healthy tissue, scientists have found. All nerve cells contain the tau protein, but a “rogue form” can lead to protein clumps in cells, called neurofibrillary tangles, that are believed to play a major role in Alzheimer’... More »

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medical breakthrough • brain • protein • neurology • Alzheimer's Disease • spread • tau protein

Inner-Ear Woes Linked to Many Elderly Tumbles

More than half of Americans over 60
have the disorder

May 27, 09 7:45 AM CDT
(Newser) - Researchers have shed light on the frequent, debilitating, and sometimes life-threatening falls among the elderly: many tumbles may be caused by inner-ear imbalances, Time reports. Some 35% of Americans over 40 have such vestibular dysfunction; the condition affects more than 50% of Americans 60 and older. An inner-ear imbalance multiplies... More »

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medical breakthrough • elderly • balance • seniors • inner ear • fall

Have an Itch?
It's All In
Your Spine

Urge to scratch comes from back not brain, researchers find

Apr 6, 09 1:26 PM CDT
(Newser) - Scratching an itch may be an everyday activity, but it’s also a longstanding conundrum to scientists who have never been sure if the urge originated in the skin or the brain. Until now. A new study from University of Minnesota neuroscientists appears to show that both the itch, and... More »

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medical breakthrough • neuroscience • spine • University of Minnesota • itch • scratch

 Cholesterol Drugs Cut Clot Risk 

Large study looked at other possible drug benefits

Mar 30, 09 11:47 AM CDT
(Newser) - Cholesterol-lowering drugs showed sizable effects on patients in a new study, but not only in the realm of lowering heart attack and stroke risk. The statins, which are sold under the brand name Crestor, also dramatically cut the occurrence of potentially deadly blood clots in healthy people, reports the New ... More »

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medical breakthrough • public health • blood clots • deep vein thrombosis • scientific study • pulmonary embolism • cholesterol-lowering statins

 Brit Firm Offers 
 Bigger Breasts 
 From Stem Cells 

Controversial cancer therapy to be used for cosmetic procedures

Mar 29, 09 6:55 AM CDT
(Newser) - A new breast enhancement procedure using stem cells from stomach fat to grow larger breasts is being made available for the first time in the UK, reports the Times of London. The procedure has already been used in trials for use on breast cancer survivors. Now a controversial new operation... More »

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stem cell research • medical breakthrough • breast cancer • breast enhancement • controversy • Howard Stern Grid

Drug Ecstasy May Help
Stress Disorder Victims

Drug may boost emotional learning, squash fear: studies

Mar 20, 09 12:28 PM CDT
(Newser) - The drug ecstasy may help people recover from post-traumatic stress disorder, Reuters reports. The drug could help patients in therapy bond with their therapists—key to recovery—and get a better hold on their feelings, studies suggest. It may help reestablish a balance between two areas of the brain, while... More »

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medical breakthrough • drugs • health research • post-traumatic stress disorder • ecstasy

Amid Outcry, Doc Backs Off Designer Babies

Clinic will only screen embryos for disease, genetic disorders

Mar 4, 09 9:40 AM CST
(Newser) - After backlash from doctors, ethicists, and the public, a fertility clinic that had promised parents the option to choose certain traits for their new babies has changed its claim slightly. “We’re going to limit it to people with genetic diseases because we just cannot keep up with what’... More »

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medical breakthrough • fertility • genetics • designer baby • hair color • genes • eugenics

Critics Blast 'Designer
Baby' Clinic

LA Doc offers defect-screening technique
to pick eye color

Mar 2, 09 1:39 AM CST
(Newser) - The founders of an embryo technology that identifies birth defects are furious that a leading Los Angeles fertility clinic is using their discovery to enable couples to choose baby traits like hair and eye color. The role of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis—which identifies thousands of characteristics in a three-day embryo—... More »

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medical breakthrough • in vitro fertilization • baby • embryo • genetic alteration

 Got Milk? 
 It May Fight 
 Alzheimer's 

Drink is great source of key vitamin B12

Mar 1, 09 5:31 PM CST
(Newser) - Two glasses of milk a day could help prevent brain-deteriorating diseases like Alzheimer’s, scientists at Oxford have found. Milk, they observed, is an excellent source of vitamin B12, which experts believe helps protect nerve cells; elderly people with low B12 levels experience twice the brain shrinkage of those with... More »

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medical breakthrough • dementia • milk • vitamins • Oxford University • health research • Alzheimer's Disease

Lab-Grown Teeth Could Kill Need for Fillings

Researchers identify
gene key to growing
protective enamel

Feb 24, 09 3:14 PM CST
(Newser) - Scientists have identified a gene that grows tooth enamel and could be the missing link needed to grow teeth in labs—perhaps rendering fillings and dentures obsolete, the BBC reports. Researchers had already figured out how to grow the insides of animal teeth, but not enamel, which can’t grow... More »

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medical breakthrough • dental health • teeth • health research

New Procedure Uses Athletes' Own Blood to Heal Them

Practice could become standard orthopedics

Feb 17, 09 11:13 AM CST
(Newser) - Before the Super Bowl, Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu got a dose of an exciting new medicine: their own blood. They join at least one Major League pitcher, 20 pro soccer players, and many more casual athletes as early adopters of platelet-rich plasma therapy, a shockingly simple new procedure that... More »

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medical breakthrough • Pittsburgh Steelers • blood • professional athletes • sports medicine

New Robotic Arm Takes Cues From Brain

Improvements in field have given amputees dexterity, independence

Feb 11, 09 10:50 AM CST
(Newser) - Artificial limbs have come a long way from the wooden legs and plastic arms of old: Today's prosthetics take messages directly from the brain. Their performance far exceeds that of the previous generation of devices, which required concentrated effort to make ungainly motions. "You think, and then your muscles... More »

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medical breakthrough • biotechnology • prosthesis • robotic arm • amputees • prosthetics • artificial limb • biomedical engineering

Docs Remove Donor Kidney Through Vagina

Less-painful procedure could pave the way
to more donations

Feb 3, 09 3:08 PM CST
(Newser) - Doctors in Maryland removed a kidney from a donor through the vagina in what they believe to be the first operation of its kind, the Baltimore Examiner reports. The procedure reduced the 48-year-old donor’s pain and recovery time compared with more traditional methods. “We are all about trying... More »

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medicine • medical breakthrough • Maryland • surgery • kidney • doctor • Johns Hopkins University • organ donation

Engineered Goats May
Usher In New Age of Drugs

Animals' bodies act as processors for key protein

Jan 10, 09 12:30 PM CST
(Newser) - Goats could be the pharma factories of tomorrow: Genetic engineering can prompt them to make a protein in their milk to fight excessive blood clotting. A medication culled from the process was greeted warmly yesterday by an expert panel, and now the FDA is looking into it. If approved, the... More »

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medicine • medical breakthrough • health • biotechnology • goats • pharmaceutical industry • animal

Three Genes Made 1918 Flu So Deadly

They cause pneumonia by letting virus
into lungs

Dec 30, 08 2:58 PM CST
(Newser) - Researchers have pinpointed the reason the flu pandemic of 1918 was “the most devastating outbreak of infectious disease in human history,” Reuters reports. The key is a combination of three genes that allowed the virus to enter the lungs and cause pneumonia. Typically, the flu affects only the... More »

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medical breakthrough • disease • public health • genes • history • virus • flu

 Docs Detail 
 Near-Total 
 Face Transplant 



Unnamed patient now has 'face to face the world:' surgeon

Dec 17, 08 2:29 PM CST
(Newser) - Cleveland Clinic officials say the woman who underwent the most comprehensive face transplant yet exhausted conventional options before agreeing to the risky 22-hour procedure in which 80% of her face was replaced with a cadaver’s. The unnamed patient lacked a nose or palate and couldn’t eat or breathe... More »

MORE ABOUT:
medical breakthrough • organ donor • face transplant • reconstructive surgery • Cleveland Clinic • organ donation

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