medical breakthrough

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Lab-Grown Teeth Could Kill Need for Fillings

Researchers identify gene key to growing protective enamel

(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...

New Procedure Uses Athletes' Own Blood to Heal Them

Practice could become standard orthopedics

(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...

New Robotic Arm Takes Cues From Brain
New Robotic Arm Takes Cues From Brain
Feb 11, 2009 10:50 AM CST

New Robotic Arm Takes Cues From Brain

Improvements in field have given amputees dexterity, independence

(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...

Docs Remove Donor Kidney Through Vagina

Less-painful procedure could pave the way to more donations

(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...

Engineered Goats May Usher In New Age of Drugs

Animals' bodies act as processors for key protein

(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...

Three Genes Made 1918 Flu So Deadly
Three Genes Made 1918 Flu So Deadly
Dec 30, 2008 2:58 PM CST

Three Genes Made 1918 Flu So Deadly

They cause pneumonia by letting virus into lungs

(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...

Docs Detail Near-Total Face Transplant

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

(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...

Cleveland Clinic Performs First US Face Transplant

Years of prep precede controversial treatment

(Newser) - Doctors in Cleveland have successfully completed the nation’s first near-total facial transplant on a on a patient disfigured by traumatic injury, the Plain Dealer reports today. The hospital, which said the patient didn’t want to be identified, was the first in the US to approve the controversial procedure,...

Watershed Vaccine May End Malaria Toll

If trials work as expected, shots could save millions of children

(Newser) - Scientists have developed a promising vaccine against malaria, a devastating disease that kills a milion people a year, most of them young children. Trials of the breakthrough vaccine enter the final phase next year and it could be widely available by 2012, reports the Los Angeles Times. Successful trials have...

Genetic Therapy Reverses Heart Disease in Mice

Trials in other animals have begun; humans would be up next

(Newser) - Damage to heart muscle can be stopped and maybe even reversed, but for now only in mice, the BBC reports. Blocking the activity of a specific type of genetic material that regulates gene expression, scientists found, avoided a type of cardiac scarring that leads to heart disease. "Heart function...

US Child Gets Prosthetic Iris
 US Child Gets Prosthetic Iris 
Nov 22, 2008 5:22 PM CST

US Child Gets Prosthetic Iris

Surgery allows boy to see colors, corrects vision problems

(Newser) - Surgeons in Cincinnati implanted a prosthetic iris this week in the eye of a 7-year-old boy, the first US child to get one. “It’s just like Mom’s,” said Nathaniel Brantley as he looked in a mirror. “Just like it’s supposed to be.” Born...

Infertile Woman to Give Birth After Transplant

Twin sister donated ovary in first-of-its-kind procedure

(Newser) - A formerly infertile London woman will give birth this week, the Daily Mail reports, thanks to an ovary transplant from her twin sister. The 38-year-old was declared infertile at age 15 and underwent menopause as a teenager, but became pregnant soon after the first-of-its-kind surgery. The discovery could help hundreds...

Assassin Cells Slay Hidden HIV
 Assassin Cells Slay Hidden HIV 
Nov 10, 2008 4:02 AM CST

Assassin Cells Slay Hidden HIV

Human trials set next year

(Newser) - A promising new treatment for AIDS may be in the works, with the discovery that genetically engineered immune cells can detect and destroy HIV even when the virus tries to hide by mutating. The so-called “assassin” cells, created from the T-cells of an HIV patient, have worked their magic...

Cancer Treatment May Have Cured Man's AIDS

After marrow transplant, patient stays virus-free

(Newser) - A German doctor has inspired hope for a new approach to AIDS treatment with his handling of a leukemia case, the Wall Street Journal reports. Because the patient also had AIDS, Gero Hütter looked for a bone marrow donor with a specific mutation that seems to stymie the HIV...

Vitamin Could Delay Onset of Alzheimer's

B3 pills caused big improvement in mice; human trials to begin

(Newser) - A simple dose of vitamin B3 may be one of the keys to combating the brain deterioration caused by Alzheimer’s disease, California scientists say. The team found that diseased mice given high levels of the vitamin retained normal memory ability over the four months of a study, and healthy...

Docs Tout Safer, Non-Embryonic Stem Cells

Virus, used in mice, repurposes adult cells with no risk of cancer

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a safer way to turn adult cells into stem cells, the Boston Globe reports. The cells, similar to those harvested from embryos, are called induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells; Japanese researchers introduced the method 2 years ago. But the Japanese used retroviruses, which can cause cancer;...

Autism-Reversing Drugs Show Promise

MIT scientists stumbled onto workaround for misfiring brain system

(Newser) - MIT scientists have discovered one of the mechanisms of Fragile X Syndrome, one cause of autism, and are developing drugs to treat it, NPR reports. The disorder, triggered by a genetic mutation, interferes with the normal links between brain cells, making those networks something like a car without a brakes....

Need Your Gall Bladder Taken Out? Say 'Ahhh'

Controversial surgeries avoid scars by using existing orifices

(Newser) - A new surgery technique aims to send patients home without a scar —but you might have to put your gall bladder where your mouth is to do it. The Washington Post takes a look at surgeons who operate purely through existing bodily openings, largely the aforementioned gall bladder being...

Scientists Reprogram Adult Cells
Scientists Reprogram  Adult Cells
Aug 28, 2008 2:20 AM CDT

Scientists Reprogram Adult Cells

Breakthrough could leap embryonic stem-cell quagmire

(Newser) - In a stunning medical advance, scientists have found a way to transform an adult cell in a living animal into an entirely different type of cell. The development is another step toward freeing the field of regenerative medicine from the controversies of stem-cell research. Harvard biologists discovered three key molecular...

Can an Orange a Day Keep Cancer Away?

No, but study finds vitamin C injections may slow tumor growth

(Newser) - Injections of high doses of vitamin C may help the body fight tumors, a new study has found. While previous tests have shown that oral doses don't provide much cancer-fighting help, the high concentrations injected into lab mice resulted in only half as much tumor growth as in the control...

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