Tag Archives: cancer

Throat surgery the robotic way

News: Robotics    January 4, 2010
Think about having your throat slit, ear to ear – even for removal of cancer. Rather not? That’s what doctors at University of Pennsylvania (USA) thought, especially since this kind of highly invasive throat surgery often makes breathing, eating, and speaking difficult for weeks after the operation. Their response: develop a robotic procedure that makes [...]
Posted in News: Robotics | Also tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Nanosensors testing blood for cancer markers

News: Nanomedicine    December 17, 2009
Testing lab samples of blood is one thing; there’s lots of control achieved by isolating components of the blood before testing. Testing whole blood, unfiltered and with all components in their usual mix, is another thing. The thing is; testing whole blood is what’s required in the real world. Whole blood is complicated by the [...]
Posted in News: Nanomedicine | Also tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Powerful peptide penetrates cancer cells

News: Major Disease Cures    December 9, 2009
All too often cancer treatments are like taking a howitzer to a hunting party. The treatment might get the cancer, but there’s often a lot of collateral damage. That’s why, almost from the beginning of cancer research, the goal has been to find ways of stopping cancer without harming the rest of the body. Not [...]
Posted in News: Major Disease Cures | Also tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

First Implant: anti-cancer vaccine device in mice

News: Body Implant    December 1, 2009
Although implanting drug administering devices in living animals is not new, a successful implementation for treating cancer is new. A team of scientists at Harvard University (USA) have developed a disk-like implant, which carries targeted cancer antigens.
Posted in News: Body Implant | Also tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Stapling peptides to drug the undruggable

News: Major Disease Cures    November 17, 2009
Turning specific genes on and off is something Nature does routinely. Not so for scientists. In particular, a class of proteins that control whether certain genes are activated or not, so called transcription factors, have been considered unreachable. Because of their complex folded configurations, transcription proteins are highly resistant to modification and have been considered [...]
Posted in News: Major Disease Cures | Also tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Study confirms telomere’s role in living longer

News: Extending Lifespan    November 16, 2009
Confirmation is a vital part of the scientific process. In this case confirmation involves our knowledge of telomeres. We know that telomeres, the short strip of DNA found at the ends of chromosomes, play a big role in protecting the DNA from gene loss during the many replications within a cell. One of the 2009 [...]
Posted in News: Extending Lifespan | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nanoparticles for cancer drug delivery

News: Nanomedicine    November 4, 2009
You’re going to see many stories of drug delivery methods using nanotechnology. Some methods are still quite theoretical; others have already reached the testing stage in animals. Note, however, that so far none have been given the green light for human testing, which says something about the nascent status of the nano-medical field. Much of [...]
Posted in News: Nanomedicine | Also tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Protecting healthy cells during radiation therapy

News: Major Disease Cures    October 28, 2009
Treatment of cancer with radiation therapy is very common, but always hazardous because the radiation usually kills healthy cells as well. Here’s one promising approach to reducing the risk…
Posted in News: Major Disease Cures | Also tagged | Leave a comment

Can we stimulate repair of old muscles?

News: Extending Lifespan    October 10, 2009
Yes, we probably can stimulate more repair of muscle cells in older people. Berkeley — A study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has identified critical biochemical pathways linked to the aging of human muscle. By manipulating these pathways, the researchers were able to turn back the clock on old human muscle, [...]
Posted in News: Extending Lifespan | Also tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hand-held cancer detection device

News: Nanomedicine    October 1, 2009
Trekkers will remember Dr. McCoy carrying a hand-held device which could instantly diagnose (and often treat) diseases. We aren’t there yet, but this development is indicative of where we’re going: University of Toronto researchers have used nanomaterials to develop a microchip sensitive enough to quickly determine the type and severity of a patient’s cancer so [...]
Posted in News: Nanomedicine | Also tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment