Photo by HIMSS Media Disruption in healthcare has been a long time coming, and for many organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic acted as the catalyst to adopt innovative technologies. For instance, even some of the most cutting-edge health systems only had…
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Why the human body has not evolved to make childbirth easier—or has it?
Despite advances in medicine and technology, childbirth isn’t likely to get much easier on women from a biological perspective. Engineers at The University of Texas at Austin and University of Vienna revealed in new research a series of evolutionary trade-offs…
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Mini-hearts are similar to human hearts
Vanessa Solvang is a master’s student in biotechnology and has chosen to specialize in cell and molecular biology. She spends a lot of her time cultivating and studying mini-hearts at NTNU’s Laboratory Centre (Laboratoriesenteret). Here you’ll find mini-hearts, mini-brains, mini-lungs…
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Researchers prove structural and functional plasticity in human synapses
Neuroscientists agree that a person’s brain is constantly changing, rewiring itself and adapting to environmental stimuli. This is how humans learn new things and create memories. This adaptability and malleability is called plasticity. “Physicians have long suspected that remodeling processes…
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Doctors under stress from COVID-19 say they need mental health services: ‘We’re human beings, just like everyone else’
Chicago emergency room doctor Meeta Shah wiped down her face shield and stethoscope as she rushed from one patient to the next, some of them very sick with COVID-19, some of them dying. At home, she worried about how to…
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Human lung and brain organoids respond differently to SARS-CoV-2 infection in lab tests
COVID-19, the disease caused by the pandemic coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, is primarily regarded as a respiratory infection. Yet the virus has also become known for affecting other parts of the body in ways not as well understood, sometimes with longer-term consequences,…
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Compound isolated from human sperm could treat genetic disorder
A newly discovered genetic condition caused by faulty protein synthesis which causes delayed development and learning difficulties could be treated by a compound originally isolated from human sperm, say scientists. The University of Manchester researchers, with collaborators from the UK,…
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Vietnam starts human trial of coronavirus vaccine
A Vietnamese pharmaceutical company began testing a coronavirus vaccine on volunteers in Hanoi on Thursday, as developing countries jostle with richer nations to access affordable inoculations. Nanogen’s Nanocovax is one of four under development in Vietnam, and a company representative…
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Editing the DNA of human embryos could protect us from future pandemics
Hollywood blockbusters such as X-men, Gattaca and Jurassic World have explored the intriguing concept of “germline genome editing”—a biomolecular technique that can alter the DNA of sperm, eggs or embryos. If you remove a gene that causes a certain disease…
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A new multiscale view of the human brain
The architecture of the brain supports cognitive and behavioral functions and it is extremely complex with connections at multiple layers that interact with each other. However, research efforts are usually focused on a single spatial scale. In a study led…
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