Science and Health News

Researchers at the University of Bristol have designed a synthetic community of artificial cells that collectively displays a simple form of predatory behaviour.

In a study appearing in the October 4 issue of JAMA, Cindy L. Amundsen, M.D., of Duke University, Durham, N.C., and colleagues assessed whether injection of onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox A) is superior to sacral neuromodulation (use of an implanted electrode for bladder control) in controlling episodes of refractory urgency urinary incontinence in women.

After two years of preparation, careful review of all 16 previous uterine transplants performed in the world, and thoughtful discussion of the ethical and resource considerations — we entered a new space.

L’Oréal has been committed to tissue engineering for almost 30 years and holds unique knowledge and expertise in the field of hair biology. With this exclusive research partnership, L’Oréal and Poietis are giving themselves the means to pursue a new scientific challenge: bioprinting a hair follicle, the small organ that produces hair, using a bioprinter.

A study published online today in Nature by Albert Einstein College of Medicine scientists suggests that it may not be possible to extend the human life span beyond the ages already attained by the oldest people on record.

An interdisciplinary team of engineering and pharmaceutical researchers at the University of Alberta has invented a device that can rapidly identify harmful bacteria and can determine whether it is resistant to antibiotics. The device could save precious hours in patient care and public health, and prevent the spread of drug-resistant strains of bacteria. The team’s findings are published in a paper entitled Microfluidic cantilever detects bacteria and measures their susceptibility to antibiotics in small confined volumes in the current issue of Nature Communications.

Two vaccines against Zika virus developed at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have successfully conveyed immunity from female mice to pups conceived weeks after the mother’s vaccination. When challenged with Zika virus within a week of their birth, both vaccines protected the pups against neurological damage better than pups with no maternal-conferred immunity. The results are published online today and scheduled for the November issue of EBioMedicine, a journal supported by CellPress and The Lancet.

A tiny lift, artificial muscles and miniscule motors. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 is awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa for their design and production of molecular machines. They have developed molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added.