MHH: Lower Saxony Severe Burn Center is certified as the first CPT Plasma Competence Center in Europe. The Lower Saxony Severe Burn Center is the only center in the state of Lower Saxony that treats patients with the most severe burns. People with life-threatening injuries from northern Germany and Europe, including war victims from Ukraine, are treated here. The team at the center, which is part of the Clinic for Plastic, Aesthetic, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery at Hannover Medical School…

When low doses of cancer drugs are administered continuously near malignant brain tumours using so-called iontronic technology, cancer cell growth drastically decreases. Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, and the Medical University of Graz, Austria, demonstrated this in experiments with bird embryos. The results, published in the Journal of Controlled Release, is one step closer to new types of effective treatments for severe cancer forms. Malignant brain tumours often recur despite surgery and post-treatment with chemotherapy and radiation. This is because…

…receives FDA approval for a clinical trial. The Federal Drug Administration approved a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of an electronic grid that records brain activity during surgery, developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego. The device with nanoscale sensors records electrical signals directly from the surface of the human brain in record-breaking detail. The grid’s breakthrough resolution could provide better guidance for planning and performing surgeries to remove brain tumors and treat drug-resistant epilepsy. The…

Poor lighting conditions can reduce quality of life. Our eyesight declines with age: Poor lighting or strong contrasts between light and dark can limit the ability of older people to react in everyday life, resulting in a negative impact on the sleep-wake-rhythm. As neuroscientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen and the University of Basel confirm, this is also due to the diminishing ability of the eye´s pupil to dilate sufficiently. Their results have now been…

In a new study published in the journal Cell, a team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, describes for the first time how odors are encoded in the antennal lobe, the olfactory center in the brain of migratory locusts. Using transgenic locusts and imaging techniques, the researchers were able to show a ring-shaped representation of odors in the brain. The pattern of olfactory coding in the antennal lobe is the same at all…

Beta-catenin discovered as a new key player in the formation of the main body axis during mammalian embryogenesis. Formation of the body axes is a critical part of embryonic development. They guarantee that all body parts end up where they belong and that no ears grow on our backs. The head-tail axis, for example, determines the orientation of the two ends of the body. It was previously assumed that this axis is largely determined by the interplay between the Nodal…

Viruses, including the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, can get passed from person to person via contaminated surfaces. But can some surfaces reduce the risk of this type of transmission without the help of household disinfectants? As reported in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, wood has natural antiviral properties that can reduce the time viruses persist on its surface — and some species of wood are more effective than others at reducing infectivity. Enveloped viruses, like the coronavirus, can live up…

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center’s Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center have developed a 3D genomic profiling technique to identify small precancerous lesions in the pancreas — called pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias (PanINs) — that lead to one of the most aggressive, deadly pancreatic cancers. Published May1 in Nature, the results provide the most detailed 3D map of precancerous lesions in the human pancreas to date, laying a foundation for future early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and other types of…

Patch reads and sends data on blood glucose, lactates and other critical biomarkers, including indicators of acute cardiac disease. Researchers at two Ontario universities have developed a pain-free, wearable sensor that can continuously monitor levels of blood sugar, lactates and other critical health indicators for weeks at a time, sending results to a smartphone or other device. The Wearable Aptalyzer, created by a team featuring researchers from McMaster University and the University of Waterloo, uses an array of tiny hydrogel…

EU project develops portable diagnostic device for the early detection of deep vein thrombosis. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a significant health risk. In about half of patients, the blood clot breaks away from the vein wall and travels to the lungs, where it can cause a pulmonary embolism. Approximately 25% of people who suffer a pulmonary embolism die as a result. The danger: In up to two-thirds of all cases of thrombosis, people have no symptoms. This makes early…

Researchers Develop Biocatalytic Process for Nitrile Production. A research team from TU Graz and the Czech Academy of Sciences has used two enzymes to eliminate the need for highly toxic cyanide in the production of nitriles. If the household cleaner emits a lemon-like odour, this may be due to a nitrile called citronellyl nitrile. These versatile chemical nitrile groups are also used in the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients, superglue and chemical-resistant gloves. The prevalent production process used so far…

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC are co-leading an effort to develop advanced electronic bandages and other tools to improve chronic wound monitoring and healing. Chronic wounds, which include diabetic ulcers, surgical wounds, pressure injuries, and other problems, are deadlier than many people realize. Patients with chronic wounds have a five-year survival rate around 70%, worse than that of breast cancer, prostate cancer and other serious diseases. Treating wounds is also expensive, costing an estimated $28 billion…

An unusually large brain may be the first sign of autism — and visible as early as the first trimester, University of California San Diego researchers found. Some children with profound autism experience lifelong difficulties with social, language and cognitive skills, and even lack the ability to speak. Others experience more mild symptoms that improve with time. The disparity in outcomes has been a mystery to scientists, until now. A new study, published in Molecular Autism by researchers at University…

An international research team led by Dr Florian Auras from Dresden University of Technology (TUD) has succeeded in developing a new type of material in the rather young research field of covalent organic frameworks. The new two-dimensional polymer is characterised by the fact that its properties can be controlled in a targeted and reversible manner. This has brought the researchers a step closer to the goal of realising switchable quantum states. These results were recently published in the renowned journal…

Dorothee Dormann and Edward Lemke propose a new concept to measure the individual risk of getting age-related diseases. Could measuring protein clumps in our cells be a new way to find out our risk of getting age-related diseases? Professor Dorothee Dormann and Professor Edward Lemke of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), who are also adjunct directors at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) in Mainz, propose the concept of a “protein aggregation clock” to measure ageing and health in a…

Aldehydes are essential compounds in the chemical industry and are used in the manufacture of medications, vitamins, and fragrances. The selective oxidation of alcohols into aldehydes without secondary reactions is thus of great importance. Overoxidation often occurs with many conventional methods, causing unwanted byproducts such as carboxylic acid and esters to be formed. Traditional alcohol oxidation methods also often require the use of solvents and environmentally harmful chemicals. They not only produce harmful waste but also pose significant health risks…