Category Archives: Health

SimuTrach

Mechanical engineering students invent device to improve nursing education

Every young inventor dreams of creating the next smart phone, social networking site, or artificial organ.

For five mechanical engineering students at the University of Delaware, that dream came one step closer to reality when a representative of Laerdal Medical visited campus to learn more about SimuTrach, a device they invented to provide realistic training for the care of tracheostomy patients. (more…)

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‘Life as Research Scientist’: Letitia Kotila, Family Scientist

Letitia Kotila is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Human Development and Family Science at The Ohio State University. Her research area focuses on parental involvement, coparenting, and couple relationships. Letitia has three children (ages 11, 9, and 2) with her husband. She enjoys playing sports, riding bikes, and watching movies with her family. She also enjoys cooking and baking. Often Letitia spends time on the weekends testing new recipes.

As part of our series on ‘life as research scientist’ we requested Letitia to answer few questions, and here is what we learned from her. So let’s join to hear from Family Scientist Letitia Kotila: (more…)

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Brown University Oncology Research Group: Twenty years of cancer treatment trials

Since 1994 cancer doctors affiliated with the Alpert Medical School have had a place with funding, administrative, and collegial support to develop and test novel cancer treatments: The Brown University Oncology Research Group.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Too few cancer patients, especially those with pancreatic cancer, get to the point that Raymond Sabella reached in the spring of 2014. Ten months after he began his trek from the diagnosis of an inoperable tumor to experimental chemotherapy and then radiation, he reports feeling great. He’s gaining back some of the weight he lost, but not too much, and something else is back, too. (more…)

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A new device deciphers the language of cells

A biomedical engineer listens in on what proteins are saying.

As inventions go, Yale biomedical engineer Rong Fan’s entry into the innovation sweepstakes is not much to look at. Fan’s device, impressively named a single-cell, 45-plex protein secretion measurement platform, seems to be little more than a sandwich of two sheets of clear silicon rubber the thickness of window glass, each sheet a bit smaller than a credit card and bearing a smaller, darker rectangle divided into 14 vertical sections. It has no flashing lights, no intriguing noises, no moving parts, no signs of Applesque high design. Indeed, the object, displayed in Fan’s bustling laboratory on the first floor of the Daniel L. Malone Engineering Center, doesn’t appear to be doing anything at all. (more…)

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Our own treacherous immune genes can cause cancer after viral infection

HPV (human papillomavirus) infection is widely known to induce cancer. Many of the mutations that cause this virally-induced cancer are caused by a family of genes that normally combats viral infections, finds new UCL research.

This raises the possibility of developing drugs to regulate the activity of these genes to prevent HPV-associated cancers from developing and reduce the ability of existing cancers to evolve resistance to treatments. (more…)

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What Finding out a Child’s Sex before Birth Says about a Mother

Women who choose not to find out are more egalitarian, conscientious

COLUMBUS, Ohio – An expectant mother who chooses to find out her child’s sex before birth may be giving subtle clues about her views on proper gender roles, new research suggests.

The study found that women who choose not to learn their child’s sex may be more open to new experiences, and combine egalitarian views about the roles of men and women in society with conscientiousness. (more…)

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Preliminary clinical trial shows great promise for new multiple sclerosis treatment

Female hormone estriol reduces relapse rate by nearly 50 percent, UCLA neurologist reports

A study conducted by Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, a UCLA neurologist, shows that combining estriol, a female hormone, with Copaxone, a medication currently used to treat multiple sclerosis, reduced the relapse rate of MS by nearly 50 percent with only one year of treatment.  (more…)

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