How you could help stop a flu pandemic
We seem to be suffering from a global amnesia. Ask any passerby – as we did – “What was the most catastrophic cause of death in the last 100 years?” and you receive the usual…
We seem to be suffering from a global amnesia. Ask any passerby – as we did – “What was the most catastrophic cause of death in the last 100 years?” and you receive the usual…
Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young are the joint winners of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, winning for their discoveries about how internal clocks and biological rhythms govern human…
Zika has been around for decades but only recently began to cause birth defects due to a single mutation the mosquito-borne virus likely acquired in 2013, researchers said Thursday. The report in the US journal Science explains…
Precise “chemical surgery” has been performed on human embryos to remove disease in a world first, Chinese researchers have told the BBC. The team at Sun Yat-sen University used a technique called base editing to…
Federal regulators have approved the first continuous blood sugar monitor for diabetics that doesn’t need backup finger prick tests. Current models require users to test a drop of blood twice daily to calibrate, or adjust,…
Researchers have discovered a protein that could help diagnose a degenerative brain disease commonly found in athletes, veterans of military service and others who have experienced brain trauma, a new study published on Tuesday showed….
A man in France has regained some degree of consciousness after being in a vegetative state for 15 years. Doctors treated the 35-year-old, injured in a car accident, with an experimental therapy that involved implanting…
1 million people recruited to study how genes, habits and environment affect health outcomes. Unusual for observational research, volunteers will get receive results of their genetic and other tests. In a quest to end cookie-cutter…
A new study has investigated how mothers and fathers cause new genetic mutations in their children, and how some of these mutations may lead to negative outcomes. Characteristics that we inherit from our parents –…
Scientists have engineered an antibody that attacks 99% of HIV strains and can prevent infection in primates. It is built to attack three critical parts of the virus – making it harder for HIV to…
British scientists have used genome “editing” technology to reveal the role of a key gene in the early development of human embryos, a potential boost for fertility treatment. They used genome “scissors” called CRISPR-Cas9 to…
Dennis Lyon was a genetic train wreck. Cancer was ravaging his liver, lungs, bones and brain, and tests showed so many tumour mutations that drugs targeting one or two wouldn’t do much good. It seemed…
CNIB pilot project plans to install 200 wayfinding beacons in Toronto stores, restaurants. If you were blind and walked into a coffee shop, how would you find the counter so you could order? That’s easy…
Increasingly, research is showing that Type 2 diabetes can be put into long-term remission. “It’s taken years to accumulate this evidence,” said Dr. Hertzel Gerstein, diabetes expert at McMaster University. “Ten years ago people would have…
A test that involves drawing a spiral on a sheet of paper could be used to diagnose early Parkinson’s disease. Australian researchers have trialled software that measures writing speed and pen pressure on the page….
More mosquitoes? In Fresno, a truck sprays millions of bacteria-infected mosquitoes to halt advance of Aedes aegytpi. By now, Bonnie Smith and her three children are used to seeing it. Every couple of days, a…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told EpiPen’s maker, Pfizer Inc., this week that it failed to properly investigate reports of malfunctioning auto-injectors, including incidents associated with patient deaths and severe illnesses. The FDA’s Sept….
Testing water for E. coli may soon be faster and cheaper than ever thanks to a Canadian-made test that inventors say could prevent billions of people from getting sick with the potentially deadly bacteria. At…
A handheld device can identify cancerous tissue in 10 seconds, according to scientists at the University of Texas. They say it could make surgery to remove a tumour quicker, safer and more precise. And they…
Concerns about vulnerability of some Abbott/St. Jude medical devices to cyberattacks were raised last year. Health Canada could take up to 75 days to decide whether to approve a programming fix aimed at a potential…
‘I can check in at any time and feel less anxious,’ says mom of triplets. A new program at the neonatal intensive care unit at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital is allowing new parents to keep…
Sea Quest Hero is more than just the usual computer game in which players find their way through mazes, shoot and chase creatures — it also doubles as scientists’ latest tool for studying Alzheimer’s disease….
Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst prognoses—with a five-year survival rate of 9 percent—in part because there are no telltale symptoms or non-invasive screening tools to catch a tumor before it spreads. Now, University…
Yale experts and their partners in a national research consortium have identified several genes and gene clusters associated with the immune response to flu vaccination. The findings point to the prospect of using genetic profiles…
The National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) are collaborating to develop innovative technologies to better diagnose and treat patients with neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and brain injuries. These…
UTRECHT, Netherlands – Els van der Heijden, who has cystic fibrosis, was finding it ever harder to breathe as her lungs filled with thick, sticky mucus. Despite taking more than a dozen pills and inhalers…
More than 4,500 Canadians are waiting for an organ transplant and many will die before a suitable one becomes available. But new research is opening the door to a future where pigs could become a…
An American study published in Science Translational Medicine, which followed 200 cancer patients in the U.S., Denmark and the Netherlands, has paved the way for the early detection of several types of cancer in apparently…
In 2002, Ian Thompson, a specialist in facial reconstruction at King’s College, London, received an urgent phone call. A patient in his late 20s had been struck by an out-of-control car mounting the pavement. The…
One of the world’s largest tobacco companies is rolling out a smokeless cigarette in Canada that it contends is less harmful than conventional combustible products, but some critics call the device merely a ploy to…
Australian researchers may have found a treatment to combat a serious side effect of chemotherapy treatments prescribed for cancer patients. Their research, which was conducted on rodents, will now go on to clinical trials on…
It’s rare for researchers to discover a new class of drugs, but a University of Calgary microbiology professor recently did so — by accident – and now hopes to revolutionize autoimmune disease treatment. In 2004,…
Thanks to an Edmonton doctor, young cardiac patients will soon have a reassuring way to learn about the procedures they might need to undergo. Dr. Michiko Maruyama came up with the idea of making educational paper…
2016 was a rich year for medical technology. Virtual Reality. Augmented Reality. Smart algorithms analysing wearable data. Amazing technologies arrived in our lives and on the market almost every day. And it will not stop…
BOISE, Idaho – Canadian officials say three types of potatoes genetically engineered by an Idaho company to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine are safe for the environment and safe to eat….
Several styles of liquid-filled iPhone cases are being recalled due to reports of skin irritation and burns if they crack or break open. Health Canada says 16 styles of cases, which such names as Star…
Safety of the methods needs to be established before they’re adopted clinically, experts say. U.S. scientists have succeeded in altering the genes of a human embryo to correct a disease-causing mutation, making it possible to prevent the…
Researchers at Harvard and Boston University have developed and tested a soft, wearable exosuit on stroke patients with limited mobility, and found that it can help to promote normal walking. In approximately 80% of stroke patients…
New York-based health giant Northwell Health has teamed up with the Israel Innovation Authority to develop and implement a number of medical innovations it says will improve patient care. Representing hundreds of medical technology start-up…
U.S. scientists have for the first time altered the genes of human embryos — a controversial step toward someday helping babies avoid inherited diseases. Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland believe they have broken…
The technique was first used in a recent study at the University of Guelph, which found that 80 per cent of Chinese Patent Medicine contains ingredients not listed on the label. Steven Newmaster, a professor…
A recent study from Uppsala University shows how smartphones can be used to make movies of living cells, without the need for expensive equipment. The study is published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, making…
The image depicts a 3D rendering of the brain, with the cancer detectable on magnetic resonance Imaging (MRI) in red and yellow. The bright points indicate cancer detected using Raman spectroscopy as far as 1…