Patients are about to be enrolled in the first study to test a gene-editing technique known as CRISPR inside the body to try to cure an inherited form of blindness. People with the disease have normal eyes but lack a gene that converts light into signals to the brain that enable sight. The experimental treatment aims to
An algorithm developed to study the structure of galaxies helps explain a key feature of embryonic development. As embryos develop, they follow predetermined patterns of tissue folding, so that individuals of the same species end up with nearly identically shaped organs and very similar body shapes. MIT scientists have now discovered a key feature of
Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan told attendees of PhRMA’s Innovation Day on Thursday that as biopharmaceutical companies embrace digital technologies to speed the discovery and development of new medicines, regulators will have to adapt more quickly. “FDA has been, more than any other regulator in the world, interested in working with these technologies,” Narasimhan said. But
The EU ombudsman this week said that it believes that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) should not allow the same experts to provide scientific advice to medicine developers prior to an application and evaluate the same medicine, claiming such overlap runs the risk of damaging impartiality or creating the perception of bias. In response to
At a Glance Calorie restriction for two years led to weight loss and a substantial reduction in risk factors for heart disease and diabetes in healthy adults 50 or younger. The findings suggest that a sustained restriction of caloric intake may reduce the risk for heart disease and diabetes. Calorie restriction is a type of
Using the tendency of circulating cancer cells to adhere to carbon nanotubes, the easily mass-produced chip captures living cells and cell clusters of multiple types and sizes with high reliability and makes them available for analysis. The chip could be used to detect tumors at the earliest stages, before they can metastasize Researchers at Worcester
Research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital digs into the cells of origin for key medulloblastoma subtypes Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, alongside others, have revealed the cells of origin for specific subtypes of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor. The work also has implications for how
The World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, named Switzerland as the world’s most innovative country on Wednesday, during the launch of its latest Global Innovation Index, (GII) in the Indian capital New Delhi. Following Switzerland in the rankings are Sweden, the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. India has risen most in the rankings since
A new kind of CAR-T becomes a micro-pharmacy, eliminating glioblastoma in mice n immunotherapy for cancer, the buzziest area of research is combinations: one checkpoint drug with another, say, or a checkpoint drug with chemotherapy. The latest brainstorm is an acronym lover’s dream team: CAR-Ts and BiTEs. In a mouse study reported on Monday in Nature Biotechnology, the
When time matters in hospitals, automated system can detect an early biomarker for the potentially life-threatening condition. A novel sensor designed by MIT researchers could dramatically accelerate the process of diagnosing sepsis, a leading cause of death in U.S. hospitals that kills nearly 250,000 patients annually. Sepsis occurs when the body’s immune response to infection
