Half of costs to British economy related to lower employment and productivity Mental ill-health is costing the UK more than £94bn every year, counting treatment, social support costs and the losses to the economy from people who cannot work, according to the OECD . The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's report shows the whole ...

By Catharine Paddock PhD An implantable artificial kidney could transform prospects for people whose kidneys have failed and who have to rely on dialysis or the rare chance of a transplant to stay alive. Now, researchers working on the first-of-its-kind device that aims to meet this need says they are hopeful of running pilot trials in humans withi...

By Emily Reynolds | Nature Researchers have perfected a method of turning human stem cells into kidney tissue. Professor Melissa Little, head of the Kidney Research Laboratory at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, first grew a mini-kidney in 2013, forming two key cell types. But now her team has grown an organ that forms a...

Cancer Research UK The immune system protects the body against illness and infection caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. It is a collection of reactions and responses that the body makes to damaged cells or infection. So it is sometimes called the immune response. The immune system is important to cancer patients in many ways because: ...

Genetics Home Reference  Genome editing (also called gene editing) is a group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA. These technologies allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the genome. Several approaches to genome editing have been developed. A recent one is k...

Nature  Chromosomal translocations that generate in-frame oncogenic gene fusions are notable examples of the success of targeted cancer therapies1,2,3. We have previously described gene fusions of FGFR3-TACC3 (F3–T3) in 3% of human glioblastoma cases4. Subsequent studies have reported similar frequencies of F3–T3 in many other cancers, indicat...

NHS UK   MRSA is a type of bacteria that's resistant to several widely used antibiotics. This means infections with MRSA can be harder to treat than other bacterial infections. The full name of MRSA is meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. You might have heard it called a "superbug". MRSA infections mainly affect people who are stay...

HGP  The Human Genome Project (HGP) was one of the great feats of exploration in history - an inward voyage of discovery rather than an outward exploration of the planet or the cosmos; an international research effort to sequence and map all of the genes - together known as the genome - of members of our species, Homo sapiens. Completed in Apr...

US National Cancer Institute,  BRCA1 and BRCA2: Cancer Risk and Genetic Testing, April 1, 2015  BRCA1 and BRCA2 are human genes that produce tumor suppressor proteins. These proteins help repair damaged DNA and, therefore, play a role in ensuring the stability of the cell's genetic material. When either of these genes is mutated...

INAL Center, Italy  This hand comes from the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, in collaboration with the INAIL Prosthetics Center in Budrio.  It's a new robotic hand prosthesis that will allow patients to recover 90% of the functionality of a natural hand. The device does not need implants or surgical operations, as it is controll...

By Ian Birrell - The Guardian John Nhial was barely a teenager when he was grabbed by a Sudanese guerrilla army and forced to become a child soldier. He spent four years fighting, blasting away on guns almost too heavy to hold, until one day the inevitable happened: he was seriously injured, treading on a landmine while he was on morning patrol. "I...

US Department of Veteran Affairs,   Center for Limb Loss and MoBility  Our aim is to improve prosthetic prescription by investigating the efficacy of prosthetic components used in current clinical practice and by developing novel approaches to improve the current standard of care. Our amputee-centric research encompasses improving pa...

By Mary Bates ​ Far from science fiction, brain-machine interfaces present a glimpse of the future of technologies powered by thought. Devices that convert brain activity from algorithm to action are giving those who are unable to speak or use their limbs independence once again. 'The Woman Who Drank the Coffee' In 2012, Cathy Hutchinson became kno...

London, UK | AP Television A new material is being used to make organs, which allows patients to grow stem cells inside their bodies rather than in a laboratory - according to scientists. The team at University College London say it'll be clinically trialled this year in operations to create ears for teenagers and stents and valves for people with ...

by Susan Young Rojahn  Elias Konstantopoulos gets spotty glimpses of the world each day for about four hours, or for however long he leaves his Argus II retina prosthesis turned on. The 74-year-old Maryland resident lost his sight from a progressive retinal disease over 30 years ago, but is able to perceive some things when he turns on the bio...

NHS | UK HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that damages the cells in your immune system and weakens your ability to fight everyday infections and disease. AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been ...

By Dr. Edwin Chun ​   The human body can live days without water, weeks without food, but only minutes without oxygen. The reason stems from how vital each of these factors are to the cells of our body which keep us alive. The most important factor vital to good health is oxygen. This should mean that if we were to increase oxygen to certain p...

Wikipedia  The Yoga Sutras are a composite of various traditions. The levels of samādhi taught in the text resemble the Buddhist jhanas . According to Feuerstein, the Yoga Sutras are a condensation of two different traditions, namely "eight limb yoga" (ashtanga yoga) and action yoga ( Kriya yoga ). Patanjali begins his treatise by stating the ...

By Deepak Chopra, M.D. ​ In the past forty years, meditation has entered the mainstream of modern Western culture, prescribed by physicians and practiced by everyone from business executives, artists, and scientists to students, teachers, military personnel, and – on a promising note – politicians. Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan meditates every morning ...

hortonworks.com ​ Artificial intelligence in healthcare is helping to fill in the gaps by diligently mining as much data as possible and making helpful suggestions that can lead to potential medical problems being identified earlier.  Drug trial shows promising results to fight Huntington's disease When Benjamin Franklin said, "An ounce of pre...