Research
Gene therapy can restore hearing function in children suffering from hereditary deafness, new research from the US and China has found. The research team found the novel gene therapy to be an effective treatment for patients with a specific form of autosomal recessive deafness. This was the first human clinical trial to administer gene therapy [...]
A drug prescribed to treat high blood pressure can also help lower anxiety for children and young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), new research has found. Given that some people with ASD tend to struggle with anxiety at a far greater rate than their neurotypical peers, the new finding could significantly help such individuals [...]
A new US study has for the first time identified genetic variants that predict whether patients will respond to treatment for preterm birth, a condition that affects one in 10 infants born in the United States. The findings are critical because no medication is available in the US to treat preterm birth. In 2023, the [...]
People suffering from Long COVID or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis /Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) could benefit from a coordinated treatment strategy, a recent study from the University of Otago in New Zealand has found. The pilot study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, a Nature journal, has confirmed what researchers have suspected for some time: the two conditions are [...]
Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) has revealed the companies set to join the 2024 cohort for its Advanced Wellbeing Accelerator programme. The six-month accelerator programme, which will support 10 start-ups and SMEs, saw a 30 per cent increase in applications on the previous year. The successful applicants include a Welsh company that [...]
Scientists in Norway have found a new way to supply diabetic patients with smart insulin, offering a new alternative to syringes or insulin pumps. The new insulin can be taken as a capsule or consumed in chocolate. The insulin is encapsuled in tiny nano-carriers 1/10,000th the width of a human hair. Professor Peter McCourt at UiT [...]
Recent advances in generative AI help to explain how memories enable us to learn about the world, re-live old experiences and construct totally new experiences for imagination and planning, a new study by UCL researchers has revealed. The research, published in Nature Human Behaviour and funded by Wellcome, uses an AI computational model – known [...]
A team of US scientists has created a new drug delivery system which can receive commands wirelessly from a smartphone or computer to schedule and trigger the release of drugs from individual microneedles. The Spatiotemporal On-Demand Patch (SOP)'s thin, soft platform resembles a plaster and was designed to enhance user comfort and convenience, since wearability [...]
A research team in Spain has successfully reduced the size of bladder tumours in mice by 90 per cent through a single dose of urea-powered nanorobots. The tiny nanomachines consist of a porous sphere made of silica, with their surfaces carrying various components with specific functions. Among them is the enzyme urease - a protein [...]
The NHS must treat at least 10 per cent more non-emergency hospital cases a month if it is to successfully start reducing the hefty backlog caused by the pandemic, a new analysis has found From February 2020 to October 2022, the waiting list for non-urgent care increased by 2.6 million cases – a projected 1.8 [...]
