A new breakthrough in modern medicine could be upon us. A UK company called Medisieve wants to cure tenacous diseases like malaria using... magnets!
To understand how Medisieve works, think how you're asked to drink a Barium solution before an X-Ray
If pathogen cells could be bound with magnetic nanoparticles, you could extract them with a magnet - that's Medisieve's belief
Human trials will start very soon.
We’ve covered news of a longevity fund that hopes to extend human lives past a hundred years. We’ve explored the concept of remote surgery, where a doctor miles away operates on a patient through the use of mixed reality technology.
Now, a UK company called Medisieve literally wants to use magnets to pull out diseases out of the bloodstream. Yes, you heard that right.
"A new survey of DNA fragments circulating in human blood suggests our bodies contain vastly more diverse microbes than anyone previously understood. What's more, the overwhelming majority of those microbes have never been seen before, let alone classified and named, Stanford researchers report August 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
"We found the gamut," said Stephen Quake, a professor of bioengineering and applied physics, a member of Stanford Bio-X and the paper's senior author. "We found things that are related to things people have seen before, we found things that are divergent, and we found things that are completely novel."
Here are two breakthroughs you might like to know about.
Surprising New Role
for Lungs: Making Blood, University of CaliforniaSan Francisco, Nicholas Weiler, 22 Mar 2017.
“Using video microscopy in the living mouse lung, UC San
Francisco scientists have revealed that the lungs play a previously
unrecognized role in blood production. As reported online March 22, 2017, in
Nature, the researchers found that the lungs produced more than half of the
platelets – blood components required for the clotting that stanches bleeding –
in the mouse circulation.”
“In another surprise finding, the scientists also identified
a previously unknown pool of blood stem cells capable of restoring blood
production when the stem cells of the bone marrow, previously thought to be the
principal site of blood production, are depleted.”
“’This finding definitely suggests a more sophisticated view
of the lungs – that they’re not just for respiration but also a key partner in
formation of crucial aspects of the blood,’” said pulmonologist Mark R. Looney,
MD, a professor of medicine and of laboratory medicine at UCSF and the new
paper’s senior author. “’What we’ve observed here in mice strongly suggests the
lung may play a key role in blood formation in humans as well.’” Please go here for the whole story.
Breakthrough
discovery may make blood test feasible for detecting cancer, PurdueUniversity,
7 Mar 2017.
“Doctors may soon be able to detect and monitor a patient’s
cancer with a simple blood test, reducing or eliminating the need for more
invasive procedures, according to PurdueUniversity research.”
“W. Andy Tao, a professor of biochemistry and member of the
Purdue University Center for Cancer Research and colleagues identified a series
of proteins in blood plasma that, when elevated, signify that the patient has
cancer. Their findings were published in the early edition of the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences.”
“Tao’s work was done with samples from breast cancer
patients, but it is possible the method could work for any type of cancer and
other types of diseases. The work relies on analysis of microvesicles and
exosomes in blood plasma.” Please go here for the whole story.
