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Three big AI projects in medicine to watch in 2020

Artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to touch medicine in many different ways, from making diagnoses to triaging patients. Many AI enterprises will make headlines in 2020:

24 Jan 2020

Meridian launches High-Specificity Pfu HS Mix to increase customers’ testing capabilities

Meridian Bioscience, Inc. today announced the launch of a High-Specificity Pfu HS Mix that not only provides high-fidelity amplification, but also offers market-leading amplification for companion diagnostic (CDx) and clinical testing.

From Meridian Bioscience, Inc. 24 Jan 2020

Iron overload, variant gene and malaria resistance linked in African study

A new study shows that a rare genetic mutation giving rise to a variant of the TP53 gene called P47S causes several linked biological processes.

24 Jan 2020

New drug combination destroys bacterial infection that can be fatal to cystic fibrosis patients

A new treatment developed by researchers at Aston University and Birmingham Children's Hospital has been found to completely kill a bacterial infection that can be deadly to cystic fibrosis patients.

24 Jan 2020

UC Davis MIND Institute provides care for those born with fragile X syndrome disorder

Fragile X syndrome is a debilitating genetic neurodevelopmental disorder that affects people worldwide, but many doctors don't know anything about it, let alone have the resources to properly diagnose or treat it.

24 Jan 2020

RB1 alterations in cancer cells may lead to treatment resistance

The Cancer Genetics Group of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, led by Montse Sánchez-Céspedes, together with Luis Montuenga from CIMA, and Enriqueta Felip from Vall d'Hebron Hospital, has revealed that inactivation of RB1 through intragenic rearrangements is frequent in lung cancer cells from non-smoking patients with EGFR mutations.

24 Jan 2020

Healing and hope for families affected by fragile X in Eastern Europe

Mothers and fathers and their young children crowded into an old, government-run children's hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, colorful, cartoonish drawings covering its hallway walls. Parents struggled to soothe their anxious, wriggly boys and girls. But they were patient, polite. It was, after all, a day unlike any other. A day for hope.

23 Jan 2020

Lung microbes could help predict outcomes in the seriously ill

A new study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine shows that recording the way the organisms living within the lungs change in type and numbers could reflect the response of the critically ill patient to medical care. Though changes in the lung microbiome have been known to exist even before this study, this research shows the clinical importance of this test.

23 Jan 2020

Halting metastasis by preventing cancer cells from using fat

Healthy cells normally undergo cell division, but when a genetic mutation causes uncontrolled cell growth, they form a tumor. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and most deaths happen when cancer cells start to metastasize or travel from the mother tumor to other parts of the body.

23 Jan 2020

Scientists uncover genetic information of what keeps us healthy

Genetics plays a role in the overall health and well-being of humans. Genes provide instructions for making proteins, which help determine the structure and function of each cell in the body. Aside from determining the characteristics inherited, genes have been linked to many diseases. Scientists have determined the genetic information of health.

23 Jan 2020

New vaccine against African swine fever appears to be more effective than previous vaccines

Government and academic investigators have developed a vaccine against African swine fever that appears to be far more effective than previously developed vaccines. The research appears this week in the Journal of Virology, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology.

23 Jan 2020

Landmark study identifies 102 genes associated with autism risk

In the largest genetic sequencing study of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to date, researchers have identified 102 genes associated with risk for autism. The study also shows significant progress towards teasing apart the genes associated with ASD from those associated with intellectual disability and developmental delay, conditions which often overlap.

23 Jan 2020

Researchers identify novel cellular entry factor for AAV vector types

Researchers led by a team at Massachusetts Eye and Ear have identified a novel cellular entry factor for adeno-associated virus vector (AAV) types--the most commonly used viral vectors for in vivo gene therapy. AAVs are vectors-or vehicles--that are created from a virus that is made harmless by molecular engineering, and have shown promise transporting genetic therapy treatments to affected tissues.

23 Jan 2020