Medical Thought Leaders

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News Medical's "Thought Leaders" series is a selection of articles written by national and international experts and trusted advisers in health and medicine. All the articles are written by experts who have been invited as recognised leaders in their fields to provide a "state of the art" contribution.

Antibiotic resistance: a healthcare emergency?

Antibiotic resistance is happening in hospitals quite frequently. Probably the main place where resistant organisms and pathogens are acquired is in intensive care units (ICUs).

26 Jun 2017

Could the mTOR pathway be used to protect against cancer?

The mTOR pathway is probably the main pathway in humans and other animals that drives growth. That is, the accumulation of mass and adding mass to make an organism bigger by both making more cells, and making cells grow and become bigger.

22 Jun 2017

Could a blood test predict how cancer spreads in children?

Traditionally, we use biopsies to try to predict how cancer spreads. There are a number of molecular markers that are used, but biopsy is a limited approach. Now, the current trend is to use liquid biopsy, which is basically a blood sample.

21 Jun 2017

Cryopreservation of Embryos to Improve Assisted Reproductive Technology

If we were to compare the progression of cryopreservation technology during recent years, we would find that from 2004 to 2013 over a timeframe of a decade, there has been around a 2.5 times increase in the rate of frozen-thawed embryo transfers (FETs) that were reported to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART). While the rate of fresh embryo transfers (ET) that were completed was the same.

From Sofia Hospital of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine 19 Jun 2017

Cluster headaches: searching for effective therapies

Cluster headaches are probably the most painful types of pain a human can suffer and it is for no small reason that this condition is also sometimes referred to as suicide headache.

25 May 2017

Finding a cure for ALS

ALS is a neurodegenerative disease in which motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. As ALS progresses, neurons are unable to send impulses to muscles, making voluntary muscle movement difficult, including standing, walking and sitting, as well as speaking and swallowing.

22 May 2017

History of sleep: what was normal?

We used to sleep in two phases, with a first sleep and then a second sleep. Arguably from time immemorial to the nineteenth century, the dominant pattern of sleep in Western societies was biphasic, whereby most preindustrial households retired between 9 and 10pm, slept for 3 to 3 ½ hours during their “first sleep,”

17 May 2017

Depression in elite athletes

Our main findings showed that high-performance athletes were just as likely as non-athletes to report mild or more severe depressive symptoms.

16 May 2017

Analyzing single-cell RNA data in pre-malignant tumors

RNA sequencing is basically the isolation of RNA from cells and the use of reverse transcriptase to turn the RNA into DNA. You can then use your standard DNA sequencing technologies to quantify the cDNA that you obtained from the reverse transcription reaction.

12 May 2017

How does acne affect self-confidence?

Three in five teenagers surveyed by the British Skin Foundation reported ‘a fall in self-confidence’ as the biggest impact that acne has on their lives. From my experience as a dermatologist I find that those with acne can often feel unsupported, socially isolated and become withdrawn.

8 May 2017

Healthcare cuts linked to spike in mortality in England and Wales?

Deaths in 2015 increased by 5.6% compared to 2014, with 28,231 more deaths recorded. This is the biggest percentage increase for over 50 years, and third biggest since WWII.

3 May 2017

Are your bowel symptoms serious?

Very common – most of us will experience bowel symptoms from time to time, but usually the symptoms last only a few days. You should see your GP if they persist for more than three weeks (sooner if they are severe) or if your symptoms keep coming back.

24 Apr 2017

Brown fat in humans: more than previously thought

Brown fat is a tissue well studied in small mammals, where it acts as a heat-producing organ to stay warm in a cold environment. Its unequivocal identification in adult, healthy humans about a decade ago is of major importance due to its immense capacity to convert chemical energy into heat

20 Apr 2017

Developmental Split-Brain syndrome discovery

Our group describes a new entity, which we refer to as “Developmental Split-Brain syndrome” which we discovered affected four individuals from three unrelated families. All affected individuals showed disruption of communicating tracts between the right and left side of the brain which meant that there is lack of coordination and communication between the two sides of the brain.

12 Apr 2017

Using nanodiamonds to see smaller

Many of the most fundamental, life governing biological processes take place at size and time scales that remain invisible with current imaging technologies. Understanding how the molecules that underlie these processes move, interact and change could pave the way for new treatments, cures and the development of novel drug therapies.

7 Apr 2017

Are we sleeping less than we used to?

There's no solid evidence that we sleep fewer hours today than we ever did, this is something I have gone into large amounts of detail in my book, in my published papers and at a recent meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine.

6 Apr 2017

Pharmaceuticalization of today’s sleep

The pharmaceuticalisation of sleep, put simply, refers to the ways in which sleep becomes a site for manipulation or augmentation through pharmaceutical use. There are different ways in which sleep can be pharmaceuticalised – for example we can use pharmaceuticals to induce sleep, to consolidate broken sleep, or to prevent or delay sleep.

4 Apr 2017