Archive for Nancy Fliesler
With algae blooms hope for a long-acting local anesthetic
For decades, Chile’s shoreline has had problems with periodic algal blooms – referred to as Red Tide, but actually containing a mix of microorganisms including bluegreen algae. Their toxins accumulate in shellfish, landing seafood consumers in the hospital, partially paralyzed, sometimes needing ventilators to breathe. The nerve block caused by the toxins is reversible, so ... Read More about With algae blooms hope for a long-acting local anesthetic
The neurology resident that could
Elizabeth Engle used to wait in peoples’ driveways until midnight, hoping to enroll them in her genetic studies of eye-movement disorders. She landed there by chance: during her neurology residency, she saw a little boy whose eyes were frozen in a downward gaze. Wanting to find a solution to a disorder that others had written ... Read More about The neurology resident that could
Messenger RNA: A game-changing advance in regenerative medicine
A new way to reprogram ordinary human cells into stem cells, using RNAs, appears safer and much more efficient than current methods — and can much more readily transform stem cells into specialized cells to treat disease. We now know that scientists can take one of your cells, perhaps a skin cell, and transform it into ... Read More about Messenger RNA: A game-changing advance in regenerative medicine
A new target in polycystic kidney disease
In polycystic kidney disease, fluid-filled cysts gradually take over the kidneys, forcing patients to go on chronic dialysis — or wait for a kidney transplant. Hopes for a cure were raised when animal models showed promise in drugs inhibiting mTOR, a protein that coordinates cell growth and is over-active in PKD. But recent clinical trials ... Read More about A new target in polycystic kidney disease
Drug-testing alternative: a lung on a chip
Combining microfabrication techniques from the computer industry with modern tissue engineering, a team at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering has created a device that mimics the function of a human lung. This living “lung-on-a-chip,” which incorporates human lung and blood-vessel cells, reproduces the all-important interface between the lung’s tiny ... Read More about Drug-testing alternative: a lung on a chip