January 25, 2012
The blood stream carries nutrients throughout the body to aid in the growth and repair of tissues. However, previous cancer research has shown that the same system that helps the body grow also assists the growth of malignant tumours. The faster new blood vessels grow and develop can be an indication of cancer and research has shown that by preventing blood vessels from growing, the tumours can also be prevented from growing. However, in order to better understand how the growth of blood vessels and tumours are linked, scientists need to get a clear image of the network of blood vessels in organs.
The institute of cancer research and other research centres are able to map these networks, but it is a very time consuming process – to map a one centimetre block of tissue can take several months. In this time tumours can grow to a fatal state. However, the latest research by computational neuroscientists in the US details a new system that significantly reduces this time. While the new method was tested using mouse brain samples from medical storage, there is no reason why it shouldn’t be the same when investigating cancer and tumour growth.
The process for this new method involves filling the blood vessels with ink and then embedding the tissue sample in plastic. This is then placed on a vertically moving stage and a diamond knife shaves off a very thin slice, imaging the sample line by line at the tips of the knife. With each tiny movement the camera takes a photo and thus researchers get a full 3D structure of the vascular network.
This new method takes less than two days to produce a complete 3D image of the tissue sample, which could be a massive discovery in terms of understanding and supplying information from their cancer research. Future research is expected use fluorescent imaging when studying the tissue sample delivered by pharma distributors, which will not only provide more insight into cancer research but also how the brain structure links with function.
July 29, 2011
The first person who will live to see their 150th birthday has already been born. And the first person to live for 1,000 years could be less than 20 years younger. This is merely a prediction but anti aging technology is heading toward that very briskly. Anti aging research is in an attempt to cure the disease which is aging. Banishing diseases which go together with aging will mean that extending life indefinitely is no longer a concept for the imagination but rather a reality in about twenty five years.
Anti aging products and creams are improving but these products don’t cure but rather just post pone what will ultimately happen. Also, you can live a healthy life and you would still lead to your inevitable death. Anti Aging and longevity research will ensure that the same sort of medical control that we have over most infectious diseases today will be possible in the very near future. Soon we will see a time when people will go to their doctors for regular “maintenance,” which by then will include gene therapies, stem cell therapies, immune stimulation and a range of other advanced medical techniques to keep them in good shape and anti aging. With the help of a clinical research associate it wouldn’t matter how long ago you were born because the thing about maintenance is it works indefinitely.
The reason we age is because of cells not deteriorate. Molecular garbage accumulates inside the cell, and eventually it gets in the way of the cell’s workings. Medical professionals and a regulatory affairs manager are working to identify enzymes in other species that can break down the garbage and clean out the cells and the aim then is to devise genetic therapies to give this capability of anti aging to humans. Dead and dying cells will be replaced and the biggest cause of death won’t be old age but rather other accidents. Anti aging will soon be a reality.
July 29, 2011
Birth control has been predominately women’s responsibility over the past years but that is soon to change. If researchers at Columbia University Medical Centre are right men may soon be next in line to utter that infamous line “Oops I forgot to take my pill”. The first male birth control pill that has no negative side effects is under development. This new research was represented at The 93rd Annual Meeting & Expo of the Endocrine Society in Boston, Massachusetts.
Clinical research has proven years ago that Vitamin A reduces or completely stops the production of semen in male specimens. This was once again proven on mice and it was also proven that once normal amounts of vitamin A are restored that fertility returns almost immediately without side effect. This means that the effects on sperm production are merely temporary – the hallmark of birth control.
Some concerns where the effect of Vitamin A to eye sight. Although vitamin A is also crucial for vision, the drug’s developers say it will not affect sight. Another concern was that of sex drive. Unlike other hormone based birth control types, the vitamin A pill is a natural birth control method and will have no negative effects on the users. The male birth control will be an oral contraceptive unlike the steroid male birth control which is an injection based method. The founders of the ‘mice pill’, Drs. Wolgemuth and Chung and regulatory affairs job are enthusiastic about the possibilities, and are now planning longer-term studies to determine how long fertility can be disrupted and still recover after administration of the birth control stops.
