Tag: Boston Children’s Hospital
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Could an already existing drug offer a real treatment for Ebola?
Study in human cells shows it counteracts Ebola’s defenses Amid the worsening Ebola outbreak in the Congo, now threatening to spill into Rwanda, a new study suggests that an existing, FDA-approved drug called nitazoxanide could potentially help contain this deadly, highly contagious infection. In meticulous experiments in human cells, led by Boston Children’s Hospital, the…
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Can gut bacteria prevent and even reverse food allergies?
Study finds altered gut microbiota in infants with food allergy; oral therapy to replenish bacteria prevented food allergy and suppressed established disease in mice. Every three minutes, a food-related allergic reaction sends someone to the emergency room in the U.S. Currently, the only way to prevent a reaction is for people with food allergies to…
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A robotic catheter that can navigate autonomously – the surgical equivalent of a self-driving car
Catheter navigates autonomously inside hearts in preclinical tests Surgeons have used robots operated by joysticks for more than a decade, and teams have shown that tiny robots can be steered through the body by external forces such as magnetism. Now, bioengineers led by Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital describe a robotic catheter that…
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A wearable safe sensor for use in diagnostics, therapeutics, human-computer interfaces, and virtual reality
Biocompatible sensor could be used in diagnostics, therapeutics, human-computer interfaces, and virtual reality Children born prematurely often develop neuromotor and cognitive developmental disabilities. The best way to reduce the impacts of those disabilities is to catch them early through a series of cognitive and motor tests. But accurately measuring and recording the motor functions of…
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New discovery could have profound implications for the treatment of autoimmunity and cancer
From the ashes of a failed pain drug, a new therapeutic path emerges In 2013, renowned Boston Children’s Hospital pain researcher Clifford Woolf, MB, BCh, PhD, and chemist Kai Johnsson, PhD, his fellow co-founder at Quartet Medicine, believed they held the key to non-narcotic pain relief. Woolf had shown that tetrahydrobioptrin — a protein also known as…
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Stimulating tissue growth and stretching organs internally with robotic implants
Mechanical pull stimulates stunted hollow organs to grow; could help treat defects like esophageal atresia and short bowel syndrome An implanted, programmable medical robot can gradually lengthen tubular organs by applying traction forces — stimulating tissue growth in stunted organs without interfering with organ function or causing apparent discomfort, report researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital.…
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CRISPR-Cas9 and other gene editing systems may need to be customized to the patient
Patients’ individual genomes may affect efficacy, safety of gene editing Gene editing has begun to be tested in clinical trials, using CRISPR-Cas9 and other technologies to directly edit DNA inside people’s cells, and multiple trials are recruiting or in the planning stages. A new study led by Boston Children’s Hospital and the University of Montreal raises a…