News by Subject Medicine & Health

During the conference, researchers will discuss how Droplet Digital PCR helps them screen stem cells for harmful mutations as well as how Droplet Digital PCR provides early detection of transplant rejection and delivers absolute quantification of gene expression to investigate cancer.

University of Alabama at Birmingham biomedical engineers report a significant advance in efforts to repair a damaged heart after a heart attack, using grafted heart-muscle cells to create a repair patch. The key was overexpressing a gene that activates the cell-cycle of the grafted muscle cells, so they grow and divide more than control grafted cells.

The number of patients in the US awaiting organ transplantation outpaces the amount of transplants performed in the US, and many donated organs are not transplanted each year due to several factors, such as poor organ function, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Increasing the quality and quantity of organs that can be recovered from deceased donors and successfully transplanted requires organ donor intervention research, which is conducted on donated organs prior to their transplantation.

The opioid epidemic has created a tragic surge in donor organs. But despite their safety record, hundreds of the organs, labeled as 'increased risk,' go unused.

More than a decade ago the federal government helped support the creation of public umbilical cord banks to collect and store a genetically diverse set of stem cells for clinical care and research. While use of stem cells from the banks has been dropping, the system still deserves support and can be bolstered in several ways to improve its usefulness, according to a new study.

People who in the course of their work put long-term physical strain on their bodies have an increased risk of developing osteoarthritis of the hip. This is especially the case for lifting and carrying heavy loads over long periods of time. This is the result of a systematic review reported by Annekatrin Bergmann and coauthors in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International.

Biologic joint restoration using donor tissue instead of traditional metal and plastic may be an option for active patients with joint defects. Researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine found in a group of patients that treating donor grafts with bone marrow aspirate concentrate before surgery improves bone integration and speeds recovery.

An international Yale-led research team has shown that a risk profile based on 52 genes accurately predicts survival for patients with a severe lung disease. If confirmed in further studies, the finding could transform the way patients are treated for the condition, which is on the rise in older adults.