Teens May Have Come Up with a New Way to Detect, Treat Lyme Disease Using CRISPR Gene Editing

Teens May Have Come Up with a New Way to Detect, Treat Lyme Disease Using CRISPR Gene Editing

Tick species that spread Lyme disease – credit CDC From 60 Minutes comes the story of a Georgia science team that carried the Stars and Stripes to Europe for an international science competition and finished in the top ten by using genetic engineering to develop a superior testing and treatment method for Lyme disease. If … Read more

Patients Thought Untreatable with Rare Disease Dramatically Improve with Common Gene Therapy

Patients Thought Untreatable with Rare Disease Dramatically Improve with Common Gene Therapy

A lumbar puncture – credit, BruceBlaus CC 3.0. via Wikimedia Commons A single-dose gene replacement therapy is found to transform the capabilities for movement in children over 2 years of age and teenagers with spinal muscular atrophy, according to research published in Nature Medicine. The effects allowed these minors who could sit but not stand … Read more

Quick Cancer Breath Test Hailed as Most Significant Step Toward a Lifesaving Breakthrough in 50 Years

Quick Cancer Breath Test Hailed as Most Significant Step Toward a Lifesaving Breakthrough in 50 Years

The pancreatic cancer testing device has a similar appearance – credit, Getty Images for Unsplash + A quick and easy breath test to detect the difficult-to-diagnose pancreatic cancer is being trialed nationally in the UK with huge expectations. Pancreatic cancer has a high mortality rate among cancers because of the tendency to discover it at … Read more

Mosquitoes Can’t Resist Smell of Fungus That Lures Them to Their Death Inside Trap Patented by Researchers

Mosquitoes Can’t Resist Smell of Fungus That Lures Them to Their Death Inside Trap Patented by Researchers

Courtesy of Kiley Riffell / UW There are dozens of ways to implement mosquito control, but none have proved a cure-all against the deadliest animal on Earth. Now, researchers have genetically-engineered a natural enemy of the mosquito—with millions of years of evolution backing up its deadly design—to attract and kill the insects even when humans … Read more

Restless Legs Syndrome Linked to Parkinson’s Risk–Making it a Perfect Case for Early Treatment

Restless Legs Syndrome Linked to Parkinson’s Risk–Making it a Perfect Case for Early Treatment

Curated Lifestyle for Unsplash + South Korean scientists recently determined that patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS) showed approximately double the Parkinson’s disease incidence. If that doesn’t sound like good news, it’s because you haven’t heard what they found next. Researchers from Korea University Ansan Hospital and collaborators then found that among those RLS patients, … Read more

Boy with Rare Genetic Disorder Amazes Doctors After World-First Gene Therapy

Boy with Rare Genetic Disorder Amazes Doctors After World-First Gene Therapy

Courtesy of Oliver Chu family The first child in history has successfully been treated with a new genetic therapy for an ultra-rare developmental defect called Hunter syndrome. Several years in the making, Oliver Chu became the first in the world to receive the stem cell-based treatment in February, and 3 months later seemed to be … Read more

10th Grader Saves Stepfather’s Life with His Newly-Learned CPR Skills Taught in Schools

10th Grader Saves Stepfather’s Life with His Newly-Learned CPR Skills Taught in Schools

Anthony Killinger with dad (CPR training photo by Martin Splitt) Less than a year after Anthony Killinger attended a CPR course in his school gymnasium, his mother was at the door of his bedroom saying she thought her husband was dead. Running downstairs, Killinger found his stepfather, Mike Reese, unconscious on the ground making a … Read more

Egypt Becomes 26th Country to Eliminate Leading Cause of Infectious Blindness with Triumph Over Trachoma

Egypt Becomes 26th Country to Eliminate Leading Cause of Infectious Blindness with Triumph Over Trachoma

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population of Egypt, receiving a commendation from Dr. Hanan Balkhy, Regional Director for WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region – credit WHO Egypt has become the 26th country to eliminate trachoma as a public health concern, building on a steady string of triumphs over tropical … Read more

Exoskeleton Walker Allows Children to Take Their First Steps After Doctors Said They Couldn’t

Exoskeleton Walker Allows Children to Take Their First Steps After Doctors Said They Couldn’t

– credit, courtesy of Trexo Robotics. At a Canadian wellness center, a unique robotic exoskeleton is allowing children with developmental disorders to walk—often for the first time. The nonprofit’s Regina location is eager to get families to come by and try it out. It can be used to correct a child’s gait or help them … Read more

‘Music to my Ears’: New Malaria Drug Succeeds in Large Clinical Trial to Combat Resistance

‘Music to my Ears’: New Malaria Drug Succeeds in Large Clinical Trial to Combat Resistance

Dunpharlain, CC license Among the world’s manifold disease burdens, antibiotic resistant bacteria hold a special place of concern. But recent evidence points to the malaria parasite also developing resistance to drugs that have been working to killed it off for the last quarter-century. Therefore, news that a major drug trial looking at the efficacy of … Read more