Tag: medicine

In silico labeling

The new deep-learning network can identify whether a cell is alive or dead, and get the answer right 98% of the time (humans can typically only identify a dead cell with 80% accuracy) — without requiring invasive fluorescent chemicals, which make it difficult to track tissues over time. The deep-learning network can also predict detailed features such as nuclei and cell type (such as neural or breast cancer tissue).

Beta Thalassemia Breakthrough

The researchers’ hope was that the modified stem cells would mature into red blood cells and produce robust amounts of healthy hemoglobin. That hope was realized. 9 of the 2 patients suffered from severe beta thalassemia, and, after treatment, the number of blood transfusions they required fell by 74%. 3 of the 9 no longer need any transfusions at all. The same is true of 12 of the 13 patients with the less severe version of the disease. So far, the subjects of the trial have been observed for a maximum of 42 months, but they will be monitored long into the future, to insure that the benefits of the therapy persist and cause no serious side effects. 1 early concern—that the procedure could disrupt the DNA of the stem cells, potentially triggering leukemia—has not, fortunately, come to fruition.

Solving Alzheimers?

Bill Gates believes we are at a turning point in Alzheimer’s Research and Development. Now is the right time to accelerate that progress before the major costs hit countries that can’t afford high priced therapies and where exposure to the kind of budget implications of an Alzheimer’s epidemic could bankrupt health systems. This is a frontier where we can dramatically improve human life. It’s a miracle that people are living so much longer, but longer life expectancies alone are not enough. People should be able to enjoy their later years—and we need a breakthrough in Alzheimer’s to fulfill that. I’m excited to join the fight and can’t wait to see what happens next.

Nanodrills

Researchers demonstrated single-molecule nanomachines that can target diseased cells and then kill them by drilling through the cell membrane. The single-molecule nanomotors are 1-billionth of a meter wide and spin at 3m rotations per second. They’re activated by ultraviolet light and could also be used to deliver drug treatment into the cells

IRB delenda est

Many people took My IRB Nightmare as an opportunity to share their own IRB stories. From an emergency medicine doctor:

Thanks for the great post about IRBs. I lived the same absurd nightmare in 2015-2016, as an attending, and it’s amazing how your experience matches my own, despite my being in Canada. 1 of our residents had an idea for an extremely simple physiological study of COPD exacerbations, where she’d basically look at the patient and monitor his RR, saturation, exhaled CO2 temporal changes during initial treatment. Just as you were, I was really naive back in 2015, and expected we wouldn’t even a consent form, since she didn’t even have to talk to the patients, much less perform any intervention. Boy I was wrong ! The IRB, of course, insisted on a 2-page consent form discussing risks and benefits of the intervention, and many other forms. I had to help her file over 300 pages (!) of various forms. Just as in your case, we had to abandon the study when, 2 years after the first contact with the IRB, they suggested hilarious “adjustments” to the study protocol “in order to mitigate possible risks”.

Atul Gawande

We covered the marginal value of health care, the progress of AI in medicine, whether we should fear genetic engineering, whether the checklist method applies to marriage (maybe so!), whether FDA regulation is too tough, whether surgical procedures should be more tightly regulated, Michael Crichton and Stevie Wonder, wearables, what makes him weep, Knausgaard and Ferrante, why surgeons leave sponges in patients, how he has been so successful, his own performance as a medical patient, and much more.

Thawing Diseases

In August 2016, in a remote corner of Siberian tundra called the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic Circle, a 12-year-old boy died and at least 20 people were hospitalized after being infected by anthrax. The theory is that, over 75 years ago, a reindeer infected with anthrax died and it’s frozen carcass became trapped under a layer of frozen soil, known as permafrost. There it stayed until a heatwave in the summer of 2016, when the permafrost thawed.