Research News

Scientists from the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Neil Segil have identified a natural barrier to the regeneration of the inner ear’s sensory cells, which are lost in hearing and balance disorders. Overcoming this barrier may be a first step in returning inner ear cells to a newborn-like state that’s primed for regeneration, as described in a new study published in Developmental Cell.

A protein that helps regulate calcium signaling within heart cells could play a key role in preventing chronic heart failure, according to an international study led by University of Utah Health scientists. The researchers say disruption in the signaling pathway for this protein, VDAC2, causes severe impairment of heart cell contraction, making it harder for the heart to deliver blood to the body. The finding suggests that drugs and other therapeutic treatments targeting VDAC2 could eventually help alleviate heart failure.

New research conducted in monkeys reveals that T cells are not critical for the recovery of primates from acute COVID-19 infections. T cell depletion does not induce severe disease, and T cells do not account for the natural resistance of rhesus macaques to severe COVID-19. Furthermore, strongly T cell-depleted macaques still develop potent memory responses to a second infection. 

The research could help doctors optimise the choice, timing, dose and sequence of antibiotics used to treat common infections, helping to halt the growing threat of antibiotic resistance to modern medicine.

A national research study has just launched to investigate the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines in transplant recipients. The Government of Canada, through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) and Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group (VSRG), is investing over $2.84 million in this research study, based at University Health Network and called PREVenT COVID, short for Prospective Evaluation of COVID-19 Vaccine in Transplant Recipients : A National Strategy.

Human brain is one of the most powerful and intelligent natural computer known to mankind. Neuromorphic computing refers to the field of technology where engineers try to build intelligent machines inspired from the working of mammal brains. Neurons and synapses are believed to be the most important building blocks giving rise to intelligence inside brains.

Integra Life Sciences Holding Corporation a leading global medical technology company announced positive clinical outcomes for PriMatrix Dermal Repair Scaffold for the management of hard to heal diabetic foot ulcers. This study is one of the largest DFU randomized controlled trials ever completed with more than 100 patients per treatment group and demonstrated that in most cases, one application of PriMatrix plus standard of care healed 60% of DFUs in 12 weeks versus 35% of DFUs that healed in 12 weeks with SOC for the per protocol analysis.

Adenovirus vaccine vectors, such as the ChAdOx1 nCov-19 construct which has risen to prominence as a major vaccine for COVID-19, may generate robust long-term immune system responses, according to scientists from the Universities of Oxford and the Cantonal Hospital St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Writing in the journal Nature Immunology, they detail an investigation into one of the key features of adenovirus vaccines – their ability to generate strong and sustained populations of the ‘killer’ T-cell element of the immune system.

Celltrion Group today announced new results from an in vivo efficacy study showing that regdanvimab, CT-P59 has a strong neutralising effect against the rapidly spreading Delta variant, B.1.617.2, first identified in India.

According to the World Health Organization, WHO, the Delta variant has been reported in 96 countries becoming the most common variant.1