Medical Discoveries And Bio-Inspired Innovations by T Goodman

Welcome to my page. I write about new inventions, findings, and discoveries in medicine, and about biology - specifically inventions and designs that are bio-inspired. Known as biomimicry today, the creation of mechanical forms based on nature's superb performers, has been practiced by man and many lesser species as far back as history can trace.

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New Treatment Targets Cancer Cells - Not Healthy Ones

UCLA-developed degradable capsules deliver cancer treatment

by T Goodman

Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samuel School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a new treatment method for cancer; a method that delivers a cancer killer to the nucleus of a cancer cell without harming healthy cells, avoiding the risks associated with gene therapy and chemotherapy.

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Large Study Links Erectile Dysfunction To Heart Disease And Early Death

by T Goodman

From Australian National University comes a longitudinal study of more than 95,000 men that links erectile dysfunction (ED) with heart disease. Though previous studies have demonstrated the link between ED and cardiovascular disease (CVD), this is the first study to show how the severity of ED can indicate the extent of the risk - and that ED is not just a risk factor for heart disease, but a risk marker.

New Protein Discovered In T-Cells That Protects Against The Flu

by T Goodman

Researchers have discovered a protein in some of the body's T-cells that is a powerful repellent of influenza and other viruses. It's called IFITM3, and it won't help the norovirus or the remainder of this season's upper-respiratory flus, but if it can be incorporated into a vaccine, it might ward them off in the near future.

Snoring Increases Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease

by T Goodman

New research, conducted by the Henry Ford Hospital's sleep center, indicates that snoring is a contributor to cardiovascular disease, because it thickens the carotid arteries, the main arteries to the head and neck. The researchers warn that snoring is, in fact, a greater risk for atherosclerosis than smoking or obesity.

The Effects Of Yoga On Psychiatric Disorders

by T Goodman

Duke University researchers have conducted a major review of the psychiatric literature that measures the effects of yoga as a treatment for a range of mental disorders in clinical trials. Here's how they went about their research, their results, and the implications for the future treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders.

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Researchers Discover New Target For Cancer Treatment

by T Goodman

Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia have identified a nutrient transporter cell, SLC5A8, that can be suppressed, causing cancer cells to die while not harming healthy cells.

Scientific Fraud More Likely Among Men Than Women In Life Science Fields

by T Goodman

.... Misrepresentations in scientific reporting are serious offences, undermining the most basic principles of science, those that rely on complete objectivity, with no predetermination of result. Scientific fraud is both unethical and, ultimately, costly, most especially where plant, animal, and human life may be endangered by it. So it is important to live science fields, in particular, to understand more about factors contributing to scientific fraud in an attempt to reduce the incidence of it. This study, undertaken by a cross-disciplinary team of life scientists looks at two of these factors: gender and career levels.

Do You Really Need Underarm Deodorant?

by T Goodman

There's a genetic mutation that keeps certain persons from having smelly underarms and sticky ear wax. The question, to a group of scientists from the University of Bristol in Great Britain, was whether persons with no underarm odor used deodorant anyway. The results of their study of 17,000 individuals are published in the advance online edition of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

Biomimicry In Fashion: Bird Skull Shoe Design

by T Goodman

So many many man-made creations have been inspired by nature, animal physiology in particular. But fashion... Biomimicry even goes beyond the fashionable animal prints we find printed on so many fabrics these days. Here, for example, is a Bird Skull Shoe, and I don't need to tell you what inspired it.

NIH Scientists Identify Molecule That Restores Memory In Mice With Alzheimer's

Can TFP5 reverse Alzheimer's symptoms in humans?

by T Goodman

This year is starting off with the publication of several promising research studies in biomedicine and reports on big advances in neuroscience, particularly Alzheimer's disease and other neurological causes of memory loss. This news includes a paper from a National Institutues of Health (NIH), published in the January 2013 FASEB Journal reporting on a peptide, TFP5, that when administered to mice with the equivalent of human Alzheimer's disease, successfully reversed their symptoms of memory loss.