Stanford University researchers used nanotechnology and magnetics to create a biosensor that they said should be able to detect cancer in its early stages, making a cure more likely.

The sensor, which sits on a microchip, is 1,000 times more sensitive than cancer detectors used clinically today, according to scientists at Stanford, in Palo Alto, Calif. The researchers announced this week that the sensors have been effective in finding early-stage tumors in mice, giving them hope that it can be equally successful in detecting elusive cancers in humans.

Computer World

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For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result for researchers.

The vaccine cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent in the world’s largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, researchers announced Thursday in Bangkok.

Fox

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The prospect of a human baby with three biological parents has moved closer after scientists created monkeys using a technique that one day could stop children from inheriting severe genetic diseases.

The birth of four healthy macaque monkeys in the US offers the strongest evidence yet that DNA can be transplanted safely from one egg to another to correct genetic defects that damage health.

The successful experiment in a close human relative suggests that it should be possible within a few years to use the method to help women who carry genetic disorders to avoid passing them to their children.

It should allow scientists to replace faulty “cellular batteries” called mitochondria, which affect about 1 in 6,500 births.

The technique is controversial, however, because the children it creates would inherit genetic material from three parents. The mother and father would contribute most of their child’s DNA but a small amount would come from a second woman donating healthy mitochondria.

Times Online

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New bacteria-based medication, which is activated by consumption of a rare sugar, may prove pivotal in treating Crohn’s and colitis.

A genetically modified bacterium that turns into a drug-delivery vehicle in the presence of a type of sugar may offer a new way to treat bowel disease, British scientists said on Friday.

The new approach uses an engineered form of Bacteroides ovatus to deliver a human growth factor called KGF-2 directly to damaged cells in the gut — but the process is only activated in the presence of xylan, a sugar that is rare in a normal diet.

This means patients will be able to control their medication by ingesting xylan, perhaps in the form of a drink, after swallowing the freeze-dried bacteria in capsules.

“This is the first time that anyone has been able to control a therapeutic protein in a living system using something that can be eaten,” said Simon Carding of the Institute of Food Research, who led the research.

MNN

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It’s a terrifying prospect – a swarm of bees engulfing a victim to inflict hundreds of potentially lethal stings.

Scientists, however, have taken the idea and used it to inspire a treatment to take on cancer tumors.

They have developed microscopic ‘bees’ armed with the poison that causes the pain of stings to target cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue unharmed.

The ‘nanobees’ – thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair – rapidly shrank breast and skin tumours in tests.

They home in on the diseased cells before pumping out the melittin venom, delivering a deadly ‘sting’. At their core are beads made from perfluorocarbon, an inert material used in artificial blood.

Daily Mail

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