For decades, one of modern medicine’s most stubborn puzzles has been the problem of biological compatibility. Organ transplants save countless lives each year, yet they are still governed by the ancient logic of blood types, a system that determines who can safely receive an organ and who must continue waiting. A patient with type O …
A woman in her 50s has received a custom-made, 3D-printed windpipe after surgery to remove thyroid cancer left part of her original airway missing. The procedure, performed in South Korea, marks a significant development in medical technology, combining living cells, specialised printing equipment, and years of scientific research to create a replacement designed specifically for …
For people living with severe spinal cord injuries, regaining the ability to walk can seem out of reach. However, a new scientific discovery is offering a closer look at how electrical stimulation may help restore movement, with researchers identifying specific nerve cells that play a critical role in the recovery process. The findings follow a …
When Dr Imogen Brooks lost most of her tongue to cancer at just 26, the challenges did not end when her treatment was over. Although surgeons reconstructed her tongue, the effects of radiotherapy later made speaking clearly a daily struggle, leaving her frustrated by conversations that once came naturally. Now, a bespoke artificial tongue developed …
Cancer cells can sometimes find a way to survive the very drugs designed to stop them, leaving researchers searching for new ways to fight back. Now, scientists investigating drug-resistant lung cancer have uncovered an unexpected possibility involving mebendazole, a medicine commonly used to treat parasitic worm infections. When researchers combined it with a targeted cancer …
Two people with glaucoma have shown early signs of improved vision after receiving an experimental treatment designed to rejuvenate damaged cells in the eye. Just eight weeks after the procedure, researchers observed improvements in the participants’ ability to detect lights in parts of their visual fields where they had previously struggled. The findings have raised …
For the first time, a man with a 37-year history of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) has begun producing his own insulin after receiving a transplant of gene-edited pancreatic cells. This groundbreaking clinical trial marks a pivotal moment in the search for a cure, offering a potential future where the daily burden of insulin injections and …
For more than half a century, scientists have known that some people carry a mysterious difference in their blood that could complicate life-saving transfusions. Now, researchers have finally uncovered the genetic explanation behind the rare blood characteristic, solving a medical puzzle that began in 1972 and potentially making it easier to protect patients from dangerous …
A baby facing a potentially dangerous lung tumor received treatment before birth, giving doctors a chance to reduce the pressure on the developing heart and lungs. The procedure used a thin needle and microwave energy while the baby was still inside the womb. The treatment was performed at 22 weeks of pregnancy after scans showed …
For years, Huntington’s disease has been known as a devastating inherited disorder that gradually takes away movement, memory, and identity. It leaves both patients and their loved ones feeling powerless as each generation faces the same decline. Families have endured its legacy with only temporary relief from medications that manage symptoms without halting the disease …
Pancreatic cancer can be one of the hardest cancers to catch early, often giving patients few obvious warning signs until the disease has already advanced. Now, researchers have reported results from an experimental blood test that could detect early-stage pancreatic cancer with an accuracy that may open a new path toward earlier diagnosis. The test, …
A Japanese hospital has taken a treatment once confined largely to regenerative medicine research and used it on a patient with severe heart failure. Doctors at Osaka Keisatsu Hospital transplanted a sheet of heart muscle cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, in what has been described as the world’s first clinical …