Video: Dr. Dan Janes Discusses the Scientific Contributions of Charles Darwin

NIH: Darwin Day is an occasion to recognize the scientific contributions of 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin. In this video (originally posted on Darwin Day 2016), our own evolutionary geneticist, Dan Janes, answers questions about Darwin and the role of evolution in health and biomedicine.

Video: Are proteins derived from sustainable sources, nutritious enough?

Wageningen:

 Are proteins derived from sustainable sources, nutritious enough? This question is central to research conducted by the public-private partnership 'Sustainable Future proteins: focus on nutritional and health-promoting qualities'. The research, coordinated by Wageningen University & Research, will provide a scientific basis for the development of high-quality foods with sustainable proteins, and will provide ways for companies to rapidly and efficiently screen novel proteins. More information at www.wur.eu/futureprotein. Contact us at info.fbr@wur.nl.

Video: Starring the Wiring Diagram of the Human Brain

Visualization of real MRI brain scan data from a single person, showing nerve fiber bundles near or feeding into part of the hippocampus.

VIDEO: Depression. Living with a black dog

This short video is a guide for partners, carers and sufferers of depression. It provides advice for those living with and caring for people with depression on what to do, what not to do, and where to go for help.

VIDEO: I had a black dog, his name was depression

 This short video tells the story of writer and illustrator Matthew Johnstone’s depression and how he overcame it. It was produced by Matthew, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, to mark World Mental Health Day 2012.

VIDEO: Understanding Alzheimer's; the search for a treatment

South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI)
Alzheimer’s disease affects the brain and is the most common and important cause of dementia. Dementia can include memory loss, and a decline in cognitive ability.

Disabling Migraine : A lecture from the American Headache Society

Microchips that replicate biology (video)

Microchips that replicate biology will help to tackle diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular and other chronic conditions, says Pr Toumazou. Chris Toumazou, is known for creating technology that can mimic and replace biological functions. In Imperial’s annual Gabor lecture, Pr Toumazou discussed the variety of healthcare applications for microchips including his ‘lab on chip’ genetic test. In this video you can watch his unique lecture, including a live demonstration of two of his creations: a digital plaster, which attached to a member of the audience relayed real-time details of his vital signs, and an artificial pancreas implanted in another audience member and relaying live blood sugar information.

Can children develop social and emotional skills digitally? (video)

Is screen time bad for children? How do kids learn emotions in digital environments? Do they learn empathy? Cognitive neuroscientist Katri Saarikivi and her team at the University of Helsinki are investigating, what makes the interactive situation so special and why it isn’t exactly the same when chatting, playing or communicating online.

Marrying Microfluidics and Barcoding Technology Allows Efficient Probing Of The Single-Cell Variability

It has long been the dream of biologists to map gene expression at the single-cell level. With such data one might track heterogeneous cell sub-populations, and infer regulatory relationships between genes and pathways. Recently, RNA sequencing has achieved single-cell resolution. What is limiting is an effective way to routinely isolate and process large numbers of individual cells for quantitative in-depth sequencing. We have developed a high-throughput droplet-microfluidic approach for barcoding the RNA from thousands of individual cells for subsequent analysis by next-generation sequencing. The method shows a surprisingly low noise profile and is readily adaptable to other sequencing-based assays. We analyzed mouse embryonic stem cells, revealing in detail the population structure and the heterogeneous onset of differentiation after leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) withdrawal. The reproducibility of these high-throughput single-cell data allowed us to deconstruct cell populations and infer gene expression relationships.

Heart researchers revealed how a faulty gene can cause fatal abnormal heart rhythms (video)

University of Manchester researchers, funded by the British Heart Foundation, have revealed how a faulty gene can cause fatal abnormal heart rhythms that are brought on by exercise.



 
Dangerous heart rhythms called arrhythmias, often caused by undiagnosed heart conditions, can cause sudden cardiac arrests that take the lives of seemingly healthy young men and women including sports people.

Mayo Expert Says New Cholesterol Drugs are Very Effective (video)

Mayo Clinic: A FDA advisory panel has recommended approval of the first drug in a new class of cholesterol-lowering medications, called PCSK9 inhibitors. PCSK9 is a protein that interferes with the liver's ability to reduce levels of LDL, often called the bad cholesterol. A similar drug made by another company will be considered by the panel today. "The thing that’s different about [these medications] is that they actually enhance your own body’s ability to clear cholesterol," says Stephen Kopecky, M.D., with Mayo Clinic's division of cardiovascular diseases and the immediate past president of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology (ASPC).

Seeing MS: exposing the invisible disease

Deakin: Most symptoms of multiple sclerosis go unnoticed by everyone except the person living with them. One day they can alter your memory, the next your vision. Striking without warning and leaving no trace, they are invisible. The Seeing MS project invited nine photographers to depict each symptom in a single image, inspired by stories of those touched by the disease. With the Seeing MS app, everyone with a camera can uncover the unseen. Photo filters based on each symptom will allow you to see and share how MS affects those living with the disease.

How is sex differentiation of the foetus during prengancy? VIDEO

Armando Hasudungan:

Body’s ‘serial killers’ captured on film destroying cancer cells

Cambridge: A dramatic video has captured the behaviour of cytotoxic T cells – the body’s ‘serial killers’ – as they hunt down and eliminate cancer cells before moving on to their next target. Inside all of us lurks an army of serial killers whose primary function is to kill again and again. A study published in the journal Immunity describe how specialised members of our white blood cells known as cytotoxic T cells destroy tumour cells and virally-infected cells. Using state-of-the-art imaging techniques, the research team, with funding from the Wellcome Trust, has captured the process on film.

Napoleon Bonaparte and the insulin revolution

Sydney: A team of Sydney researchers has drawn inspiration from a 19th century map, commissioned by Napoleon to chart his defeat in Russia, to show how insulin works in the human body. Published in Cell, the simple yet sophisticated diagram charts in unprecedented detail the insulin/IGF1 signalling pathway (ISP), a complex network of molecular interactions triggered by insulin which plays an essential role in long-term health, obesity and diseases such as diabetes.

ISS: For a Healthy Cardiovascular System, Both in Space and on the Earth (NASA video)

Every month, NASA focus on a scientific area where the International Space Station is conducting groundbreaking research. This month, astronaut Tracy Dyson hosts a focus on cardiovascular health in space.
- Learn the important habits for maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system, both in space and on the Earth
- Find out how an astronaut’s heart health can even effect their vision
- Hear from a NASA Flight Surgeon on how we work to keep astronauts healthy and fit
- Witness a station technology being used to improve lives right here on the ground
- And much more!

Using sound waves to detect rare cancer cells

MIT: Cancer cells often break free from their original locations and circulate through the bloodstream, allowing them to form new tumors elsewhere in the body. Detecting these cells could give doctors a new way to predict whether patients’ tumors will metastasize, or monitor how they are responding to treatment, but finding these extremely rare cells has proven challenging because there might be only one to 10 such cells in a 1-milliliter sample of a patient’s blood. A team of engineers from MIT, Penn State University, and Carnegie Mellon University is developing a novel way to isolate these cells: using sound waves to separate them from blood cells.

A Journey towards Recovery from Depression (video 29mn)

Newcastle: Shared decision-making is a process through which patients and doctors work together to identify the treatment option(s) that best suit the individual patient. In the doctor-patient relationship, the doctor contributes their expert knowledge in diagnosis, available treatment options and likely outcomes of treatment, and the patient brings their expertise in the form of their own values, beliefs, circumstances and attitude towards the potential pros and cons of the available options. Shared decision-making combines these two areas of expertise in a balanced discussion in order to reach the best decision for the patient. This process benefits not only individuals but the health care system as a whole. Shared decision-making practices are actively encouraged by the NHS and they assert that the best care is provided when patients are fully involved in decision-making regarding their own care, instead of decisions being made for the patient by doctors alone -"no decision about me, without me".

Oral Chemotherapy: Managing Symptoms and Side Effects. Dana Farber