Incredible new steps for bionic legs Professor Hugh Herr is an American rock climber, engineer and biophysicist. At the age of 17 he was caught in a blizzard while climbing and ended up losing both his legs below the knee to frostbite. Ever since then, he’s worked on inventing prosthetic legs that work and feel like real legs. […]
A breakthrough in treating Endometriosis In the UK, 1 in 10 women of reproductive age will suffer from Endometriosis. About 1.5m women in the UK are currently living with the condition. It arises when cells similar to those the endometrium, the lining of the womb, are found elsewhere in the body. The condition can strike anytime between puberty
New treatments for Alzheimer’s New treatments for Alzheimer’s are welcomed by patients and doctors. Nobody needs a string of statistics to understand how devastating Alzheimer’s can be for patients, their loved ones and society. Treatments for the condition have been notable in their scarcity, particularly after one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world pulled out of the market
Can an injection treat obesity? In 2019/2020 there were over 1 million hospital admissions in the UK where obesity was a factor, an increase of 17% on 2018/2019. The Health Survey for England 2021 estimated in the same report that 25.9% of adults in England are obese and a further 37.9% are overweight. Around 2 in every 3 patients were female (64%)
‘Breakthrough’ drug extends breast cancer survival time A ‘breakthrough’ drug aimed at treating breast cancer is continuing to show positive results in Phase III trials. The drug, Capivasertib, first attracted headlines when some of the first trial results were published at the San Antonio Breast CancerSymposium in December 2022. Now the full trial results have been published
Monkeypox is spreading fast Monkeypox was rarely reported outside Africa until this April year. Cases have spread to 75 countries and the rate of transmission is increasing in some parts of the world. Last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The WHO has issued recommendations
Monkeypox – just how serious is it? There are now reportedly 20 cases of Monkeypox in the UK and a handful of cases have been identified in Spain, Portugal, Canada and the USA. Cases have reportedly also been found in Australia, Sweden and Italy, although have not been confirmed at the time of publishing (16:00 19th
New treatments for Alzheimer’s Alzheimer’s is notorious for the number of failed attempts to find treatments for the disease. Research over decades is yet to find any treatment that reliably works. Early in 2018 the world’s largest drug manufacturer, Pfizer, pulled out of all research into the disease, following a numberof setbacks in their research programmes. The most recent
Targeted therapy extends breast cancer survival About 150 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every day. It is one of the leading causes of death amongstfemales aged 50-64. We all know someone who has been affected by the disease. Now a clinical trial tracking a combination of drug therapies for nearly ten years has
Spinal implant reverses paralysis Just before Christmas an Italian man, Michel Roccati, stood up and walked on the streets of Lausanne, Switzerland. Four years before his spinal cord was completely severed in a motorcycle accident. He had been paralysed from the waist down for life. He walked again with the aid of a device which