Pulsatile 1st Edition

Nobel prize In Medicine Born: Affiliation at the time of the award: Prize motivation:

Field

The 1952 prize was awarded to Selman Waksman for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic for tuberculosis. The award decision launched a controversy because Albert Schatz, the antibiotic's co-discoverer, was not included in the prize. Schatz sued Waksman over credit for the discovery, and won a settlement and patent rights, but never received the Nobel.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially serious infectious disease that mainly affects your lungs. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis are spread from one person to another through tiny droplets released into the air via coughs and sneezes.

Once rare in developed countries, tuberculosis infections began increasing in 1985, partly because of the emergence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV weakens a person's \ immune system so it can't fight the TB germs. In the United States, because of stronger control programs, tuberculosis began to decrease again in 1993, but remains a concern.

Many strains of tuberculosis resist the drugs most used to treat the disease. People with active tuberculosis must take several types of medications for many months to eradicate the infection and prevent development of antibiotic

Symptoms - Latent TB. In this condition, you have a TB infection, but the bacteria remain in your body in an inactive state and cause no symptoms

- Active TB. This condition makes you sick and can spread to others. It can occur in the first few weeks after infection with the TB bacteria, or it might occur years later.

Signs and symptoms of active TB include

Causes

(Coughing that lasts three or more weeks) (Coughing up blood) - (Chest pain, or pain with breathing or coughing) –(Unintentional weight loss) – (Fatigue) – (Fever) – (Night sweats) – (Chills) – (Loss of appetite)

Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that spread from person to person through microscopic droplets released into the air.

This can happen when someone with the untreated, active form of tuberculosis coughs, speaks, sneezes, spits, laughs or sings.

HIV and TB Since the 1980s, the number of cases of tuberculosis has increased dramatically because of the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Infection with HIV suppresses the immune system, making it difficult for the body to control TB bacteria. As a result, people with HIV are many times more likely to get TB and to progress from latent to active disease than are people who aren't HIV positive

Although tuberculosis is contagious, it's not easy to catch. You're much more likely to get tuberculosis from someone you live with or work with than from a stranger. Most people with active TB who've had appropriate drug treatment for at least two weeks are no longer contagious

The 10 Biggest Clinical Success Stories of 2016 in European Biotech

Getting closer to an HIV Cure Abivax is one of the most advanced players developing a cure for HIV: early this year, the company released results from a Phase IIa trial with ABX464, a small molecule that inhibits HIV replication. Unlike current antiretrovirals, the drug candidate can target the reservoirswhere the virus hides in its latent form and therefore has the potential to eliminate the virus completely. Abivax is now running a second Phase IIa trial testing ABX464 in combination with other antiretrovirals and data is expected early next year.

Crouzon syndrome

Medical Care

Surgical Care

Nonsurgical treatment of Crouzon syndrome has been performed using orthopedic and orthodontic devices, as well as prosthetic devices.

A neurosurgical procedure is recommended in cases of intracranial hypertension leading to further optic atrophy. This surgery is difficult, and the procedure must be considered and undertaken in stages

From Kathy Allen’s point of view, paired organ donation just may be the ultimate in generosity. Deciding to donate a kidney to someone you don’t know in a paired exchange can trigger a chain of matches that gives several people the opportunity for a renewed life

Finding a different way forward Kathy’s kidney problems stemmed from polycystic kidney disease. The condition causes clusters of cysts to develop in the kidneys and often can lead to kidney failure that requires treatment with dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Before the paired donation, Kathy also had a previous kidney transplant after the disease had damaged her kidneys.

she says.

Kidney Donation Kathy, who lives in St. Peter, Minnesota, benefitted from the generosity of a family friend who volunteered to donate a kidney to her in March 2015. That individual was not a match for Kathy, but he was a match for someone else. Meanwhile, a woman from Illinois whose husband needed a kidney was a match for Kathy. And thus began a paired exchange at Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus that, in the end, helped 10 people receive new, healthy kidneys.

“

Kathy says.

Fortunately for Kathy, Mayo Clinic’s paired donation process worked well for her. She was able to receive a new, healthy kidney, and her transplant was a success. Kathy’s thankful for that, and for the backing she received before, during and after the transplant.

Grateful for a life renewed

Kathy says.

Along with the donors, Kathy credits the team of experts at Mayo Clinic for giving her a new lease on life and the chance to be more active.

she says.

Since the transplant, Kathy’s life has slowly been returning to normal. She can now manage all of her medications by herself. Although Kathy lives with other medical concerns, including lymphedema and diabetes, her goal is to continue to do more for herself and to be able to improve her walking

ZHENAN BAO Master of materials

Bao, a chemical engineer at Stanford University in California and a founder of the field of thin, flexible organic electronics, shines a laser pointer through a sample of the nanotube material used in many of these devices. She laughs as the beam is diffracted into a spray of green dots on the wall, just as it would be when passing through a crystalline material. “That’s how we know it has regular structure,” she says.

The inside story on wearable electronics

Innovations in her field are often inspired by nature, she says: “If we can understand how to design materials with the same degree of complexity, we will be able to address real-world problems.” A prime example is the creation of medical devices that can be worn or implanted to monitor blood sugar, send sensory signals and more.

Progress towards that goal has taken off this year, with Bao’s lab among the leaders. In October, her team showed that its artificial skin could mimic the sense of touch (B. C.-L. Tee et al. Science 350, 313–316; 2015). The researchers took inspiration from human skin, in which specialized nerves fire more rapidly as pressure increases, producing a code that the brain interprets as touch. Previous artificial touch sensors required power-hungry external devices to generate that code. But in Bao’s sensors, pressure alters the oscillating frequency of microscopic circuits made from carbon nanotubes to generate the right kind of signals automatically.

“We have many years of work to do,” says Bao, who hopes that the treasures she keeps in the plastic box will one day help to revolutionize health care. “But generally, the path is laid out.”

Although Bao calls the final design “simple”, it was a major accomplishment, says Polina Anikeeva, a neural-interfaces and materials scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

She notes that Bao has been working on perfecting these materials for years, and that her lab — which comprises around 40 chemists, chemical engineers and materials scientists — is highly interdisciplinary. “It’s not just one idea,” she says, “many ideas came together and made this possible.”

Local Coordinator Ali Hussein Dawood Mohammed Z. El Amir