Introduction to Proton Therapy

What is Proton therapy and why should you care?

Conventional Radiation therapy techniques use X-rays (‘photons’) to treat cancer by focussing X-rays on cancer regions. Proton therapy is a technique to treat cancer by the use of ‘protons’. The usage of protons to treat cancer may be advantages in various ways.

Radiation therapy for cancer treatment causes unnecessary exposure to healthy cells also, posing health risks on the patient. We can use Proton therapy for the following reasons.

  • We may want to expose children and pregnant women to lower amount of radiation.

Could Computer Models predict life threatening Heart issues?

Physiologic and Engineering techniques are combined to provide personalized treatments for each patient to predict long-term results. A simpler way to visualize the idea is by imagining that, the doctor pulls up a virtual model of the patient’s heart on the computer and treats it with several drugs and a few moments later, she would be able to see how the heart is doing five years down the road.

The Study

A couple of researchers from The University of Kentucky Kenneth Campbell and Jonathan Wenk are working on building a multiscale simulation of heart by allowing the computer model to use MRI or Genetic data of the patients. They are granted a 3-million-dollar fund by The National Institute of Health.

Applications of 3-D printing in orthopedics…

3-D printing in orthopedics is gaining momentum in the production of customized implants, medical devices, and orthotics from diverse materials. 3-D printing technology reduces surgery times, saves money, leads to better stability of the implant in the long run, and improves the clinical outcomes of surgical procedures. 3-D printing applications in orthopedics include:

Automatic Speaker Recognition (ASR) as Biometric System

Speech as an Art form

  • If we closely observe ourselves, each one of us can effectively manipulate a mundane activity like exhalation and turn it into meaningful art forms of self-expression either in the form of speech or singing.
  • Like self-expression, imitation is also considered an art and we appreciate great artists, who can successfully do so. But could such skills be used to forge biometric security systems?
  • ASR has developed from IBM’s Shoebox to today’s Siri on an iPhone. Could voice-based recognition system that we use to access our phone today be as reliable as we think?

YESCARTA | Groundbreaking Approval for 2nd CAR-T technology for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)

FDA approves CAR-T cell therapy to treat adults with certain types of large B-cell lymphoma

Yescarta is the second gene therapy product approved in the U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), a cell-based gene therapy, to treat adult patients with certain types of large B-cell lymphoma who have not responded to or who have relapsed after at least two other kinds of treatment. Yescarta, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, is the second gene therapy approved by the FDA and the first for certain types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

Inhibiting the protein involved in Phosphorylation may treat Heart disorders

The researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are conducting a new study for manufacturing personalized medicine with the help of protein markers for varied level of Phosphorylation.

A form of heart disease known as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (the amount of blood squeezed out when the heart contracts) impairs the heart’s ability to quickly and efficiently relax between “beats,” overworking the organ. The disease is estimated to impair circulation in more than 23 million people worldwide. Patients with ejection fraction issue preserved at baseline have particular difficulty when they try to increase their activity or exercise unlike the usual issue of shortness of breath that occurs in the other types of heart disorders.