As strains of pathogens resistant to frontline antibiotics become more common worldwide, clinicians are more often turning to combination treatments that degrade this resistance as a first treatment option.

Researchers from Duke University have discovered the mechanism behind why some antibiotic-resistant pathogens haven't adapted to the combination treatments—the bacteria’s level of “selfishness.” The insight provides guidance to clinicians on how to best tailor these combination treatments to different pathogens, minimize the selection for resistance and formulate new antibiotic resistance inhibitors.  Source: Duke University Pratt School of Engineering

Using smartly trained neural networks, researchers at the University of Technology Graz funded in part by NIBIB have succeeded in generating precise real-time images of the beating heart from just a few MRI measurement data. Other MRI applications can also be accelerated using this procedure. Source: TU Graz News

Research into harnessing the immune system to encourage injured tissue to regenerate has landed a Maryland researcher on a TIME magazine list of 2024 innovators. During a WTOP visit to the lab she leads at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, researcher Kaitlyn Sadtler, explained its goal is to understand the immune system’s role in wound healing and how it could be leveraged by medical technology to regenerate tissue.

UCLA researchers have developed a deep-learning framework that teaches itself quickly to automatically analyze and diagnose MRIs and other 3D medical images – with accuracy matching that of medical specialists in a fraction of the time.  Source: UCLA Computational Medicine News

The dynamics of blood nutrient and lipid levels after consuming a high-fat meal are crucial indicators of both current and future cardiovascular health. A recent NIBIB-funded study from Boston University, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women's Hospital investigated how meal composition affects skin tissue properties shortly after eating. Source: The International Society for Optics and Photonics News 

Within bacterial cells, specialized immune systems known as retrons fend off viral attacks. They can also perform precise DNA editing. 

In a new study published in Nature Biotechnology, Shipman and his team greatly expand the universe of retron knowledge. They carried out a “census” of 163 never-before-tested retrons and identified many that can edit DNA more quickly and efficiently than those currently used in research. This research may contribute to genome engineering and future gene therapies.  

As antibiotic resistance becomes an increasingly serious threat to our health, the scientific and medical communities are searching for new medicines to fight infections. Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have just moved closer to that goal with a novel technique for harnessing the power of bacteriophages. Source: Gladstone Institutes News

Gene therapy, the idea of fixing faulty genes with healthy ones, has held immense promise. But a major hurdle has been finding a safe and efficient way to deliver those genes.

Now, researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) have made a significant breakthrough in gene editing technology that could revolutionize how genetic diseases are treated. Source: University of Hawaiʻi’s John A. Burns School of Medicine News

A new portable device would allow clinicians to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the ear, which could improve diagnostic accuracy. The NIBIB-funded study reported in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO), describes this groundbreaking device from the University of Southern California's Caruso Department of Otolaryngology. 

Source: The International Society for Optics and Photonics News