Stanford researchers make heart implant powered by radio waves, put batteries out of a job

Engadget - Batteries used to be the only way to power implantable gadgets, but additional surgeries are needed to replace the power packs once their juice runs out -- a less-than-ideal solution for patients. Recent discoveries, however, have such medgadgets being powered by photons, hip hop and now high-frequency radio waves. Electrical engineers at Stanford built a cardiac device that uses a combination of inductive and radiative transmission of power, at about 1.7 billion cycles per second, to its coiled receiving antenna.

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Glow-In-The-Dark Cats Could Provide Answers About AIDS

Glow Kitten Mayo Clinic

PopSci - Genetically modified glow-in-the-dark cats not only make stylish, futuristic pets, but now provide insight into feline AIDS as well. The cats were injected with an antiviral gene from a rhesus macaque monkey that helps them resist feline AIDS, along with one that produces the fluorescent protein GFP. The latter gene, which is naturally produced by jellyfish, is regularly used in genetic engineering as a way to mark cells. If the cats aren’t glowing, then the AIDS-resisting gene might not have made it into the cell either.

Infection-fighting proteins called restriction factors, made by both cats and humans, are powerless against their respective versions of AIDS.                     More

Sheba Medical Center Finds Key to Slowing Pancreatic Cancer

Key to Slowing Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a particularly aggressive, rapidly 

spreading disease for which there is no effective treatment.

Israeli researchers identify a protein that may put the brakes on a particularly aggressive form of cancer.

Israel 21c – Israeli researchers have discovered that a protein known to retard the aging process also seems to prevent the growth of pancreatic cancer. If it could be produced commercially without significant side effects, this substance could provide a needed weapon against this and other fast-growing cancers.

Researchers from the Cancer Research Center at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer studied the behavior of the protein klotho, a natural hormone emitted by the brain and kidneys. It is named after one of the Three Fates in Greek mythology, who spun thread to keep people alive.

A laboratory study done at Sheba in 2008 found that klotho prevented breast cancer cells from multiplying. Later, researchers discovered that mutations of this protein, called BRCA1 and BRCA2, greatly increase the risk of women developing breast cancer:

The Israeli study follows recent findings in other countries indicating that klotho may prevent the spread of liver and cervical cancer.

In the current experiments using mice with pancreatic cancer, scientists wanted to determine how klotho could work against this particularly aggressive, rapidly spreading disease for which there is no effective treatment.

About 610 Israelis are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer every year, and it causes eight out of every 100,000 deaths among Israeli men and six out of every 100,000 deaths among Israeli women. In the United States, an estimated 37,660 people will die of pancreatic cancer this year.              More