Medicine, Health

Research partly supported through the EU-funded EMOTIONAL MEMORY project has shown that emotional experiences can induce psychological and internal brain states that persist for much longer after the emotional experience has ended.

The moment when stroke patients return home after treatment has always been a source of concern for both themselves and their physicians, as the latter are left blind without any feedback. But this is now a thing of the past: a novel suit fitted with 41 sensors is finally ready for commercialisation.

If you’ve overindulged during the festive period and you’re digestive system feels a bit worse for wear, then be encouraged by the fact that Irish researchers have discovered an entirely new digestive organ called the mesentery, opening up an entirely new field of medical science.

When hearing about bacterial resistance to antiobiotics, most would picture some sort of super-bacteria that suddenly adapted and became resistant to treatment. But there is another, less known scenario: bacteria with the ability to go dormant, allowing them to slip through the net. The latter were the focus of the BIO-NMR project, which found a way to wake them up before the kill.

Researchers part supported through the EU-funded MENTORINGTREGS and SYSBIOFUN projects have offered an explanation on how the most common vaccine in the world, used against tuberculosis, is also effective at providing protection from other infectious diseases.

New research supported by the EU-funded IGENEE and EPITARGET projects has discovered a specific gene network in the brain that is associated with epilepsy, raising hopes that new treatments for the condition can be developed.

Researchers from the EU-funded EVOMECH project have warned that repeated dieting may lead to weight gain as the brain interprets the diets as short famines and urges the person to store more fat for future shortages.

By taking a quantitative approach to studying the immune system, EU-funded researchers have opened the door to a deeper understanding of T cell behaviour.

Researchers have discovered a strong association between El Niño-Southern Oscillation conditions in the Pacific to observed weather and dengue epidemics in Sri Lanka.

The development of EU-funded gene sequencing tools have helped analyse data on twins that have promising implications for diagnosing chronic joint pain.

Following the granting of a young British girl’s instructions to be cryogenically preserved so she can be revived in the future when a cure for cancer exists, there has been intense debate inside and outside the scientific community on both the viability of cryogenic freezing but also on the ethical issues thrown up by the procedure. Once again, it raises the centuries-old question that defines the conflict between modern science and ethics: Even if we could do something, should we?

EU-funded researchers have found that the body clock breaks down when light and temperature are out of sync, affecting activity levels.

US-based researchers have published a paper detailing their findings that a person’s chances of falling ill from a new strain of flu are at least partly determined by the first strain they ever encountered as a child.

Three EU-funded projects – NEUWALK, WALK AGAIN and E-WALK – have contributed to the development of a wireless ‘brain-spinal interface’ that bypasses spinal cord injuries and restores intentional walking movement to a temporarily paralysed leg.

A multinational team of researchers working under the EU-funded IMMUNOCORE project have discovered a new genetic defect that results in the body’s inability to successfully fight infection.

Research funded jointly by the European Research Council (ERC) and Alzheimer’s Research UK has demonstrated that the crippling neurodegenerative disease could be stopped by an injection into the memory centres of the brain.

Wearable robots that can anticipate and react to users’ movement in real time could dramatically improve mobility assistance and rehabilitation tools.

A pioneering new trial offers new hope in the fight against HIV after a patient treated with a new therapy appears to have no trace of the virus in their blood. Although experts remain cautious, this novel treatment may allow for a new front to be opened in the ongoing battle against the disease.

In a new paper, researchers from the University of Southampton, UK, and members of the EU-funded RAMP project, have demonstrated how memristors could help aid the development of more precise and affordable neuroprosthetics and bioelectric medicines.

EU-funded researchers have made significant progress in identifying promising pathways that could lead them towards developing an HIV vaccine.

EU-funded researchers have pioneered a new bone regeneration therapy that promises to significantly improve bone repair and provide a realistic solution for patients who require partial bone replacement.

The current lack of a treatment proven effective against ‘Huntington’s disease’ (HD) is leaving one in every 10 000 people with psychiatric, movement, feeding and communication problems that are very difficult to live with. An EU consortium believes it has found the long-sought after cure and is getting very close to its first preclinical studies.

For Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients whose symptoms cannot be controlled by medication, ‘Deep brain stimulation’ (DBS) may be the only hope. While DBS is generally considered to be safe, side effects related to the stimulation may occur in some cases, including numbness or tingling sensations, muscle tightness, speech or balance problems and unwanted mood changes. The IMPACT project has set out to counter these side-effects by bringing DBS to the next level.

An EU-funded project has made significant advances in treating a common form of childhood leukaemia, potentially saving thousands of young lives.

Launched in January 2016, the EU Covenant on Demographic Change is committed to creating environments that support active and healthy ageing through the exchange of best practices. The AFE-INNOVNET project, which aimed to set up this covenant, managed to bring together 29 partners from 18 countries.