organs

Scientists have grown small but complex models of human organs from live fetus cells for the first time, giving experts new insight into our development and potential treatments for malformations while in the womb.These organoids aren't full replicas of organs, but they're close enough to the real deal that they can be used to study disease and other aspects of human biology that are difficult to investigate in living people.In a new study carried out by an international team of researchers, lung, kidney, and intestine…

While diligently recorded in early versions of the famous surgical reference book, Gray's Anatomy, the rete ovarii's existence has largely fallen into obscurity, left out of modern texts and dismissed as a "functionless vestige".This is despite the fact the structure is highly conserved across mammal species, from camels to guinea pigs, suggesting the small ovarian structure has an important enough role.What's more, an equivalent (if simpler) structure in males – the rete testis – has a known function involved in…

“We used advanced fabrication techniques to cut small transducers from high-quality piezoelectric materials that allowed us to design miniaturized ultrasound stickers,” Xuanhe Zhao, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, says. Credit: Courtesy of the researchersMIT’s ultrasound sticker enables continuous monitoring of organ stiffness, revolutionizing the early detection of diseases such as liver and kidney failure.MIT engineers have developed a small ultrasound sticker that can monitor the stiffness of organs deep…

To learn more about the magic of editing, Bored Panda reached out to a professional photographer Svenja Christina whose photographic style is dreamy, light-infused, and magical - with a strong focus on genuine emotion and connection. She strives to blur the line where reality meets dreams. That's why she's the perfect person to let us in on the secret of when people on social media use Photoshop to fake images that are far from reality.She told us that there isn't one trick that could be applicable in all situations and…

These ideas have recently started filtering through to the wider public. Earlier this year, the US-based Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, one of the largest advocacy organizations for this cancer, had a major shift from an emphasis on early detection; it is now recommending genetic testing, both for diagnosed patients and for other people who know they’re at risk. It now also counsels prophylactic organ removal: opportunistic salpingectomy for anyone at even “average” risk for the cancer; or, if you’re at increased…

A Stanford study reveals that organs age at different rates, with 20% of adults over 50 having at least one organ aging rapidly. This increases disease and mortality risks and could be detected through blood tests, leading to earlier interventions. Credit: SciTechDaily.com A new study led by Stanford Medicine scientists demonstrates a simple way of studying organ aging by analyzing distinct proteins, or sets of them, in blood, enabling the prediction of individuals’ risk for diseases. Like any typical car or house or…

Researchers have used a machine-learning model to analyze blood proteins to estimate the biological, as opposed to the chronological, age of bodily organs. It’s a way of predicting an apparently healthy person’s risk of developing conditions like heart failure, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes that may lead to earlier treatment.Chronological age doesn’t always correspond with biological age. The aging process can cause a deterioration in the structure and function of organs that increases the risk of most chronic…

The number of birthdays you’ve had—better known as your chronological age—now appears to be less important in assessing your health than ever before. A new study shows that bodily organs get “older” at extraordinarily different rates, and each one’s biological age can be at odds with a person’s age on paper.The new research, published on Wednesday in Nature, identified about one in five healthy adults older than 50 years old as an “extreme ager”—a person with at least one organ aging at a highly accelerated rate, compared…

A consortium of scientists has just published an atlas of remarkable images of three human organs, each vital in their own way, showing how cell types are arranged and interact.The result: Glittering, kaleidoscopic blueprints lit up by fluorescent dyes that reveal new intimacies about our bodies and reshape our understanding of human biology and disease like never before.As you can see in the diagram below, researchers generated the cell atlases in three ways.Single-cell atlases of (a) the placenta, (b) the intestine,…

Scientists have performed the first successful transplant of an organ that had been cryogenically frozen and rewarmed, thanks to a new preservation chemical. Rats that were given transplants of kidneys preserved through this technique regained regular organ function within weeks, paving the way for more successful organ transplants in humans.Organ transplants can save lives, but unfortunately there’s a very short window where they remain viable between donor and recipient. That means that scores of organs go to waste,…