Transplant recipients may soon have a test to protect against organ rejection

In 2017, 34,000 transplants were carried out in the EU, while 60,000 people were on a waiting list for a transplant by the end of the year. Image credit - Flickr/Lars Plougmann, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

To help prevent organ rejection, transplant recipients could receive drug cocktails personalised to their own immune systems if a new test, which has passed early trials, is successful. And new methods for scrubbing animal tissue could enable humans to benefit from other species’ organs in the future. In the EU alone, there were 60,000 people on … Read more

How quantum technology could revolutionise the detection and treatment of diseases

Quantum sensors could transform a range of areas from atomic clocks and the way we measure electromagnetic radiation. Image credit - Heiko Grandel for the institute of quantum optics from Ulm.

When you hear the word ‘quantum’, you may imagine physicists working on a new ground breaking theory. Or perhaps you’ve read about quantum computers and how they might change the world. But one lesser-known field is also starting to reap the benefits of the quantum realm – medicine. As part of the EU’s Quantum Technologies Flagship … Read more

To treat an eating disorder, we need to know what emotion fuels it

The way emotions affect eating behaviours as well as dieting style can help predict when an eating disorder in an individual may occur. Image credit - Pixabay/MikesPhotos

Pinpointing how different emotional states and neural pathways influence our eating behaviours could pave the way for better ways to tackle eating disorders and obesity. Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia can have life-threatening consequences. They affect around 20 million people in the European Union, with an estimated cost of €1 trillion per year. The exact cause … Read more

‘Teenagers are going to be the ones to beat childhood obesity’

by Annette Ekin Teenagers rarely have a say in the public health policies that concern them, but we can’t halt the childhood obesity problem without working with them, says Professor Knut-Inge Klepp, executive director of the mental and physical health division at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. He is the project coordinator of CO-CREATE, … Read more

Danish dogs to receive virus-inspired cancer vaccine treatment

Researchers are testing the therapeutic vaccine on dogs with the hope that trials could progress to humans. Image Credit - Pixabay/No License

Fifteen Danish dogs with advanced cancer are to receive a new type of therapeutic vaccine which, it is hoped, will rid them of the disease and pave the way for human testing. Unlike preventative vaccines, therapeutic vaccines are not used to prevent someone from getting a disease but rather to support an immune system that … Read more

Real-time WhatsApp advice aids surgery in rural Malawi

In remote, rural corners of Malawi, hospitals are often faced with life-and-death decisions. Women in need of emergency caesarean sections, older people with hernias, and children with appendicitis need surgery. But should they be rushed to the operating theatre or transferred to specialists in city hospitals? The answer depends on the patient’s condition, the distance … Read more