What are the medical breakthroughs of 2014?

In 2014, medical scientists put in a lot of effort, and as it should, considering the funds invested in development.

They created (or almost did) a memory restoration implant and a real, real-life obesity pill, they discovered a way to control biochemical reactions with the power of thought, or more precisely with the brain waves that are emitted when thinking, and they invented how to make a vaccine against cancer and how to save us from caries.

From the Folkmedic.com team, we collected the main scientific achievements of the past year in the field of medicine.

1. Management with the power of thought

Biotechnologists from the Swiss Institute of Technology have come up with a way to connect brain activity and medical implants. They implanted mice with an implant that, as a signal, releases a specific protein into their blood that can be easily detected.

On the heads of the volunteers who took part in the implant tests, the scientists placed special helmets with electrodes that recorded brain activity. They /the helmets/ “recognized” 2 basic human states – relaxed /meditative/ and concentration of attention.

They differed in the dynamics of brain rhythms. Information about the frequencies at which each volunteer’s brain functioned was transmitted via Bluetooth to a controller that controlled the release of protein in the implant.

When the volunteers “meditate”, the specific protein entered the blood of the mice, if the participants in the tests concentrated, the device turned off.

Swiss scientists believe that “sensor-implant” systems can significantly ease the lives of patients with neurological diseases, epilepsy, chronic pain syndromes.

For this, it is only necessary to set the controller to register brain waves characteristic of fixing the brain waves characteristic of the onset of a migraine attack or epileptic seizure and the implant is able to stop it by injecting the necessary drug into the blood.< /p>

2. Getting rid of caries

The British company Reminova Ltd, founded by specialists from King’s College London, Great Britain, has created a dental treatment technology that will probably make it famous for centuries to come.

It is no longer necessary to drill the dental tissue and fill its damaged parts with fillings. Instead, it is suggested that dental offices be equipped with electrical tooth remineralization devices.

Caries is a disease that, although not fatal, annually worsens the quality of life of at least 2.3 billion people and begins with the tooth enamel imperceptibly losing some of its calcium and phosphates.

British scientists have figured out how to reverse this process. A weak electric current is able to “restore” the minerals in the hard tissues of the tooth. At the same time, the strength of the current is such that a person does not feel anything at all.

The creators of the invention believe that in this way it is also possible to whiten the teeth, since the natural color of the enamel depends not least on the degree of its mineralization.

3. Anti-obesity tablet

There are at least 2 types of fat in the human body. White ones are to blame for the imperfection of the figure and accumulate as excess energy in the form of fatty acids, while brown ones, on the contrary, are used up by participating in thermogenesis – in simple words, they warm the body.

The discovery of the specialists from the Harvard Institute of Stem Cells, which they themselves called “the first step towards a tablet that replaces jogging”. Analyzing about a thousand different compounds, they found 2 substances that have the property of converting white human adipocytes into brown ones. Both compounds belong to the class of Janus-kinase inhibitors.

This enzyme is involved in transmitting information about the external environment from the membrane to the nucleus of the cell, helping it to adapt to changing conditions.

4. Cancer vaccine

Modern means of fighting cancer, be it surgery, chemo or radiation therapy, are aimed at destroying the tumor from the inside. The discovery of David Bzik / David J. Bzik/ and Barbara Fox / Barbara Fox / from the Medical Center at the University of Darmouth / USA / contributes to the attack of cancer cells with the forces of the body’s own immunity. This was done as a result of studying the cat parasite – Toxoplasma gondii.