Last year Joel Sadler and his classmates faced a daunting challenge in their Biomedical Device Design and Evaluation course: Create a low-cost, high-performance prosthetic knee joint for amputees in the developing world.

Tagged: Human Health, Engineering

In a new study Stanford researchers used light to illuminate how deep-brain stimulation treats Parkinson's disease symptoms, generating surprising insights into the diseased circuitry and also suggesting new ideas to improve Parkinson’s therapy.

Tagged: Health Research, Parkinson's, Human Health, Engineering, Medicine

During in vitro fertilization, the quality of the egg is often the single greatest factor in the viability of the embryo, yet fertility experts lack a good method for assessing the eggs. Recent research highlights a way to profile the eggs to determine which are more likely to result in pregnancies.

 

 

Tagged: infertility, Human Health, Medicine

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the ambitious U.S. government program begun in 2003, has cut the death toll from HIV/AIDS through 2007 by more than 10 percent in targeted countries in Africa, though it has had no appreciable effect on prevalence of the disease in those nations.

Tagged: aids, Human Health, Medicine

Each year, diarrhea kills an estimated 1.8 million people worldwide. Stanford researchers are working with Tanzanians to find a solution.

Tagged: Environmental Research, Environment & Sustainability, Human Health, Engineering, Medicine

Immune cells once thought to be innocent bystanders in cystic fibrosis may hold the key to stopping patients' fatal lung disease.

Tagged: cystic fibrosis, Human Health, Medicine

As the spring Stanford Medicine magazine special report on vaccination rolled off the press, judges ruled on three test cases, deciding against claims that vaccines had caused children to develop autism. However, the polarized battle between vaccine opponents and advocates that threatens to destroy hard-won public health gains is not ending any time soon.

Tagged: immunization, Human Health, Medicine

Researchers have taken a step toward the goal of enabling stem cells to become transplantable organs such as livers or pancreases by developing a "bioscaffold" technique that can provide a reliable supply of blood to a developing organ.

Tagged: Health Research, stem cells, Human Health, Medicine

Medical researchers say that more than 40 percent of women, ages 18-59, experience sexual dysfunction, with lack of sexual interest being the most commonly reported complaint.  New research from the School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital sheds light on the role the brain plays in some women's lack of sexual desire. 

Tagged: Human Health, Medicine

Marauding molecules cause the tissue damage that underlies heart attacks, sunburn, Alzheimer’s and hangovers. But scientists at the School of Medicine say they may have found ways to combat the carnage after discovering an important cog in the body’s molecular detoxification machinery.

 

 

Tagged: Alzheimer's, heart disease, Human Health, Medicine