Fat That Makes You Thin And Other Amazing Medical Advances
By Gretchen Reynolds
Electronic Eyes
These "eyes" have restored partial vision to people with deteriorating retinas. The imitation peepers involve an implanted device that receives input from a tiny camera and a transmitter mounted on a pair of glasses. Images from the camera are converted into signals that the implant uses to stimulate retinal cells-allowing the brain's vision center to, in essence, see a rough version of what the camera sees. The device could be, for many people, a chance at second sight.
How Soon: Testing is under way at several universities. Early results are promising, and the technology could be available within a year.
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Haircolor That Lasts
In June scientists from NYU Langone Medical Center announced their discovery that specialized signaling molecules can dictate the color of hair cells. Once they learn more about this process, they hope to develop a treatment for gray hair.
How Soon: Difficult to predict at this point, since this finding is just a first step.
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Real Replacement Teeth
Dentists at Columbia University were able to grow new teeth in rats by implanting a tiny scaffold in the socket left empty by a lost tooth, then saturating the space with dental stem cells and growth factors (substances strained from the blood and jawbone that promote tissue growth).
How Soon: The technique could be ready for the public in about five years, pending FDA approval.
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Rebuilt Lungs
Until this year, the lung had resisted all attempts to replicate its mind-boggling complexity. But in May, researchers in Boston announced that they'd isolated the first-known human lung stem cells. Injected into injured mouse lungs, the cells sprouted mouse-sized human bronchioles, alveoli, and blood vessels.
How Soon: This procedure is still a long way off; the research is in the earliest stages.
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Memory-Boosting Nasal Spray
In new research from Harvard and Tel Aviv Universities, a nasal vaccine activated immune cells in the brain that cleared away waxy plaques from blood vessels-plaques believed to contribute to Alzheimer's disease. After receiving the sniffable vaccine, mice with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's had fewer plaque deposits and performed much better on mouse memory tests.
How Soon: The researchers hope to begin human trials as soon as 2014.
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Fat to Make You Thin
After Johns Hopkins researchers genetically reprogrammed a small part of the DNA in the brains of rats, some of the animals' lumpy white fat transformed into brown fat, the type that actually burns calories. The scientists hypothesize that messages from the altered hypothalamus woke dormant brown-fat stem cells and prompted them to make new tissue. Afterward the mice gained little weight, even when fed fattening chow.
How Soon: The goal is to make these kinds of tweaks to human DNA within a decade.
KEEP READING: 6 More Amazing Medical Advances Coming Soon
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