ILLUSTRATIONS: SHUTTERSTOCKHELPING THE PARALYSED
Researchershave pioneered a technology
that helps paralysed people walk
again. According to Professor Susan
Harkema, who led the researchat the
Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research
Center, US, thousands of neurons that
control movement can die at the site of
a spinal injury. But “there are millions
more below the injury that are healthy
and have the capacity to relearn, make
decisions and integrate new connections
from the brain," she says.
After implanting electrical stimulators
in the spines of study participants,
researchers were surprised to find that
one completely paralysed
patient could then wiggle
his toes. Researchers
worked with him and
three more paralysed
patients, training them first
to stand, then to take steps.
Two are now walking with
the aid of walkers.
Heart Health
Warning
Most heart attacks are caused
by plaque build-up that narrows
the arteries and can be seen on
CT scans. But what if doctors
could predict where – in which
arteries – plaque would
accumulate? A new CT scan
technology, developed in
Germany, the UK and the US,
analyses the inflammation in
arteries to determine which are
in danger of developing
blockages five or more years
before they actually do, in time
for people to make potentially
life-saving lifestyle changes.Beating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
Around 700,000 people around the world die of drug-resistant diseases each
year.But a combination of antibiotics and probiotics (so-called ‘good bacteria’
- such as the microbes that turn milk into yoghurt) were
recently shown to destroy two strains of drug-resistant
bacteria that infect wounds. Though neither probiotic or
antibiotic alone could entirely kill the super-bugs, a one-
two punch from both together, “completely eradicated the
bacteria,” according to research scientist Dr Ana Jaklenec
of MIT in Massachusetts.
40 Augus t 2019
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