Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics are reporting that their antiviral drug, molnupiravir, is showing promising signs of being effective at preventing severe cases of COVID-19 in patients with mild to moderate forms of the disease. Taken orally, the treatment could be used by patients in their ownread more
In the mad scramble to find safe and effective drugs to treat patients suffering from COVID-19, the winners and losers amongst the litany of candidates are starting to emerge, with a previously-strong contender—hydroxychloroquine—falling from favor with the FDA, and another commonly-used drug seeing success in a major clinical trial. Theread more
Brain implants that allow the direct interface between the human brain and machines have been in development for some time now. However, aside from the daunting task of figuring out how to couple solid-state electronics with what amounts to a biological computer, another problem faced by researchers is the body’s reaction to foreign objects: implanted electrodes work just fine when initially inserted, but over time scar tissue builds up over them, hampering their ability to both read and transmit electrical signals between themselves and their targeted neurons. However, researchers at Harvard Medical School have come up with a new method of implantation that may be able to avoid this problem, allowing for long-term use of such implants.
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