Free Republic

A person’s hearing can be damaged by loud noise, aging and even certain medications, with little recourse beyond a hearing aid or cochlear implant. But now, UCSF scientists have achieved a breakthrough in understanding what is happening in the inner ear during hearing loss, laying the groundwork for preventing deafness. The research, published on Dec. 22, 2023, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, links animal studies on hearing loss with a rare type of inherited deafness in humans. In both cases, mutations to the TMTC4 gene trigger a molecular domino effect known as the unfolded protein response (UPR), leading...

A new surgical technique pioneered at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy in Leipzig may allow for patients to receive grafted ‘artificial’ skin grown using their own cells. The procedure, called the EpiDex® technique, has been developed with euroderm GmbH, and could replace traditional treatments which involve taking skin from another part of the patient’s body. If successful, the new process would eliminate the additional scarring, with which patients suffer at the donor area (usually the thigh), but would still have the same chances of success for the graft taking. “If we produce this skin using the recently approved EpiDex®...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a leading advocate of stricter gun control, said yesterday that there was nothing wrong with owning a gun for hunting. In fact, he said he even had one himself as a teenager. Mr. Bloomberg told listeners on his weekly radio program on WABC-AM that he participated in riflery at a Boy Scout camp, and that his parents later allowed him to own a rifle while he was growing up in Medford, Mass. "When I was 15 or so, I had a .22-caliber rifle, but I used it only at a range, and you know there's nothing...