The London Underground is polluted with ultrafine metallic particles small enough to end up in the human bloodstream, according to University of Cambridge researchers. These particles are so small that they are likely being underestimated in surveys of pollution in the world’s oldest metro system. The researchers carried out a new type of pollution analysis, using magnetism to study dust ...

A fast, needle-free malaria detection tool developed by a University of Queensland-led team could help save hundreds of thousands of lives annually. Malaria is usually detected by a blood test, but scientists have devised a method using a device that shines a beam of harmless infrared light on a person’s ear or finger for five-to-10 seconds, it collects an infrared ...

Researchers from Hokkaido University and Toppan have developed a method to detect build-up of amyloid β in the brain, a characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease, from biomarkers in blood samples. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease, characterised by a gradual loss of neurons and synapses in the brain. One of the primary causes of Alzheimer’s disease is the accumulation of amyloid ...

Gene variants associated with a person’s blood type may be linked to their risk of early stroke, according to a new meta-analysis published in the latest online issue of Neurology. Non-O blood types have previously been linked to a risk of early stroke, but the new findings by University of Maryland School of Medicine study showed a stronger link between ...

Stanford University scientists have described a new type of test that can detect genetic mutations in minute amounts of DNA released from cancer cells into the blood. The test, which is called single color digital PCR, requires only a fraction of a tube of blood and can detect as few as three mutation-bearing molecules in a single reaction. According to ...