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foundations-science

Seeing Science in the Everyday: Glow Sticks That Detect Cancer

Researchers are using the same chemical processes behind glow sticks to make better tools to diagnose cancer.  The same science behind glow sticks and the crime scene chemical luminol – which glows blue in the presence of blood  – is now being used to develop cutting-edge tools to detect cancer and other medical diagnoses. When you snap a glow stick, two liquids inside the plastic tube come into contact, setting off a chemical reaction that emits energy in the form of light. This process is...

Getting Life-Saving Medicines Over the Brain’s Security Wall

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 15.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; color: #1e497d} span.s1 {font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; color: #1e497d} Science is helping cancer treatments and other medicines breach the blood-brain barrier in novel ways. Among all the...

Science & Innovation

4 Breakthroughs in Breast Cancer Treatment

One out of eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. (Science Photo Library)Advances in genetic testing, immunotherapy, and other areas are transforming the way we treat breast cancer.Survival rates for breast cancer have improved in recent decades. That’s good news for the approximately 250,000 women expected to be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2016.  In recent years, scientists have been harnessing genetics, immunotherapy, and other innovative treatments to more precisely...

Meet the Common Viruses Now Used to Help Combat Cancer

Common viruses are now being engineered to seek out and destroy cancer cells.Herpes, the virus behind the common cold sore, is moving up in the world. Thanks to scientific engineering, it’s no longer just a nuisance virus but also the latest weapon in the fight against cancer.Last fall, in a first-of-its-kind move, the Food and Drug Administration approved a genetically-engineered herpes virus to treat late-stage melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. It was the first oncolytic virus...