Biology and Electronics Come Together
Listen now
Description
Biology and electronics are converging to create a new generation of therapies with so much potential that some wonder if they will eventually replace pharmaceuticals altogether. Bioelectronic medicine could offer a pathway to treat diabetes, hypertension, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and perhaps even cancer and the common cold. Building on new knowledge of how nerve cells and immune cells communicate, some especially exciting experiments stimulate the vagus nerve in order to tame the inflammatory response implicated in many diseases. If bioelectronic devices can be remotely controlled, is there a risk of “body hacking”? And could the drug industry truly be headed for extinction?
More Episodes
In this talk about his newly published book, Bad Faith: When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine, Dr. Paul Offit looks into the minds of those who choose faith over medicine. State laws allow parents to deny their children medical care for religious reasons, and children are dying as a...
Published 12/04/15
Paradigm-shifting knowledge continues to reshape our approach to cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. We are going deeper into cancer genomics and the heterogeneity of malignancy, developing new immunotherapies that build on the body’s natural defenses, and designing targeted drugs that...
Published 12/04/15
Sometimes the mind seems to have been left behind. Despite tremendous progress in other branches of medicine, mental health services fail millions who need them, the pharmaceutical armamentarium is inadequate, stigma remains a tremendous impediment to care, and the power of early intervention has...
Published 12/04/15