GOOD

Scientists Make History by Breaking Blood-Brain Barrier to Treat Woman’s Tumor

Sunnybrook’s new method could open a new frontier in treating brain disorders.

 Katie Felber
11.12.15

Scientists at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto made history this week when they successfully developed a method to non-invasively breach the blood-brain barrier to more effectively treat the tumor of one patient, Bonnie Hall.

Take a look:

As Dr. Todd Mainprize explains, their technique is to “essentially tear holes in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to allow the chemicals they want to successfully circulate around the brain.” In addition to her chemo medicine, Bonnie was given injections of micro-bubbles—or tiny bits of air—and then placed into an MRI. As the doctors hoped, the bubbles shook, ripped holes in the BBB, and then allowed the medication to seep through.

Doctors say that over the next few months, 6-10 additional patients will be treated using the new method to determine its widespread safety and feasibility in treating other brain-related diseases. For now, this breakthrough is incredibly monumental.

behavioral science drugs health living well
Videos

Hundreds of Auschwitz survivors return for the 75th anniversary of its liberation

via

Seventy-five years ago, on January 27, 1945, the Soviet Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland.

Auschwitz was the deadliest of Nazi Germany's 20 concentration camps. From 1940 to 1945 of the 1.3 million prisoners sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million died. That figure includes 960,000 Jews, 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 other Europeans.

The vast majority of the inmates were murdered in the gas chambers while others died of starvation, disease, exhaustion, and executions.

Keep Reading
auschwitz liberation soviet army holocaust survivors world war 2 msnbc fox news cnn auschwitz 75 liberation
Culture

Gun enthusiast tells gun-owning Parkland dad and gunshot trauma surgeon, 'Stay in your lane.'

via Barry Schapiro / Twitter

The phrase "stay in your lane" is usually lobbed at celebrities who talk about politics on Twitter by people who disagree with them. People in the sports world will often get a "stick to sports" when they try to have an opinion that lies outside of the field of play.

Keep Reading
stay in your land parkland shooting gun rights virginia gun march dr barry schapiro fox news masnbc nra parkland dad
Culture

Japanese billionaire is giving away $9 million to his Twitter followers in a happiness experiment

via Stu Hansen / Twitter

In a move that feels like the subject line of a spam email or the premise of a bad '80s movie, online shopping mogul Yusaku Maezawa is giving away money as a social experiment.

Maezawa will give ￥1 million yen ($9,130) to 1,000 followers who retweeted his January 1st post announcing the giveaway. The deadline to retweet was Tuesday, January 7.

Keep Reading
yusaku maezawa andrew yang can money buy happiness business insider cnbc
Business