- Virtual patients, vaccines, medicine-making biomachines and microneedles are examples of tech innovation that is meeting the moment to address the global health crisis.
- Health has been a strong focus for this year’s top 10 emerging technologies.
- Technology can drive a Great Health Reset, but success will be determined by the willingness of all stakeholders to trust one another and to invest in a shared effort.
This year’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies, revealed in a new report produced in partnership with Scientific American, are meeting the moment to fuel a “Great Reset”: a complete redesign of how we manage the current crisis and prevent or mitigate the next one.
Tech innovation is the agent of change. The current cohort, with those of earlier editions, offer solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges – notably the global health crisis and its economic fallout, alongside the ongoing climate emergency.
COVID-19 has exposed the global cooperation gap
The pandemic persists despite the extraordinary efforts of a global medical community to contain and expunge the underlying virus. Perhaps more concerning, the absence of a coordinated global approach to containment and resolution has likely expanded and extended its impact.
Two divergent yet critically entwined issues arise: the technological resources brought to bear in addressing this pandemic, and the global international governance and coordination required to achieve best outcomes.
One of this year’s Top 10, virtual patients – which replace humans with simulations – could make clinical trials faster and safer. Microneedles that provide painless injections, another technology on the list, could speed drug delivery for the prevention and treatment of viruses like COVID-19. A third tech, whole-genome synthesis, enables researchers to design genetic sequences that could be introduced into microbes to turn them into medicine-making biomachines.
Deep technical capabilities such as these executed in isolation are likely to be ineffective, as would be well-coordinated international efforts that are absent the required technologies. In achieving the Great Health Reset, both global governance and emergent technologies will play central roles together.
Reasons for optimism – virus hunting and pandemic bashing
To avoid future pandemics, access to what is traditionally seen as protected health data is critical. Such transparency is not supported by many nations today, and the current pandemic is in part a consequence of the time lag from disease discovery to reporting. It is a systemic, global problem.
The world needs to move towards a system where local healthcare providers, and their local government leadership, recognize and report data “up the chain of command.” Sequential reporting delays, or data suppression, costs lives as the disease vector spreads unchecked. Ideally, the autonomous collection and interpretation of medical reports in real time and on a global scale would drastically improve disease discovery.
News
A Surprising Brain Signal Could Explain Why Eating Less Protein Extends Lifespan
A new paper suggests that limiting protein intake triggers a coordinated response throughout the body that may help explain how protein restriction affects healthy aging. Animals respond to protein restriction, or reduced protein in [...]
Back and shoulder surgery is often worse than useless
Millions of operations should be scrapped SIX IN TEN Britons have surgery at some point. So do lots of Americans, at a cost of perhaps $500bn a year, a third of all spending on [...]
Cocaine plays with mind, hijacks brain circuit, drives increasingly rigid and repetitive behavior
Researchers have found that cocaine hijacks brain circuit, which to drive increasingly rigid and repetitive behavior. The brain circuit that normally participates in selecting natural mouth and face movements, but which becomes disproportionately engaged [...]
Injectable nanodevices could provide effective treatment for drug-resistant glioblastoma
The brain cancer glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant cancers known to medicine, carrying a median survival of just 12-15 months, even with the best available care. Now, researchers at the [...]
New Treatment Cuts “Bad” Cholesterol in Half for a Full Year
A single infusion of an experimental CRISPR-Cas9 therapy was reported to safely lower LDL cholesterol by 52.5% and triglycerides by 47.8%, as measured 12 months after treatment. What if one infusion could keep cholesterol [...]
Too Much RNA Can Drain a Cell’s Energy, Scientists Discover
A virus may cripple a cell’s power supply simply by producing too much of a molecule the cell needs to survive. New research from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences [...]
West African scientists warn of weakening health systems and urge stronger outbreak detection
LOME, Togo (AP) — West African laboratory scientists called on governments Friday to strengthen capacity to detect disease outbreaks to avoid another major outbreak, saying health systems across the region are becoming weaker. Participants [...]
A Little-Known Protein Could Point to a New Way To Treat Alzheimer’s
A study suggests that increasing SORLA protein levels could help treat Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders involving tau protein. Increasing SORLA, a protein with a protective role in the brain, helped mice withstand damage [...]
Cancer’s Hidden Antioxidant Shield Helps It Escape the Immune System
Blocking an antioxidant protein that tumors use to suppress immune attacks improved cancer immunotherapy responses in mice. Cancer cells can release antioxidants that interfere with the immune cells trying to kill them. Researchers have [...]
Scientists Find a Berry Compound That Helps Muscle Cells Burn Fat
Pterostilbene, a compound found naturally in some foods, affects how skeletal muscles process fats by stabilizing a protein called PPARδ and increasing its signaling activity. Pterostilbene, a natural compound found in blueberries, grapes, and [...]
Two Hidden Forces Help Build the Human Brain Before Birth
Scientists have uncovered two surprising forces that help guide how the human brain forms before birth. Before birth, the human brain is shaped in large part by an unusual class of stem cells known [...]
Researchers Uncover a Hidden Trigger Behind Chronic Inflammation
The findings offer new insights that could help guide the development of future therapies. A protein called human resistin may help flip on one of the immune system’s most powerful inflammatory switches. Researchers at [...]
Scientists Have Uncovered Previously Hidden Microbial Activity on Human Skin
The most abundant microbes on your skin may not be the ones doing most of the work. Human skin supports vast communities of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that can influence its protective barrier, immune [...]
Brazilian Tree Compounds Fight COVID-19 on Multiple Fronts
Scientists found compounds in a Brazilian tree that hit SARS-CoV-2 on multiple fronts, revealing a promising new lead in the search for COVID-19 treatments. Researchers have found that galloylquinic acids extracted from the leaves [...]
Cutting Two Amino Acids Slowed Prostate Cancer in Mice
A newly identified link between amino acid metabolism and cholesterol production may help prostate tumors adapt to hormone therapy. Prostate cancer can find ways around treatments designed to deprive tumors of the hormones they [...]
Largest-Ever Physics Survey Raises New Doubts About Our Model of the Universe
Physicists around the world remain deeply divided on key mysteries of the universe, from dark matter to quantum gravity. The standard cosmological model failed to gain majority support, and no leading theory dominated the [...]
