Reframe Daily: Ultrasound fixes kidneys, copper drug helps toddlers, AI targets statins, lab-grown lung slices steer chemo, gene tweak builds stronger bones

Reframe Daily is where Christin Chong (neuroscience PhD, chaplain, healthtech strategy consultant) curates optimistic and credible healthtech news so you don’t have to.

Today in one sentence: Gentle sound waves stopped kidney scarring in mice, a copper-carrying drug helped two toddlers beat a deadly genetic disease, a computer program picked the people who benefit most from statins, doctors kept live lung-cancer slices in the lab to test treatments, and turning on a “cleanup” gene made mouse bones thicker and stronger.

Christin’s note: Today’s Reframe Daily is curated based on the past week of Reframe discord community chatter topics! If you’d like to customize Reframe Daily to your interests, you are welcomed to join the reframe community here → https://forms.gle/tN3oabFTsDF21VnS8

Good news: Scientists showed that gentle sound waves called low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) can stop scar tissue from forming in damaged mouse kidneys by switching off an inflammation switch (IL-1 receptor). If it works in people, it could keep chronic kidney disease from getting worse.

Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound stimulation to treat renal fibrosis through inhibiting tubular IL-1R

Market readiness: 🙂 (early proof-of-concept in mice; human trials still needed)

Good news: Two toddlers with the rare and usually fatal Menkes disease started sitting and speaking after doctors gave them a copper-carrying drug (elesclomol-Cu), hinting that timely treatment might rescue brain development.

Elesclomol-copper therapy improves neurodevelopment in two children with Menkes disease

Market readiness: 🙂🙂 (first-in-human case series; larger pediatric study now recruiting)

Good news: A Japanese study used machine-learning to find which patients get the biggest lifesaving boost from statins; targeting those “high-benefit” people could cut heart attacks with half as many prescriptions.

Machine learning–based high-benefit approach versus traditional high-risk approach in statin therapy

Market readiness: 🙂🙂🙂🙂 (runs on existing health-record data; hospitals could adopt once algorithms are validated locally)

Good news: Researchers kept slices of patients’ own lung tumors alive for over a week, letting them test chemo- and immunotherapy combos in the lab before treating the patient—like a rapid “mini-trial” on your own cancer.

Living human lung slices for ex vivo modelling of lung cancer

Market readiness: 🙂 (laboratory platform; clinical decision-support studies just beginning)

Good news: Boosting the cell-cleanup switch TFEB in bone-making cells gave mice thicker, stronger bones—pointing toward a future gene or drug therapy for osteoporosis without hormones.

Elevation of master autophagy regulator TFEB in osteoblast lineage cells increases bone mass and strength

Market readiness: 🙂 (preclinical mouse data; human safety studies not yet started)

Thank you for taking the time to take care of yourself and your loved ones.