Author Archives: Francisco Fernandez, MD

Globally we are in close and frequent contact with plastics and their degradation products, particularly nano and microplastics (NMPs). Because of their complex physical and chemical properties, they may negatively affect human health. But these exposures and their health implications remain largely uninvestigated and unknown.  Plastic comes in thousands of different forms. Microplastics don’t just […]

A group of researchers recently published a study in which they found a link between high blood pressure and diabetes. The long-standing enigma of why so many patients suffering from high blood pressure also have diabetes is finally cracked by the study. The discovery has shown that a small protein, cell glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) couples […]

A robot has performed the first laparoscopic surgery without human assistance. The team from Johns Hopkins University, described the procedure in the journal Science Robotics, in which the robot performed the surgery on the soft tissue of a pig without a guiding hand of a human. The device was named Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR). […]

In a recently published study, international researchers in collaboration have found that the medication Pembrolizumab induces HIV latency reversal in people living with HIV and cancer on antiretroviral therapy. The results appear in the journal Science Translational Medicine.  The research team found that this medication can reverse the virus latency, which is the ability that […]