For some couples, arriving at the miracle of birth is more complex than sperm + egg = embryo = pregnant. The human body is incredibly complex, and few processes are as complicated as human reproduction.

For example, consider the first five days in the reproduction process:

Day 0 – Egg meets sperm in the fallopian tube. Sperm penetrates egg.
Day 1 – Fertilization occurs and a zygote forms, which includes DNA from both the male and female.
Day 2 – The zygote has evolved into an embryo. Cell count is now four.
Days 3 to 5 – Even more growing as the cells split. There are now eight cells. The embryo leaves the fallopian tube and enters the uterus.
Day 5– Embryo hatches, blastocyst embryo erupts and implants into the uterine wall, and a woman is deemed pregnant.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have completed testing on a Type 1 diabetes treatment involving transplanting “islet cells”, or insulin producing cells known to reverse and even diminish the disease.

So far, 48 people have undergone the groundbreaking experimental treatment which seeks to eliminate one of America’s most serious health problems…

A cord blood transplant is prepared for delivery to the patient at the University of Minnesota.

Cord blood transplants can do amazing things for people with very difficult diseases. But it’s important to remember that cord blood transplantation is a potentially life-saving but highly risky procedure, and is only used to treat the sickest patients, including one recently here at the University of Minnesota diagnosed with both HIV and leukemia.

A cord blood transplant does complex work inside the body, and preparation and recovery is hard work for both the patient and the doctor.

So it might be surprising to know that despite such a transplant being one of modern medicine’s most amazing treatments, the procedure itself is quite simple when compared to major surgery like a joint replacement or solid organ transplant.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), despite the best efforts of hospitals and health care workers, 1 in 20 hospitalized patients will contract a health care acquired infection. The infections can cost the United States health care system billions of dollars each year and worse, can result in thousands of deaths.

But it turns out, new technology may help hospitals and health care organizations in the fight against antibiotic resistant superbugs like Clostridium difficile or Staphylococcus aureus. Today, USA Today profiles new robots that use ultraviolet (UV) radiation in pulse form to disinfect hospital rooms or other health care environments. Other machines on the market use hydrogen peroxide vapor to accomplish the same thing.

The report notes that health care workers and the CDC can’t yet say definitively what percentage of bacteria the machines eliminate, but that when used in tandem with effective cleaning and sterilization measures they may be able to better protect both patients and health care workers.

Check out USAToday.com for more.

Try to imagine a pain so excruciating that some patients have even told physicians they’d contemplated ending their life to alleviate the suffering. Sadly, this is the type of pain characteristic of trigeminal neuralgia (TN).

Known as the suicide disease, TN is a painful disorder that affects the trigeminal nerve, the nerve primarily responsible for sensations felt in the face.

Patients battling TN experience occasional, sporadic or constant pain in the face that makes everyday tasks like talking, smiling, shaving, eating, and brushing your teeth unbearable. In some cases, even a light breeze against the face can result in terrible pain.

Today, University of Minnesota physicians will perform the world’s first cord blood transplant designed specifically to cure a pediatric patient of HIV/AIDS and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

The procedure will take place at the University of Minnesota Medical Center and will be completed by a clinical team composed of transplant physicians Michael Verneris, M.D. and John Wagner, M.D., of the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, and HIV/AIDS infectious disease specialist Timothy Schacker, M.D.

The breakthrough nature of the case stems from the use of cord blood (the blood extracted from the placenta after a baby is born) that contains a variant of the cell surface protein CCR5 – known as CCR5Δ32.  Present in less than one percent of the population, CCR5Δ32 prevents most strains of the HIV virus from entering a patient’s T cells, ultimately protecting against the destruction of the host’s immune system.

“What we’re attempting is a first and potentially landmark case for the HIV/AIDS community,” said Wagner, an internationally recognized stem cell transplant expert and pioneer in cord blood transplantation at the University of Minnesota. “This now offers patients with HIV and leukemia or lymphoma new hope.  But even more importantly, this should compel cord blood banks worldwide to identify how many cord blood units with CCR5Δ32 exist within the inventory. We also hope this case prompts others to find novel ways to block or alter CCR5 to mimic this protective variant.”