General

Not only animals and humans host a complex community of microorganisms – plants do this as well. Researchers at ETH Zurich have recently published two new studies that shed light on fundamental aspects of these close – and often overlooked – relationships. Hundreds of different bacterial species live in and […]

Today's open access paper offers one of a number of different perspectives on the present consensus regarding the causes of individual variance in life expectancy, of differences in species life span, and of changes in human life expectancy over time. Human life expectancy has increased greatly in the modern era, […]

Mechanisms to sense levels of the essential amino acid methionine are one of the more important triggers for the beneficial calorie restriction response in mammals. Since the body doesn't manufacture methionine, it must come from the diet. Either a low calorie diet or a low methionine diet produce broadly similar […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and their British colleagues have identified a possible contributory cause of fibromyalgia, a difficult to treat pain condition. In a study on mice and human tissue, the researchers found that fibromyalgia patients’ antibodies played a key part in symptom development. The results, which are published in […]

Cancer is a complex disease, and as such, there is not just a single way to tackle it. While cancer treatments are evolving towards personalised procedures, in most cases standard chemotherapy treatments are still required. In chemotherapy, platinum drugs such as cisplatin (approved 42 years ago by FDA) are used, […]

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK – and the second leading cause of death in men – and there is no cure when it spreads to the bone. Dr Toby Phesse and Dr Helen Pearson, from the University’s European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute, have […]

Michigan Medicine teams complete first procedures using new self-expanding heart valves for chronic pulmonary regurgitation, reducing risks of open heart surgery. Babies born with certain types of congenital heart conditions not only need heart surgery after birth and as infants but again years later as adults. As a result of […]

A diet higher in fatty fish helped frequent migraine sufferers reduce their monthly number of headaches and intensity of pain compared to participants on a diet higher in vegetable-based fats and oils, according to a new study. The findings by a team of researchers from the National Institute on Aging […]

Scientists have long searched in vain for a class of brain cells that could explain the visceral flash of recognition that we feel when we see a very familiar face, like that of our grandmothers. But the proposed “grandmother neuron”—a single cell at the crossroads of sensory perception and memory, […]

Patients with Type 2 diabetes who were prescribed SGLT2 inhibitors lost more weight than patients who received GLP-1 receptor agonists, according to a University at Buffalo-led study. The research, which sought to evaluate the difference in weight loss caused by the antidiabetic medications — both of which work to control […]

Genetic technique edits every chloroplast in a plant, but does not change nuclear DNA of offspring. Breeding better crops through genetic engineering have been possible for decades, but the use of genetically modified plants has been limited by technical challenges and popular controversies. A new approach potentially solves both of […]

A new technique called sci-Space, combined with data from other technologies could lead to four-dimensional atlases of gene expression across diverse cells during the embryonic development of mammals. Such atlases would map how the gene transcripts in individual cells reflect the passage of time, cell lineages, cell migration, and location […]

The accumulation of senescent cells is an important contributing cause of degenerative aging. This is not a recent discovery, enough was known 20 years ago for the first SENS rejuvenation research proposals to prominently feature removal of senescent cells as an approach to treating aging as a medical condition, but […]

The Forever Healthy Foundation has been building a database of materials covering presently available options for the treatment of aging, all of which have little available data in comparison to more established areas of medicine. The bias in these materials is towards a very conservative viewpoint, appropriate for physicians, so […]

Immunotherapy based on supercharging the immune system’s natural killer cells has been effective in treating patients with recurrent leukemia and other difficult to treat blood cancers. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown in preclinical studies conducted in mice and human cells that this […]

The effect and selectivity of dietary fibers on intestinal bacteria is now demonstrated. In a series of controlled trials, researchers from DTU and Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis (USA), show that plant-based fibers affect the microbiome of mice that host a human microbiota and as well as that […]

Researchers have found that eating disorder behaviors, such as binge-eating, alter the brain’s reward response process and food intake control circuitry, which can reinforce these behaviors. Understanding how eating disorder behaviors and neurobiology interact can shed light on why these disorders often become chronic and could aid in the future […]

A new study finds that exposure to e-cigarette vapor leads to higher levels of the coronavirus receptor ACE-2 in lungs of mice, with nicotine enhancing that increase in male mice. The use of e-cigarettes, or vaping, causes serious damage to the lungs. After the novel coronavirus responsible for the respiratory […]

The immune system is complex and ages in complex ways, pressed by the lifetime burden of infection and rising levels of molecular damage that trigger many of the same innate immune responses as are produced by invading pathogens. The common innate immune cells known as macrophages play many roles in […]

A number of papers in recent years have suggested there to be a link between gum disease (periodontitis) and neurodegeneration. Similarly to the correlation with heart disease, it is thought that the underlying mechanism is raised chronic inflammation deriving from toxins released into the bloodstream by the bacteria that cause […]

A group of scientists led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian reported that the Moderna mRNA vaccine and a protein-based vaccine candidate elicited durable neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in preclinical research. There were no adverse effects. The research, published […]

A chemist at The University of Texas at Arlington is developing a cancer medication that uses light to target and destroy tumor cells in a process known as photodynamic therapy (PDT). Sherri McFarland, professor of chemistry, and her team of researchers have developed a chemical compound containing the transition metal […]

Plenty of probiotic yoghurts, pickles, and kombuchas claim to boost our digestive health with armies of microbes, but some scientists have more ambitious therapeutic plans for the “bugs” that colonize us. They hope to leverage these microbes as living therapeutics for a range of health conditions, including ulcerative colitis, multiple […]

When people overconsume sugar-sweetened beverages, or SSBs, like soda, certain fruit juices, and some coffee and tea drinks, it can lead to many different health conditions, including obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, is the leading cause of liver disease in the United States, and […]

The first two COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employed a technology that had never before been used in FDA-approved vaccines. Both vaccines performed well in clinical trials, and both have been widely credited with reducing disease, but concerns remain over how long […]

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have created a new method of transporting RNA-based drugs to a subpopulation of immune cells involved in the inflammation process, and target disease-inflamed cells without causing damage to healthy cells that surround them. The new technology may revolutionize the treatment of cancer and a wide range of […]

The tiny mouse embryo has a heart that beats. Its muscles, blood vessels, gut and nervous system are beginning to develop. But this embryo is unusual: It was made in a lab, out of mouse embryonic stem cells, and represents the most sophisticated in vitro (in a dish) model of […]

Yassine Sassi decided as a boy growing up in Tunisia that he wanted to be a scientist. He isn’t sure why. There were no scientists among his family, no friends with the same ambition. But at 18 he left home for France to study biochemistry. Two decades later, he’s on […]

So many microbes live in and on your body that it might be helpful to think of them functioning collectively as separate organs. That’s because these tiny organisms that live primarily in our gut, collectively known as the microbiome, often perform helpful functions that keep the body running smoothly. Scientists […]

Therapy Manipulates the Immune System to Slow Neurodegeneration Without Triggering Dangerous Inflammation in the Process. A new therapy prompts immune defense cells to swallow misshapen proteins, amyloid beta plaques and tau tangles, whose buildup is known to kill nearby brain cells as part of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study shows. […]