General

Researchers have discovered a specific brain region underlying ‘goal-directed behaviour’ – that is, when we consciously do something with a particular goal in mind, for example going to the shops to buy food. The study, published in the journal Neuron, found that marmoset monkeys could no longer make an association between […]

Research has shown that the communities of bacteria that live in a mouse's gut are essential for the animals to exhibit normal social behavior with other mice. Mice that have been bred to be germ-free, without a gut microbiome, display significant antisocial behaviors, such as avoiding a stranger mouse rather […]

Chronic pain is a major global public health challenge that causes significant disability. A new research consortium and national chronic pain data hub could improve outcomes for the many people living with painful and debilitating conditions, such as fibromyalgia, lower back pain, headaches and migraines, thanks to a joint £14 […]

The vast majority of American adults eat a dietary pattern that falls short of meeting national dietary guidelines for cancer prevention, a new study shows. When researchers analyzed the dietary intake of more than 30,000 American adults according to body mass index (BMI), the results also showed that people with […]

The number of people who live past the age of 100 has been on the rise for decades, up to nearly half a million people worldwide. There are, however, far fewer “supercentenarians,” people who live to age 110 or even longer. The oldest living person, Jeanne Calment of France, was 122 […]

The University of Manchester, together with Health Innovation Manchester and its Academic Health Science Centre, are launching a joint venture with the Morningside Group to trial a series of new diagnostics and interventions in clinical and digital health. The venture will look at novel digital health innovations and trial a […]

First generation stem cell therapies, such as those using cells derived from fat tissue, have been shown to reduce chronic inflammation. This effect is produced as a result of signaling from the transplanted cells, which near entirely die rather than surviving to integrate into tissues and perform useful work. Improvements […]

A clinical trial conducted at the University of Louisville has shown for the first time that heart failure treatments using cells derived from the patient’s own bone marrow and heart resulted in improved quality of life and reduced major adverse cardiac events for patients after one year. “This is a […]

Many neurodevelopmental disorders share similar symptoms, such as learning disabilities or attention deficits. A new study from MIT has uncovered a common neural mechanism for a type of cognitive impairment seen in some people with autism and schizophrenia, even though the genetic variations that produce the impairments are different for […]

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 […]