General

Thanks to researchers in different fields who put in nearly two decades of past work on mRNA vaccine technology, people around the world are being immunized today from COVID-19 — and hopefully leading us out of this pandemic. Now, because of the increased focus on this versatile technology and that foundation […]

Her first intervention was at the dawn of open-heart surgery. This month she got a newly available pulmonary valve, placed with a tiny incision. In 1958, Susie Knudsen became a 12-year-old trailblazer as one of the first children anywhere to undergo open-heart surgery.  After she suffered a heart attack in […]

Middle schoolers who spend time on smartphones, laptops and tablets in the hour before bed are likely to sleep poorly and be more tired the next day, leading them to use media devices at bedtime even more. Those are among the findings of a study published by the National Sleep Foundation by […]

Rice University bioengineers collaborated on a six-year study that systematically analyzed how the surface architecture of breast implants influences the development of adverse effects, including an unusual type of lymphoma. Every year, about 400,000 people receive silicone breast implants in the United States. According to FDA data, most of those […]

How do you kill tumor cells that can’t be targeted? Get their more susceptible neighbors to help. The Rice University lab of synthetic chemist K.C. Nicolaou, in collaboration with AbbVie Inc., has created unique antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) that link a synthetic uncialamycin analogue to antibodies that target cancer cells. Once they enter the […]

Communities surrounding the Salton Sea, the inland body of water straddling California’s Riverside and Imperial counties, show high rates of asthma due, possibly, to high aerosol dust levels resulting from the sea shrinking over time. Scientists suspect, however, the Salton Sea plays an additional role in pulmonary health. A University […]

Adolescents who stopped studying maths exhibited greater disadvantage – compared with peers who continued studying maths – in terms of brain and cognitive development, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 133 students between the ages of 14-18 took part in an […]

A team of University of Oxford researchers, funded by the British Heart Foundation, have identified an entirely new risk factor for congenital heart disease (CHD). Using an animal model system, researchers have shown that if the mother is severely iron deficient and anaemic during early pregnancy, this greatly increases the […]

A new study led by the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford will research whether a daily tablet could help protect the millions of people worldwide with type 2 diabetes from developing cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is the leading global killer, causing approximately 18 million deaths […]

Women who will develop potentially life-threatening disorders during pregnancy can be identified early when hormone levels in the placenta are tested, a new study has shown. Nearly all of the organ systems of the mother’s body need to alter their function during pregnancy so that the baby can grow. If […]

Scientists have identified key molecular events in the developing human embryo between days 7 and 14 – one of the most mysterious, yet critical, stages of our development. The second week of gestation represents a critical stage of embryo development, or embryogenesis. Failure of development during this time is one of the […]

Researchers have shown why people with mental health disorders, including anorexia and panic disorders, experience physical signals differently. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, found that the part of the brain which interprets physical signals from the body behaves differently in people with a range of mental health disorders, […]

Scientists working to understand the cellular processes linking high cholesterol to breast cancer recurrence and metastasis report that a byproduct of cholesterol metabolism causes some cells to send out cancer-promoting signals to other cells. These signals are packaged in membrane-bound compartments called extracellular vesicles. Reported in the journal Endocrinology, the […]

Canine parvovirus (CPV) is a highly infectious pathogen that causes severe diseases in unvaccinated dogs, including inflammation of the heart and acute gastrointestinal illness. Originating in cats, the virus is a rare example of a DNA-based virus that can jump between species, and a team of researchers’ discovery may help […]

A clinical study has investigated whether immunotherapy against type 1 diabetes can preserve the body’s own production of insulin. The results suggest that injection of a protein, GAD, into lymph nodes can be effective in a subgroup of individuals. In type 1 diabetes, the body’s immune system attacks the cells […]

A study, led by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) and The University of Manchester (UoM), and funded by the National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR), has found that a mental health treatment called Metacognitive Therapy significantly improves symptoms of anxiety and depression for heart disease patients. These […]

Implant surface topography can influence the development of scarring, inflammation, and other complications, researchers find. Every year, about 400,000 people receive silicone breast implants in the United States. According to data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a majority of those implants needs to be replaced within 10 years […]

Leukemia stem cells are rare cells that can renew themselves while continuing to generate malignant cells known as leukemic blasts. These cells are difficult to eradicate using chemotherapy drugs and frequently lead to recurrence of leukemia. Leukemia stem cells, however, are dependent on a protein complex called polycomb repressive complex […]

Scientists studied the brain activity of school-aged children during development and found that regions that activated upon seeing limbs (hands, legs, etc.) subsequently activated upon seeing faces or words when the children grew older. The research, by scientists at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, reveals new insights about vision development […]

Over the past two decades, targeted cancer therapies have changed the prognosis for thousands of patients. By targeting the specific genetic mutation behind a patient’s cancer, these therapies have enabled increasing numbers of patients to experience fewer toxic side effects and, often, live free of disease following their treatment. But […]

Acrylamide, which is extensively used in industries, causes peripheral neuropathy or encephalopathy. Now, scientists from Japan examined the response against oxidative stress in acrylamide-induced neurotoxicity and found that nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a master regulator of the immune system and response to oxidative stress, was at the […]

Regenerative medicine researchers have made progress toward overcoming a seemingly intractable obstacle to stem cell-derived heart cell transplantation for repairing damaged heart muscle. Their approach is a significant advance toward making heart cell transplants a potential reality for patients with cardiac disease. Their findings were presented at the International Society for Stem […]

New study challenges long-standing assumptions about disease severity in infants. Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, remains a significant cause of death in infants and young children around the world and, despite global vaccination programs, many countries are experiencing a resurgence of this highly contagious disease. A new study by Boston […]

Articular cartilage is a connective tissue lining the surfaces of joints. When the cartilage severely wears down, it leads to osteoarthritis (OA), a debilitating disease that affects millions of people globally. The articular cartilage is composed of a dense extracellular matrix (ECM) with a sparse distribution of cells found in healthy […]

If the genome is the recipe of life, base pairs are the individual ingredients listed. These chemical structures form DNA, and every living organism on Earth has just four. The specific arrangements of these four base pairs — A, T, C, G — make us who and what we are. […]

The gut and the brain communicate with each other in order to adapt satiety and blood sugar levels during food consumption. The vagus nerve is an important communicator between these two organs. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, the Cluster of Excellence for Ageing Research […]

A hydrogel that forms a barrier to keep heart tissue from adhering to surrounding tissue after surgery was developed and successfully tested in rodents by a team of University of California San Diego researchers. The team of engineers, scientists and physicians also conducted a pilot study on porcine hearts, with […]

Neutrophils belong to the first responders of our immune system. They circulate in our bodies and hunt in infected tissues to ingest, kill, and digest harmful pathogens. To become such effective killers in the very complex situation of an inflamed tissue, they work together as a collective. They release chemical […]

Many diseases caused by a dysregulated immune system, such as allergies, asthma and autoimmunity, can be traced back to events in the first few months after birth. To date, the mechanisms behind the development of the immune system have not been fully understood. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet show a […]

A noted diabetes researcher and public health advocate from the University of Toronto has been selected to lead a “powerhouse” research network that will focus on the global fight against diabetes and other serious chronic diseases. Lorraine Lipscombe, a physician and associate professor in the department of medicine in the […]