General

One trait shared by all humans is that they don’t remember specific life episodes that occurred before the age of 3 or 4.  Many scientists have attributed this so-called “infantile amnesia” to a lack of development in the hippocampus, an area of the brain located in the temporal lobe that is […]

Researchers here report on DNA sequencing carried out in a (necessarily small) number of supercentenarians (age 110 and over) and semi-supercentenarians (age 105 to 109), and identification of genetic variants associated with DNA repair and clonal hematopoiesis that are more common in these survivors to late old age. We should […]

An exciting new way has been found in which the body senses a bacterial infection within 4 hours and uses nerve pathways to trigger an immune response in distant organs. The speed by which an infection can be identified, and how the defence mechanisms are triggered is critical to infection […]

The progressive age-related dysfunction of microglia in the aging brain is implicated in the progression of neurodegenerative disease, as well as the increased inflammation and forms of pathology found in the brain tissue of older individuals. In mice, clearance of microglia can be efficiently achieved and leads to a rapid […]

Cancerous tumors thrive on blood, extending their roots deep into the fabric of the tissue around them. They alter the genetics of surrounding cells and evolve to avoid the protective attacks of immune cells. Now, Penn State researchers have developed a way to study the relationship between solid, difficult-to-treat tumors and the […]

There is enthusiasm in the research community for in vivo cellular reprogramming as a path to treat aging. Reprogramming somatic cells to pluripotency recaptures some of the processes that take place in the developing embryo, and has been shown to restore youthful patterns of gene expression, leading to improved mitochondrial […]

Passing down a healthy genome is a critical part of creating viable offspring. But what happens when you have harmful modifications in your genome that you don’t want to pass down? Baby plants have evolved a method to wipe the slate clean and reinstall only the modifications that they need to grow […]

It comes after a successful pilot between Cardiff University’s Wales Research and Diagnostic PET Imaging Centre at the University Hospital of Wales, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales. From this week the technology will be available across all health boards – and it is hoped […]

“Organoids.” It’s a word that has a science-fiction sound to it, but, in fact, organoids are at the core of what scientist Jeff Wrana calls “revolutionizing biology.” That’s because organoids offer the promise of new treatments for a host of diseases and conditions, from inflammatory bowel disease to autism spectrum disorder. “An […]

A new study from researchers at Rice University has found that bodily inflammation after the death of a spouse can predict future depression. “Inflammation and future depressive symptoms among recently bereaved spouses” will appear in the June 2021 edition of the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. Lead author Lydia Wu, a Rice psychology […]

Harvard Medical School researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have discovered how amyloid-beta—the neurotoxin believed to be at the root of Alzheimer’s disease—forms in axons and related structures that connect neurons in the brain, where it causes the most damage. Their findings, published in Cell Reports, could serve as a guidepost for […]

Researchers at UVA Cancer Center have unveiled important new insights into how hormones known as androgens act on our cells – and the discovery could boost efforts to develop better treatments for prostate, ovarian and breast cancers. The findings shed light on how androgens interact with their receptors inside cells […]

The research team found they could detect heart abnormalities in infants and toddlers months or years after their exposure to the virus. A new device will let doctors monitor infants and toddlers who are asymptomatic with Zika after contracting the virus in utero from their mothers, according to a recently published report in the […]

Antiretroviral therapy, the common approach in the treatment of HIV, halts replication of the virus and has saved the lives of millions of people. However, for patients, the drug cocktail becomes a lifetime necessity because they continue to harbour latent HIV in a small number of immune system cells. In […]

The “anti-aging” marketplace has long been a pit of fraud, lies, hopes, and dreams, and blatantly so. Whatever the supplement sellers and cosmetics companies that dominate that industry have to say about the capabilities of their products is essentially nonsense, and this play-acting is accepted by the public as just […]

Researchers from Russia and Germany have created a genome-wide atlas of developmental alternative splicing changes of seven organs in six mammal species and chicken. The research was published in the journal Nature Genetics. As the protein encoding RNA matures in eukaryotes, it gets spliced, with some parts cut out and […]

Through T cell engineering, researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center show that it’s possible to arrest tumor growth for a variety of cancers and squash the spread of cancer to other tissues. This research will be published in tomorrow’s print edition of Cancer Research. The paper builds on […]

The development of antibodies to the COVID-19 virus has been the great long-term hope of ending the pandemic. However, immune system turncoats are also major culprits in severe cases of COVID-19, Yale scientists report in the journal Nature. These autoantibodies target and react with a person’s tissues or organs similar to […]

Researchers at Oregon State University have found a key new piece of the puzzle in the quest to use gene therapy to enable people born deaf to hear. The work centres around a large gene responsible for an inner-ear protein, otoferlin. Mutations in otoferlin are linked to severe congenital hearing […]

Eating a Western diet impairs the immune system in the gut in ways that could increase the risk of infection and inflammatory bowel disease, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Cleveland Clinic. The study, in mice and people, showed that […]

Pregnant women made only modest dietary changes after being diagnosed with gestational diabetes, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Women with gestational diabetes are generally advised to reduce their carbohydrate intake, and the women in the study did cut their daily intake of juice […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated the use of low dose venetoclax, an experimental drug, for the treatment of the heterogeneous cancer disease multiple myeloma in patients who had relapsed on standard therapies. The findings are published in the American Journal of Hematology and provide new hope for the treatment […]

The common skin disease atopic eczema (AE) impacts heavily on the life quality and general health of sufferers. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now evaluated its treatment with internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT). The study suggests that patients feel better after iCBT compared with a control group who received only […]

Scientists at Bristol have successfully treated flies displaying behavioural problems linked to newly discovered schizophrenia-associated genes in humans, using common antipsychotics. Schizophrenia is a severe long-term mental health condition that is historically poorly understood and treated. It is relatively common, affecting one to two per cent of the population, and […]

Cancerous tumors thrive on blood, extending their roots deep into the fabric of the tissue around them. They alter the genetics of surrounding cells and evolve to avoid the protective attacks of immune cells. Now, Penn State researchers have developed a way to study the relationship between solid, difficult-to-treat tumors and the […]

Though obesity in midlife is linked to an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease, new research suggests that a high body mass index later in life doesn’t necessarily translate to greater chances of developing the brain disease. In the study, researchers compared data from two groups of people who had been […]

Differences in how blood pressure affects the risk of dementia in men and women may provide clues to help slow the rapid growth of the disease, according to new research published today. In a study of just over half a million people, George Institute researchers found that while the link between […]

It is a strange world that we live in, in which we have to argue – actually debate with people who earnestly hold the opposing view – that more of us living for longer, in better health than is the case today, is a good outcome. That it is worth […]

What kills most people who die from cancer is not the initial tumor. It’s the intolerable disease burden on the body that arises when tumor cells continually expand their numbers after spreading to different organs. In comparison to what is already known about specific mutations that drive early-stage cancer growth […]

We are truly never alone, not even within our own bodies. Human beings play host to trillions of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms that make up the human microbiome. In recent years, the mix of these resident bacteria, and the presence of specific bacterial species, has been linked to […]