General

It’s common knowledge that our surroundings affect our health — decades of research have linked things like air, water and soil quality to various measures of physical well-being. But much less is known about how the environment changes our brain. Now, a research team at the Keck School of Medicine […]

New research shows how drinking sugary beverages early in life may lead to impaired memory in adulthood. The study, published in Translational Psychiatry, also is the first to show how a specific change to the gut microbiome — the bacteria and other microorganisms growing in the stomach and intestines — can […]

If you feel your brain power diminishing as you advance into middle age and beyond, blame your neural stem cells. In a study published in Cell Stem Cell, a team led by USC Stem Cell scientist Michael Bonaguidi demonstrates that neural stem cells—the stem cells of the nervous system—age rapidly. “There is chronological […]

A new ERC project aims to improve our understanding of enzyme stability and broaden the field of potential applications for biocatalysis. Professor John Woodley from DTU Chemical Engineering has received an Advanced Grant from ERC, the European Research Council. The grant of EUR 2.4 M will for the next five […]

There are millions of people who face the loss of their eyesight from degenerative eye diseases. The genetic disorder retinitis pigmentosa alone affects 1 in 4,000 people worldwide. Today, there is technology available to offer partial eyesight to people with that syndrome. The Argus II, the world’s first retinal prosthesis, […]

Real-world evidence is suggesting, for the first time, the most beneficial treatment courses that could help extend the lives of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, according to research from the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. In a new study published online in JAMA Oncology, researchers show that […]

Many approaches shown to slow aging in animal studies involve an increased efficiency of cell maintenance processes such as the ubiquitin-proteasome system and various types of autophagy. Here researchers discuss the improvement of autophagy in order to slow the age-related decline of mitochondrial function. Mitochondria are the power plants of […]

COVID-19 is not the first viral epidemic and it is not going to be the last one either. Humans have always dealt with such issues, but in the future they may become increasingly more common. One reliable way to make your body more resilient to such threats is regular physical […]

A new study of nearly 5 million live births recorded in California from 2001 to 2012 found that babies born to mothers diagnosed with cannabis use disorders at delivery were more likely to experience negative health outcomes, including preterm birth and low birth weight, compared to babies born to mothers […]

In two landmark studies, researchers have used cutting-edge genomic tools to investigate the potential health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation, a known carcinogen, from the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. One study found no evidence that radiation exposure to parents resulted in new […]

Cancer accounted for nearly 10 million deaths worldwide in 2020, and almost 2 million new cases are expected to be diagnosed this year in the United States alone. Fighting cancer’s many forms is a complex endeavour for doctors and researchers since there is no one-size-fits-all treatment option, but researchers at […]

The immune system is intimately involved in tissue function throughout the body, but particularly so in the brain. The immune system of the brain is distinct from that of the rest of the body, the two separated by the blood-brain barrier, and the immune cells of the brain participate in […]

Patients with atherosclerosis today usually receive preventive treatment only after a heart attack or stroke because diagnostic methods that can identify individuals and atherosclerotic plaques with high risk are lacking. In addition, the choice of treatment, both surgical and medical, is based on large patient studies and the possibilities for […]

The diagnosis of diseases like cancer almost always needs a biopsy – a procedure where a clinician removes a piece of suspect tissue from the body to examine it, typically under a microscope. Many areas of diagnostic medicine, especially cancer management, have seen huge advances in technology, with genetic sequencing, […]

University of Manchester scientists have cast new light on how our skin repairs itself, bringing the possibility of regeneration of the organ a step closer. The study team, funded by the Medical Research Council and Helmut Horten Foundation, showed the activation of specific parts of the DNA leading to better division of human skin cells. […]

New research has uncovered a possible link between vitamin D deficiency and impaired muscle function, which could help older adults better maintain muscle strength as they age. A study led by Dr Andrew Philp from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, recently published in the Journal of Endocrinology, used experimental models to […]

The gut microbiome is a highly varied collection of microbial populations that acts in symbiosis with the body to process food and provide needed metabolites. With age, there is a detrimental shift in these populations. Those generating useful metabolites, such as butyrate, diminish in number. Those capable of infiltrating tissue, […]

A new study in laboratory rats has discovered a direct link between low oxygen in the womb and impaired memory function in the adult offspring. It also finds that anti-oxidant supplements during pregnancy may protect against this. Low oxygen in the womb – known as chronic fetal hypoxia – is […]

A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford, published today in Nature Medicine, identifies fetal head growth patterns that are associated with different developmental, behavioural, visual and growth outcomes at 2 years of age. The researchers identify, for the first time, a critical time period during pregnancy from […]

An international team, led by Stefan Raunser, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, in collaboration with Mathias Gautel at the King's College in London, has produced the first high-resolution 3D image of the sarcomere, the basic contractile unit of skeletal and heart muscle cells, by […]

Myelin is tremendously important for the correct and rapid transmission of electrical signals in the brain. This lipid-rich membrane, which wraps axons, is damaged in certain degenerative nerve disorders. Most of these are rare hereditary diseases with serious clinical courses. Generation of induced oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (iOPCs) from somatic fibroblasts […]

The new “LOOP Zurich – Medical Research Center” promotes patient-focused therapies – for example in oncology and neuro-rehabilitation. To achieve its goals, the centre brings together specialist knowledge in the fields of biomedicine, clinical research and bioinformatics from the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich as well as Zurich’s four university […]

The University of Toronto has partnered with Markham, Ont.-based Edesa Biotech on laboratory studies of a drug that physicians are already using at Canadian hospitals in a clinical trial for some of their sickest patients. Researchers at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine are about to receive their first shipment of the drug, […]

For cancer patients, the use of hematopoietic stem cell transplants can be a game-changer in terms of treatment and recovery. However, most people need to undergo a combination of chemotherapy and radiation before transplants become an option. A new article in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the […]

Scientists have identified a potential drug target for treating obesity and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, a condition for which no therapeutics are currently available. In a new study scheduled to publish in Science Translational Medicine, a team of researchers from the University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University pinpoints […]

Screening for a sometimes fatal condition among patients with a rare autoimmune disease could soon – thanks to a computer algorithm – become even more accurate. Researchers at Michigan Medicine found that an internet application improved their ability to spot pulmonary arterial hypertension in patients with systemic sclerosis, or scleroderma. […]

An innovative optical technology that can distinguish between different types of skin cancer melanoma has been developed in the laboratory of Professor Abraham Katzir of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences at Tel Aviv University. The method, which is rapid, non-invasive, and painless, was tried successfully on about one hundred patients […]

Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) have created an artificial intelligence platform that can identify the specific proteins that allow bacteria to infect the intestines. The platform paves the way for the creation of smart drugs that can neutralize the proteins and prevent disease, eliminating the use of antibiotics. Participating in the […]

Tens of millions of people worldwide are affected by diseases like macular degeneration or have had accidents that permanently damage the light-sensitive photoreceptors within their retinas that enable vision. The human body is not capable of regenerating those photoreceptors, but new advances by medical researchers and engineers at the University […]

A Florida State University researcher has been awarded a $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study sleep-related brain function in Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive disorder that affects memory and behaviour in millions of Americans. Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Aaron Wilber will receive the grant, awarded […]