April 9, 2021

Getting to the Core of HIV Replication

HIV-1 viral capsid simulations on XSEDE-allocated Stampede2, Bridges, Darwin systems uncover nucleotide entry mechanism. Viruses lurk in the grey area between the living and the nonliving, according to scientists. Like living things, they replicate but they don't do it on their own. The HIV-1 virus, like all viruses, needs to […]
April 9, 2021

Chronic sinus inflammation appears to alter brain activity

The millions of people who have chronic sinusitis deal not only with stuffy noses and headaches, they also commonly struggle to focus, and experience depression and other symptoms that implicate the brain’s involvement in their illness. New research links sinus inflammation with alterations in brain activity, specifically with the neural […]
April 9, 2021

New study probes the effects of opioid use during pregnancy

A new UO study is examining the effects of opioids on an understudied population: developing infants. Human physiology associate professor Adrianne Huxtable is focusing her newest research project on the effects of opioids during pregnancy on essential breathing circuits. It is a research question that hasn’t been well-examined, despite the […]
April 9, 2021

Seeking the cellular mechanisms of disease, with help from machine learning

Caroline Uhler blends machine learning, statistics, and biology to understand how our bodies respond to illness. Caroline Uhler’s research blends machine learning and statistics with biology to better understand gene regulation, health, and disease. Despite this lofty mission, Uhler remains dedicated to her original career passion: teaching. “The students at […]
April 9, 2021

Reversing a genetic cause of poor stress responses in mice

Everyone faces stress occasionally, whether in school, at work, or during a global pandemic. However, some cannot cope as well as others. In a few cases, the cause is genetic. In humans, mutations in the OPHN1 gene cause a rare X-linked disease that includes poor stress tolerance. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) […]
April 9, 2021

Artificial Intelligence identified three types of multiple sclerosis

The biggest advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is its ability to analyse large amounts of data and categorize it in a way that is not immediately obvious to people. For example, now AI identified three new subtypes of multiple sclerosis (MS) in a recent UCL research. Scientists believe this will […]
April 9, 2021

Artificial Intelligence can help developing proteins quicker and cheaper

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a tool, which enables people to analyse huge pools of data very quickly and with high degree of accuracy. AI could speed up a lot of our scientific work. For example, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have found that AI is able to generate […]
April 8, 2021

Face, brain development tightly linked, study finds

Researchers at Stanford and KU Leuven have identified more than 70 genes that affect variation in both brain and facial structure. The genes don’t influence cognitive ability, further debunking beliefs that intelligence can be assessed by facial features. Even when you assume your best poker face, you reveal something about […]
April 8, 2021

U of A chemists discover how a plaque-fighting protein protects against Alzheimer’s

Scientists at the University of Alberta have identified a mechanism for a protein that decreases the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease—a discovery that highlights a new potential avenue for developing therapeutic treatments. The protein, called CD33, is known for its connection to Alzheimer’s disease susceptibility, but its exact role was […]
April 8, 2021

Accelerated Cellular Aging Associated with Mortality Seen in Depressed Individuals

Cells from individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) were found to have higher than expected rates of methylation at specific sites on their DNA, when compared to cells from healthy individuals without MDD, according to a study by a multidisciplinary team of UC San Francisco scientists, in collaboration with others. […]
April 8, 2021

A Single Injection Reverses Blindness in Patient with Rare Genetic Disorder

A Penn Medicine patient with a genetic form of childhood blindness gained vision, which lasted more than a year, after receiving a single injection of an experimental RNA therapy into the eye. The clinical trial was conducted by researchers at the Scheie Eye Institute in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University […]
April 8, 2021

Glass nanopore pulls DNA like spaghetti through a needle

DNA sequencing has become so common, few realize how hard it is to even extract a single molecule of DNA from a biological sample. Research led by UC Riverside is making it easier to detect and capture DNA from fluid samples such as blood using a tiny glass tube and […]
April 8, 2021

Healthy sleep may rely on long-overlooked brain cells

For something we spend one-third of our lives doing, we still understand remarkably little about how sleep works — for example, why can some people sleep deeply through any disturbance, while others regularly toss and turn for hours each night? And why do we all seem to need a different […]
April 8, 2021

No Cancer Left Behind

Curing cancer has been the dream of countless doctors and researchers over the decades. Yet some types of cancer, whether because they affect relatively few people or lack influential advocates, receive less attention and funding than others. A recent gift to Harvard Medical School is boosting efforts to understand and […]
April 8, 2021

Team identifies new approach to tackling heart disease in people with Type 2 diabetes

Pharmacy researcher looks for ways to correct a common but often hidden type of diabetes-related heart failure. A University of Alberta laboratory has uncovered a new approach to preventing heart failure in people with Type 2 diabetes, according to research findings published in the journal Cell Reports. “We know people with […]
April 8, 2021

Waking up to your favorite music actually makes sense

Your working day most likely starts with an alarm. And you probably use your phone's alarm, because of how convenient it is. But what song is it playing in the morning? Scientists at RMIT University in Australia conducted a research, which revealed that choosing the right sound to wake up […]
April 7, 2021

Childhood obesity can be predicted at 12 months of age

Obesity is a huge health issue. It is a treatable condition, but it can cause permanent damage and early death. Sadly, obesity rates are rising among children as well as adults. Researchers at the University of Queensland have now developed a method, which helps predict the risk that a 12 […]
April 7, 2021

New brain-stimulating technology to relieve pain and depression

Imagine experiencing chronic pain or depression so severe that no medication will bring relief. Such conditions may not be common, but they do exist. For patients fortunate enough to receive professional help, treatment often involves a combination of different therapies. One of these is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The thought […]
April 7, 2021

A weak heart makes a suffering brain

Heart problems cause disturbed gene activity in the brain’s memory center, from which cognitive deficits arise. Researchers at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) come to this conclusion based on laboratory studies. They consider that […]
April 7, 2021

For breastfeeding moms, COVID-19 vaccinations may also protect babies

Major boost in COVID-19 antibodies seen in breast milk after vaccination. Nursing mothers who receive a COVID-19 vaccine may pass protective antibodies to their babies through breast milk for at least 80 days following vaccination, suggests new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “Our study showed […]
April 7, 2021

Going deep: Artificial intelligence improves accuracy of breast ultrasound diagnoses

Scientists train deep learning algorithms to classify breast lesions from ultrasound images in a large multi-center study. In 2020, the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization stated that breast cancer accounts for most cancer morbidities and mortalities in women worldwide. This alarming statistic not only […]
April 7, 2021

Unique mini-microscope provides insight into complex brain functions

Researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering and Medical School have developed a unique head-mounted mini-microscope device that allows them to image complex brain functions of freely moving mice in real-time over a period of more than 300 days. The device, known as the […]
April 7, 2021

‘Brain glue’ helps repair circuitry in severe TBI

At a cost of $38 billion a year, an estimated 5.3 million people are living with a permanent disability related to traumatic brain injury in the United States today, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The physical, mental and financial toll of a TBI can be enormous, but […]
April 7, 2021

CRISPR-Chip advance streamlines genetic testing for medical diagnostics and research

A study led by researchers at the Keck Graduate Institute (KGI), UC Berkeley and Vilnius University demonstrated new disease-detection capabilities of a hand-held device based on CRISPR gene-editing technology, a development that could lead to faster, portable genetic testing for diagnostics and research. Scientists look to variations at a single […]
April 7, 2021

Infants already processing word combination even before their own first words

Baby’s first words are a huge milestone in a child's development. It is one of those things that parents always remember. However, when a baby says his or her first words, it is not actually the beginning of the language skills development. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh found that […]
April 6, 2021

Researcher uses breakthrough therapy to cure lymphoma patient

During a world first therapy conducted at the Princess Alexandra Hospital by Mater Researcher and Haematologist Professor Maher Gandhi a 46-year-old patient has been successfully cured of a rare type of lymphoma. The patient was diagnosed with brain lymphoma, a form of blood cancer confined to the brain, following a […]