General

A large study of people living on five continents, led by researchers at McMaster University and the University of Toronto, has found a diet high in poor quality carbohydrates leads to a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes, and death. The higher risks of a diet high in poor quality […]

Graybiel lab identifies genes linked to abnormal repetitive behaviors often seen in models of addiction and schizophrenia. Extreme repetitive behaviors such as hand-flapping, body-rocking, skin-picking, and sniffing are common to a number of brain disorders including autism, schizophrenia, Huntington’s disease, and drug addiction. These behaviors, termed stereotypies, are also apparent in animal models […]

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) President and CEO Bruce Stillman have been dissecting DNA replication, a critical step in cell division, since the 1980s. His lab studies how Origin Recognition Complexes—ORCs—coordinate DNA duplication. They discovered how our cells assemble and disassemble ORCs during the cell division cycle. One ORC protein is sequestered […]

‘We noticed that the patient monitoring processes in hospitals are inefficient. They also lack digital solutions and generate unnecessary manual and administrative tasks for the overworked nurses and doctors.’ says Miklós Knebel. Knebel and Péter Dános participated in a project run by EIT Digital Master School in which students designed a new type […]

Newborn babies with indicators of alcohol in their stool are more likely to face behavioral difficulties later in childhood, according to new study from a team of multi-disciplinary researchers at Case Western Reserve University. The research, published recently in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, suggests that a biomarker at birth […]

A review of nearly 28,000 emergency department records shows less than 2% of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 suffered an ischemic stroke but those who did had an increased risk of requiring long-term care after hospital discharge. Those are the findings from a study conducted by researchers from the University of Missouri […]

Triggering‌ ‌bad‌ ‌memories‌ ‌to‌ ‌reactivate‌ ‌in‌ ‌REM‌ ‌sleep‌ ‌–‌ ‌the‌ ‌period‌ ‌when‌ ‌people‌ ‌dream‌ ‌most‌ ‌vividly‌ ‌–‌ ‌reduces‌ ‌the‌ ‌emotion‌ ‌associated‌ ‌with‌ ‌these‌ ‌memories‌ ‌on‌ ‌waking,‌ ‌a‌ ‌new‌ ‌study‌ ‌has‌ ‌suggested.‌ ‌ It‌ ‌is‌ ‌the‌ ‌first‌ ‌research‌ ‌to‌ ‌suggest‌ ‌this‌ ‌technique‌ ‌could‌ ‌have‌ ‌the potential‌ ‌for‌ ‌use‌ ‌as‌ ‌a‌ ‌tool‌ ‌for‌ ‌the‌ […]

In a study of mice, treatment with the engineered cells shrank tumors and prevented the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. Scientists have genetically engineered immune cells, called myeloid cells, to precisely deliver an anticancer signal to organs where cancer may spread. In a study of mice, […]

Scientists peering into the beating heart have solved a decades-old, fundamental mystery about how the heart works. The revelation could herald the development of new treatments for heart diseases — the leading cause of death worldwide. Researchers from Eastern Virginia Medical School, Florida State University and the University of Virginia […]

Fish oil supplements are a billion-dollar industry built on a foundation of purported, but not proven, health benefits. Now, new research from a team led by a University of Georgia scientist indicates that taking fish oil only provides health benefits if you have the right genetic makeup. The study, led by Kaixiong Ye […]

Epigenetic age acceleration is the degree to which epigenetic age is higher than chronological age. Epigenetic age is assessed via one of the epigenetic clocks, measuring the status of DNA methylation at numerous CpG sites on the genome. Some changes in DNA methylation patterns are characteristic of aging, a reaction […]

Evolutionary forces drive a glaring gender imbalance in the occurrence of many health conditions, including autism, a team of genetics researchers has concluded. The human genome has evolved to favour the inheritance of very different characteristics in males and females, which in turn makes men more vulnerable to a host […]

Another step towards understanding Alzheimer's disease has been taken at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre. Molecular biologist  Gilbert Bernier, and professor of neurosciences at Université de Montréal, has discovered a new function for the BMI1 gene, which is known to inhibit brain ageing. The results of his work have just been […]

The Zika virus that ravaged the Americas, leaving many babies with permanent brain damage, may have a silver lining. The virus can activate immune cells to destroy an aggressive brain cancer in mice, giving a powerful boost to an immunotherapy drug and sparking long-lasting immunological memory that can ward off […]

There is much debate these days over the contribution of persistent infection (such as by herpesviruses) to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Not everyone with the evident risk factors, such as obesity, frailty, chronic inflammation, and so forth, progresses from mild cognitive impairment to full blown Alzheimer's disease. Why is […]

An analysis of several large studies involving participants from more than 60 countries, spearheaded by researchers from McMaster University, has found that eating oily fish regularly can help prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in high-risk individuals, such as those who already have heart disease or stroke. The critical ingredient is omega-3 […]

Extremely preterm infants can suffer from a life-threatening inflammation of the gut. A new clinical study has shown that supplements of a lactic acid bacterium may have positive effects by increasing the diversity of intestinal bacteria in these infants. The study has been published in the scientific journal Cell Reports […]

Rectal cancer, along with colon cancer, is the third-most common type of cancer in the United States, and treatment and surgery greatly affect the quality of life of patients. A multi-disciplinary team at Washington University in St. Louis has developed and tested an innovative imaging technique that is able to […]

The neurosurgeon who examined Sakhrat Khizroev after he lost his eyesight in a horrible accident told the young scientist that his vision would come back slowly. Then, after months of living in darkness, it finally started to return. At first, the images were blurry and fragmented, as if someone were […]

Oregon State University research has revealed a crucial mechanism behind one of humankind's most deadly physiological processes: the movement of malignant cells from one part of the body to another. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded study led by OSU biophysicist Bo Sun shows the role […]

In a major advance in the treatment of multiple myeloma, a CAR T-cell therapy has generated deep, sustained remissions in patients who had relapsed from several previous therapies, an international clinical trial has found. In a study posted online today by the New England Journal of Medicine, trial leaders report […]

A team of researchers, led by biomedical engineering professor Anirban Sen Gupta, is working toward innovating and advancing platelet-inspired nanotechnology systems to treat severe bleeding in surgery and trauma. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $2.1 million, four-year research grant to Sen Gupta and collaborators at the University of […]

Men with stable coronary artery disease who are on Viagra due to impotence seem to live longer and have a lower risk of experiencing a new heart attack, a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reports. Impotence can be an […]

A University of California, Riverside, study analyzing fourth-generation electronic cigarette, or EC, pod atomizer design features have found the pod atomizers are similar to those of previous generations and contain elements that may adversely affect health and accumulate in the environment. EC atomizers are chambers that hold nicotine-containing fluid and […]

Kinases are a class of enzymes that are responsible for transferring the main chemical energy source used by the body’s cells. As such, they play important roles in diverse cellular processes, including signalling, differentiation, proliferation and metabolism. But since they are so ubiquitous, mutated versions of kinases are frequently found […]

Patterns of epigenetic regulation of gene expression (and thus RNA and protein levels) change constantly in response to cell state and environment. Some of those changes are characteristic responses to the damage and dysfunction of aging. Since the demonstration of the first epigenetic clocks, those that predict age based on […]

Many viruses infect their hosts through mucosal surfaces such as the lining of the respiratory tract. MIT researchers have now developed a vaccination strategy that can create an army of T cells that are ready and waiting at those surfaces, offering a quicker response to viral invaders. The researchers showed […]

Most stroke victims don’t receive treatment fast enough to prevent brain damage. Scientists at Ohio State University have developed technology to “retrain” cells to help repair damaged brain tissue – an advancement that may someday help patients regain speech, cognition and motor function, even when administered days after an ischemic […]

Recent generations show a worrying decline in health compared to their parents and grandparents when they were the same age, a new national study reveals. Researchers found that, compared to previous generations, members of Generation X and Generation Y showed poorer physical health, higher levels of unhealthy behaviours such as […]

In a recent study led by the University of Bristol, scientists have shown how to simultaneously harness multiple forms of regulation in living cells to strictly control gene expression and open new avenues for improved biotechnologies. Engineered microbes are increasingly being used to enable the sustainable and clean production of […]