General

Eating is a dangerous business. Naturally occurring toxins in food and potentially harmful foodborne microbes can do a number on our intestines, leading to repeated minor injuries. In healthy people, such damage typically heals in a day or two. But in people with Crohn’s disease, the wounds fester, causing abdominal […]

In response to brain injury, neural stem cells cluster and migrate to the site of injury. The clustering is key – without it, the cells don’t travel. But what causes it? To investigate, Yale researchers created a 3-D model of the brain’s workings. The results of the study, led by […]

Scientists at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have identified the specialized environment, known as a niche, in the bone marrow where new bone and immune cells are produced. The study, published in Nature, also shows that movement-induced stimulation is required for the maintenance of this niche, […]

The new material, which the Advanced Photon Source helped characterize, is strong yet stretchable, and could be ideal for creating artificial tendons and ligaments for prosthetics and robotics. A research team led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has developed a new method to make synthetic biomaterials that […]

A team led by scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI) has noninvasively visualized the light-sensing cells in the back of the eye, known as photoreceptors, in greater detail than ever before. Published in Optica, the researchers report how they improved imaging resolution by a third by selectively blocking the […]

First of its kind study reveals dynamic interactions between dendritic growth and synaptic connectivity in the brain cells of developing mice. A little competition is never a bad thing, especially when it comes to fledging neurons growing in the brain, finds a new Stanford University study. In a first of […]

Scientists at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have determined the structure of protein “fibrils” linked to Lou Gehrig’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders—findings that provide clues to how toxic proteins clump and spread between nerve cells in the brain. Their results may also lead to developing drugs […]

Results published to show it is possible to identify Parkinson’s Disease based on compounds found on the surface of the skin. The findings offer hope that a pioneering new test could be developed to diagnose the degenerative condition through a simple and painless skin swab. Scientists at The University of Manchester […]

Changes in the gut microbiome have a role in aging, and the activities of microbial species (generation of beneficial metabolites, versus generation of harmful inflammation) may be as important as lifestyle choices such as exercise when it comes to the pace of aging. Certainly there is good evidence for rejuvenation […]

A new genome-wide CRISPR screening technique conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt University is offering new insights about how tumors in 80 to 90 percent of all cancers grow. This novel approach developed by Maria Fomicheva, a graduate student in the lab of Ian Macara, Louise B. McGavock Professor and professor of cell […]

Approximately two years after establishing a human cerebral organoid system to study Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), National Institutes of Health researchers have further developed the model to screen drugs for potential CJD treatment. The scientists, from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), describe their work in Scientific Reports. Human […]

Researchers have identified changes in the metabolism of liver and skeletal muscle cells in live mice that are likely connected to obesity-associated metabolic disorders. This study was led by Professor Shinya Kuroda, head of the Systems Biology Lab at the University of Tokyo and an expert in trans-omics research, which […]

Stopping smoking leads to healthier, wealthier and happier lives say researchers from University of Bath’s Addiction & Mental Health Group. New evidence published in the Cochrane Library suggests that smokers who quit can feel the positive benefits within weeks. The research, led by Dr Gemma Taylor from the University of Bath’s Addiction & […]

An interesting fact about the adaptive immune system: the number of T cells in the body remains much the same across the entire lifespan, even after the supply of new T cells all but ceases in middle age. T cells are created as thymocytes by hematopoietic cells in the bone […]

Delaying second doses of COVID-19 vaccines should reduce case numbers in the near term; however, the longer-term case burden and the potential for evolution of viral ‘escape’ from immunity will depend on the robustness of immune responses generated by natural infections and one or two vaccine doses, according to a […]

Reducing the initial screening age and including those with lower smoking exposures would help avert lung cancer-related deaths, according to a new study by the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network, led by a University of Michigan researcher. The modeling study, commissioned by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and […]

Just because you are exposed to a pathogen does not mean you will become sick. Increasingly, scientists have shown that genetics play a central role in determining whether the pathogens that cause a wide range of disease—including influenza, warts, and COVID-19—end up causing serious diseases. The lab of Jean-Laurent Casanova, which has spent 25 […]

One of the more interesting studies of cellular senescence in recent years was the demonstration that topical treatment with rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR signaling, over a period of months meaningfully reduced the burden of cellular senescence in the skin of aged individuals, leading to improvement in skin quality. It […]

People over 65 shouldn’t take three or more medicines that act on their brain and nervous system, experts strongly warn, because the drugs can interact and raise the risk of everything from falls to overdoses to memory issues. But a new study finds that 1 in 7 people with dementia who […]

New research from the University at Buffalo suggests that breast cancer patients who drink sugar-sweetened beverages regularly are at increased risk for death from any cause and breast cancer in particular. Compared to women who never or rarely drank non-diet soda, those who reported drinking non-diet soda five times or […]

Some of Princeton’s leading cancer researchers were startled to discover that what they thought was a straightforward investigation into how cancer spreads through the body — metastasis — turned up evidence of liquid-liquid phase separations: the new field of biology research that investigates how liquid blobs of living materials merge […]

Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have developed a tool to monitor communications within the brain in a way never before possible, and it has already offered an explanation for why Alzheimer’s drugs have limited effectiveness and why patients get much worse after going off of them. The […]

PNNL bioinformatics experts tease out link to DNA repair signaling Night shift work disrupts the natural 24-hour rhythms in the activity of certain cancer-related genes, making workers more vulnerable to damage to their DNA while at the same time causing the body’s DNA repair mechanisms to be mistimed to deal with […]

Being active and fit slows the impact of aging on the brain. A diverse set of mechanisms are involved, and, as is often the case in these matters, it is far from clear as to which of these mechanisms are the most important. Fitness helps to maintain the vascular system […]

For cancer cells to metastasize, they must first break free of a tumor’s own defenses. Most tumors are sheathed in a protective “basement” membrane — a thin, pliable film that holds cancer cells in place as they grow and divide. Before spreading to other parts of the body, the cells […]

Scientists at ETH Zurich are working to develop information-​processing switching systems in biological cells. Now, for the first time, they have developed an OR switch in human cells that reacts to different signals. Biological cells might one day be equipped with artificial genetic programs that work in much the same […]

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have implicated a type of immune cell in the development of chronic lung disease that sometimes is triggered following a respiratory viral infection. The evidence suggests that activation of this immune cell — a type of guardian cell called a […]

Managing single risk factors like blood pressure rather than looking at overall risk may be wasting scarce resources in countries where cardiovascular disease (CVD) is on the rise, according to a new study. Researchers looked at country-specific levels of cardiovascular risk, associations with socio-demographic factors and whether WHO guidelines on the […]

The ambitious project aims to preserve humankind – and animal-kind, plant-kind and fungi-kind – in the event of a global crisis. University of Arizona researcher Jekan Thanga is taking scientific inspiration from an unlikely source: the biblical tale of Noah's Ark. Rather than two of every animal, however, his solar-powered […]

Melanoma is the most aggressive and deadliest form of skin cancer. Effective treatments are elusive because one type of this cancer develops resistance to available inhibitors, and in another type, no effective drug treatment has yet been found. But a promising pathway to effective drug treatment of both types of […]