General

One of the worst problems of our times is air pollution. Our transport and industries produce poisonous gases that all people, especially the ones in the city, have to breathe. Of course it is not healthy – scientists have found associations between air pollution and all kinds of diseases, including […]

University of Missouri researchers develop a noninvasive way for identifying the major functions of the gastrointestinal tract. A healthy person has a general balance of good and bad bacteria. But that balance is thrown off when someone gets sick. So, to help boost their levels of good bacteria, many people […]

Powerful Frog-Embryo Model Unveils New Role for Risk Genes, Protective Effect of Estrogen. A new study of autism risk genes by UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley scientists implicates disruption in prenatal neurogenesis – a process in which specialized “progenitor” cells give rise to new brain cells – in the […]

A newly discovered genetic condition caused by faulty protein synthesis which causes delayed development and learning difficulties could be treated by a compound originally isolated from human sperm, say, scientists. The University of Manchester researchers, with collaborators from the UK, France and US, identified rare changes in a gene called […]

Our cells are filled with ‘bones,' in a sense. Thin, flexible protein strands called actin filaments help support and move around the bulk of the cells of eukaryotes, which includes all plants and animals. Always on the go, actin filaments constantly grow, shrink, bind with other things, and branch off […]

Amyloid-beta and tau are the two key abnormal protein deposits that accumulate in the brain during the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Detecting the buildup of these proteins at an early stage may allow clinicians to intervene before the condition has a chance to take hold. A team led by Harvard […]

For patients with cancers that do not respond to immunotherapy drugs, adjusting the composition of microorganisms in the intestines — known as the gut microbiome — through the use of stool, or fecal, transplants may help some of these individuals respond to the immunotherapy drugs, a new study suggests. Researchers […]

All things being equal, large, long-lived animals should have the highest risk of cancer. The calculation is simple: Tumors grow when genetic mutations cause individual cells to reproduce too quickly. A long life creates more opportunities for those cancerous mutations to arise. So, too, does a massive body: Big creatures […]

For the millions of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), access to specialized geriatric providers — such as geriatricians — could improve the quality of their care. However, these providers are often in short supply, raising questions about access to the unique care that dementia patients need. […]

Researchers can now determine the age and sex of living beluga whales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet thanks to a new DNA-based technique that uses information from small samples of skin tissue. Accurate age estimates are vital to conservation efforts for Cook Inlet belugas, which were listed as endangered following a significant population […]

In biological cells, proteins are everywhere: these building blocks of life perform countless important functions. A human cell contains thousands of different proteins at any given time, often with copies of each protein type present in their hundreds or even thousands simultaneously. In recent years, researchers have succeeded in using […]

We are gradually learning more about the cells of the human body than any researcher has ever dared to dream of. But what’s the purpose? The mere thought of what one plunges into when deciding to research cells is mind-blowing: The human body contains 37 trillion cells, plus/minus a few […]

A team of scientists from Japan have found success in growing small intestinal cells, akin to those found in the human body, from human-induced pluripotent stem cells. The scientists used a procedure they previously developed on embryonic stem cells for this discovery. They claim that the grown cells can be […]

Eating too much fat and sugar as a child can alter your microbiome for life, even if you later learn to eat healthier, a new study in mice suggests. The study by UC Riverside researchers is one of the first to show a significant decrease in the total number and […]

It took the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Ruiguo Yang far longer to devise a way to put that connection to the test, to ratchet up the stress with unprecedented precision, all while measuring the strain it could endure before reaching a breaking point. The pair in question? Human cells. Their connection? A […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have developed a new method for 3D printing living microbes in controlled patterns, expanding the potential for using engineered bacteria to recover rare-earth metals, clean wastewater, detect uranium and more. Through a novel technique that uses light and bacteria-infused resin to produce 3D-patterned microbes, the […]

New research has found that men who have the Western world’s most common genetic disorder are more likely to develop dementia, compared to those without the faulty genes. Researchers at the University of Exeter and the University of Connecticut have previously found that men with two faulty genes that cause […]

Hormone therapy commonly is given as a targeted treatment for women whose cancer cells carry receptors for estrogen. But the therapy only works for about half of all patients. Until now, there hasn’t been a good way to reliably predict who will benefit and who will not. Researchers at Washington […]

If there was a superhero who relieved pain, millions would be overjoyed. More than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, costing in excess of $650 billion a year in medical treatments and lost productivity, according to a report from the Institute of Medicine. Vulnerable populations are far more likely to develop chronic pain […]

Scientists have identified a group of drugs that may help stop a leading cause of vision loss after making an unexpected discovery that overturns a fundamental belief about DNA. The drugs, known as nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, or NRTIs, are commonly used to treat HIV. The new discovery suggests that […]

The immune system is an extremely complex organ system capable of fighting disease. However, it can also create disease because immune cells may—so to speak—run riot and start attacking the healthy cells of the body. This very delicate balance has always fascinated Professor Sine Reker Hadrup, and she has embarked […]

A Canadian-led research project has confirmed that it is safe to procure organs for transplant from dying patients once the heart has stopped for a full five minutes, in newly published findings in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers monitored blood pressure and electrocardiographic (ECG) waveforms in 631 dying patients following […]

Blocking seizures after a head injury could slow or prevent the onset of dementia, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists. “Traumatic brain injury is a major risk factor for dementia, but the reason this is the case has remained mysterious,” said Ted Allison, co-author and professor in the Department […]

Both inactivated and live-attenuated vaccines generally produce an adequate immune response and are safe to use in children suffering from autoimmune diseases treated with all but the most potent immunosuppressants, according to a research review. The team examined 37 original articles: 25 studied the inactivated vaccines influenza; hepatitis A virus; […]

A new study from scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, Germany, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing shows that the potential genetic burden of mutations arising from retrogenes is significantly greater than originally thought. Genetic information is stored in DNA and transcribed as […]

Childhood trauma could affect the trajectory of multiple sclerosis development and response to treatment in adulthood, a new study in mice found. Mice that had experienced stress when young were more likely to develop the autoimmune disorder and less likely to respond to a common treatment, researchers at the University […]

There are a great many ways to influence cellular metabolism to modestly slow the pace of aging, but few of them are of lll that much interest from a practical point of view, as a basis for therapies that might meaningfully extend human life spans. If an approach involves improvements […]

Biological sensors developed by MIT spinout Glympse Bio could help clinicians make decisions for individual patients. In the fight against severe diseases like cancer, patients often endure a discomforting, weekslong gap between when treatment begins and when doctors can tell if it’s working. The problem often stems from an inability […]

Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging combined with machine learning can visualize tumors in deep tissue and covered by a mucosal layer, scientists show Gastrointestinal stromal tumors are tumors of the digestive tract that grow underneath the mucus layer covering our organs. Because they are deep inside the tissue, these “submucosal tumors” are […]

ETH researchers have found a gene mutation that causes the sperm of boars to immobilize. Their discovery will help pig breeders to exclude animals with this genetic defect from breeding in future. In pig farming, natural mating between a boar and a sow has become rare. It is much more […]