General

It was an unexpected discovery that started with an analysis of more than 1,000 genes. The question: why game-changing cancer immunotherapy treatments work for only a fraction of patients. The analysis shone a light on one that popped up repeatedly in patients and mouse models that did not respond to […]

Working to develop new treatments for osteoarthritis, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have genetically engineered cartilage to deliver an anti-inflammatory drug in response to activity similar to the bending of a knee or other motions that put stress on joints. Among the early symptoms of […]

What makes one person drive above the speed limit while another navigates steadily in the right lane? What motivates someone to leave a job with a steady paycheck to launch their own business while the other sticks to one employer for an entire career? “People have different tendencies to engage […]

A new University of Alberta study shows that losing weight before knee replacement surgery doesn’t lead to better outcomes for patients. In a systematic review published in Joint Bone Spine, researchers in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine found that weight loss before surgery may not be beneficial for people with advanced knee osteoarthritis. Medical practitioners have long advised […]

Inside a tumor, chatter abounds. Multiple cell types are constantly communicating with each other, exchanging various types of information. Some are working together against the tumor, while others help the tumor grow. Researchers have a good handle on who the main players are, but it can be difficult to tell […]

Martin Monti, a Professor of Psychology and Neurosurgery at UCLA, and colleagues have recently published a paper in the journal Brain Stimulation, describing their success in jump-starting the brains of two patients in a long-term “minimally conscious state”. While Monti had already performed a similar procedure on a 25-year-old man […]

The problem of protein folding is one of the most important and hard tasks in computational biochemistry. Recently, deep learning models, such as AlphaFold, were shown to be more effective in this task than classical techniques. The likely advance of quantum computing could help to improve current algorithms further. A […]

McMaster researchers have established in lab settings that a novel combination of two forms of immunotherapy can be highly effective for treating lung cancer, which causes more deaths than any other form of cancer. The new treatment, yet to be tested on patients, uses one form of therapy to kill […]

A team of international researchers who study how gene mutations associated with autism interfere with social behaviour have found injections of the hormone oxytocin can normalize brain activity. The findings, which were presented recently at the 2021 Society for Neuroscience Global Connectome, point to the potential of oxytocin—known to influence behaviours […]

Special immune cells found in the brain, microglia, play a key role in the processes that make you feel uneasy and depressed in correlation with inflammation. The findings from a new study on mice suggest that microglial cells contribute to the negative mood experienced during several neurological diseases. David Engblom’s […]

Many forms of mild cellular stress produce benefits to health because they trigger the more efficient operation of cellular maintenance processes such as autophagy. That in turn causes better cell and tissue function, and thus improved health. This stress response and benefit is known as hormesis, and has been robustly […]

Scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI) have developed a promising gene therapy strategy for a rare disease that causes severe vision loss in childhood. A form of Leber congenital amaurosis, the disease is caused by autosomal-dominant mutations in the CRX gene, which are challenging to treat with gene therapy.  The scientists […]

An innovative approach to treating bone tumors — starving cancer cells of the energy they need to grow — could one day provide an alternative to a commonly used chemotherapy drug without the risk of severe side effects, suggests a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. […]

Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania have identified ionizable lipid nanoparticles that could be used to deliver mRNA as part of fetal therapy. The proof-of-concept study, published in Science Advances, engineered and screened a number of lipid nanoparticle […]

Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, autism, schizophrenia and many other neurological and psychiatric conditions have been linked to inflammation in the brain. There’s growing evidence that immune cells and molecules play a key role in normal brain development and function as well. But at the core of the burgeoning field of […]

Many genetic mutations have been found to be associated with a person’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. Yet for most of these variants, the mechanism through which they act remains unclear. Now a new study in Nature led by a team from the University of Pennsylvania has revealed how two different variations—one […]

What makes cancer cells different from ordinary cells in our bodies? Can these differences be used to strike at them and paralyze their activity? Cancer researchers have been debating this question since the mid-19th century. A new study from Tel Aviv University (TAU) shows, for the first time, how an abnormal […]

Cells don’t express all the genes they contain all the time. The portion of our genome that encodes eye colour, for example, doesn’t need to be turned on in liver cells. In plants, genes encoding the structure of a flower can be turned off in cells that will form a […]

A new study led by a University at Buffalo researcher has identified how specific communication among different brain regions, known as brain connectivity, can serve as a biomarker for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The research relied on a deep architecture using machine-learning classifiers to identify with 99% accuracy those […]

A daily alcoholic drink for women or two for men might be good for heart health, compared to drinking more or not drinking at all. But while there is some evidence that drinking in moderation might prevent heart attacks, now a randomized, double-blinded clinical study of 100 heart patients has […]

Abnormally hyperactive areas in the brain may help better predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, according to findings of a research team led by Université de Montreal researcher Sylvie Belleville, Scientific Director of the Institut Universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal research centre and professor in the Department of Psychology at […]

Attempts to identify the genetic causes of neuropsychiatric diseases such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through large-scale genome-wide analyses have yielded thousands of potential links. The challenge is further complicated by the wide range of symptoms exhibited by those who have PTSD. For instance, does extreme arousal, anger, or irritation […]

Restricting eating to an eight-hour window, when activity is highest, decreased the risk of development, growth and metastasis of breast cancer in mouse models, report researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Moores Cancer Center and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System (VASDSH). The findings, published in […]

Cancers, such as leukemia and multiple myeloma. The self-renewing nature of cancer stem cells makes them particularly hard to eradicate, and they’re often the reason a blood cancer reoccurs. Researchers at UC San Diego Health and University of California San Diego School of Medicine are working to understand what pushes […]

One essential component of each eukaryotic cell is the cytoskeleton. Microtubules, tiny tubes consisting of a protein called tubulin, are part of this skeleton of cells. Cilia and flagella, which are antenna-like structures that protrude from most of the cells in our body, contain many microtubules. An example of flagell […]

Today's open access review paper is a high level look at what the newfound realization of the importance of senescent cells to aging and age-related disease means for the treatment of chronic kidney disease. At present there are few good options for treatment, and those therapies that are widely used […]

For centuries, humans have blamed the moon for our moods, accidents and even natural disasters. But new research indicates that our planet’s celestial companion impacts something else entirely — our sleep. In a paper published in Science Advances, scientists at the University of Washington, the National University of Quilmes in Argentina […]

For the second time, cancer researchers at Vanderbilt have discovered a protein that—when genetically manipulated to impede it from interacting with a gene responsible for cancer genesis—effectively melts tumours in days.  The article, “MYC regulates ribosome biogenesis and mitochondrial gene expression programs through interaction with Host Cell Factor-1,” was published in the […]

Organelles continue to thrive after the cells within which they exist die, a team of University of Bristol scientists have found, overturning previous assumptions that organelles decay too quickly to be fossilised. As described in the journal Sciences Advances, researchers from Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences were able to document the […]

The state-of-the-art silica glass optical fibres can carry light signals over tens of kilometres with very low optical loss and provide high-capacity communication networks. However, their brittleness, low stretchability and energy intensiveness make them less suitable for local short-range applications and devices such as automotive, digital home appliances, fabrics, laser […]