General

Systemic sclerosis is an autoimmune disease associated with inflammation and fibrosis, or scarring, that affects organs including the skin, heart, kidney and lungs. This form of scleroderma, this tightening and thickening of the skin, is a progressive, orphan illness that affects approximately 80,000 Americans and has no clear pathogenesis or FDA […]

Chronic inflammation grows with age throughout the body, characterized by increased levels of numerous inflammatory signal molecules, among which is IL-6. One contributing factor to the chronic inflammation of aging is the accumulation of lingering senescent cells, which rouse the immune system via secreted molecules that include, prominently, IL-6. Researchers […]

Children who undergo cataract surgery as infants have a 22% risk of glaucoma 10 years later, whether or not they receive an intraocular lens implant. The findings come from the National Eye Institute (NEI)-funded Infant Aphakic Treatment Study, which today published 10-year follow-up results in JAMA Ophthalmology. NEI is part […]

Fractured sleep, daytime sleepiness and other signs of disturbance in one’s circadian rhythm are common complaints of people with Alzheimer’s disease, and the problems only get worse as the disease progresses. But the reason for the link between Alzheimer’s and circadian dysfunction is not well understood. Researchers at Washington University […]

Ribosomes are the machines in the cell that use instructions from mRNA to synthesize functional proteins. There are hundreds of thousands of ribosomes in each cell, and they mostly process their instructions faithfully. But sometimes ribosomes get stuck or stall on roadblocks along with defective mRNA molecules. New research from […]

Researchers here note a study population in which glucosamine use correlates with a reduction in mortality risk that is of a similar size to that associated with exercise. One always has the suspicion that, even after controlling for such things, the use of less common supplements is just a marker […]

University of Alberta researchers are among two Canadian research teams chosen for significant new funding from the Government of Canada and JDRF Canada to develop new stem cell-based therapies for treating Type 1 diabetes. The projects will each receive $1.5 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism […]

Female COVID-19 patients face less severe disease complications and a lower risk of dying than male patients thanks to hormones and chromosomes that contribute to a stronger immune response, according to new research from a University of Alberta-led team. “The highlight of our study is how the sex differences in COVID-19 are […]

More and more evidence is coming out that people with COVID-19 are suffering from cognitive effects, such as brain fog and fatigue. And researchers are discovering why. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, like many viruses before it, is bad news for the brain. In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers found […]

Mice, fruit flies and dogs are common creatures of laboratories across the country, valuable to researchers for their genetic proximity to humans. But what about lampreys? A new Yale School of Public Health study has enlisted this unlikely and slimy ally in the fight against cancer. By carefully tracing the […]

Autism spectrum disorder, estimated to affect one in 54 children in the United States, encompasses a range of complex neurodevelopmental conditions that typically emerge in the first few years of life. Yet for a variety of reasons, these conditions could be challenging to diagnose early when interventions are most likely to avert or […]

An increase of over 10% in the prevalence of hearing loss in the English over 50s may not be age-related, a new study by University of Manchester researchers has shown. Instead the study, published in BMC Geriatrics, found hearing loss could be linked to social and lifestyle differences in the north and […]

Given the newfound consensus in the research community regarding the importance of senescent cells to degenerative aging, it isn't surprising to see a great deal more fundamental research into the biochemistry of cellular senescence now taking place than was previously the case. In many cases it isn't all that clear […]

Targeting drugs to cancer tissues is a major challenge in cancer treatment. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are known for their ability to find and target tumor cells in the body, but using MSCs for drug delivery has been tricky, because upon loading with drugs, MSCs lose their viability and migratory […]

“The women were on average a decade older than men at the time of their first heart attack and they more commonly presented with the less severe type of heart attack,” said lead author Justin Ezekowitz, professor of medicine and co-director of the Canadian VIGOUR Centre. “But when they were faced with […]

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has emerged as an important high throughput technology in biomedical research and translation for its ability to accurately capture genetic information. But choosing proper analysis methods for identifying biomarkers from high throughput data remains a critical challenge for most users. For instance, RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) is an NGS […]

Georgetown University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators have identified a protein that when removed from the body may help pancreatic cancer patients live longer. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal forms of the disease and has the lowest survival rate. Because the tumors are solid, many modern […]

Here, researchers note some of the challenges inherent in trying to analyze data on human inheritance of longevity; it isn't as easy as it sounds. Considerable effort has gone into analysis of long-lived families to try to identify genetic variants that might explain why some lineages exhibit greater longevity than […]

One of the more intriguing findings to emerge from study of the relationship between stress response mechanisms in cellular metabolism and the pace of degenerative aging is that evolution has not optimized for life span. Many aspects of metabolism can be adjusted in small ways – in mice, worms, flies, […]

Recent advances are bringing cancer vaccines much closer to reality, giving patients another weapon in their arsenal of cancer treatments, according to Dr Madiha Derouazi, CEO of Amal Therapeutics and one of three winners of the 2020 EU Prize for Women Innovators. Arming our immune system to fight cancer has […]

A new molecular probe from Stanford University could help reveal how our brains think and remember. This tool, called Fast Light and Calcium-Regulated Expression or FLiCRE (pronounced “flicker”), can be sent inside any cell to perform a variety of research tasks, including tagging, recording and controlling cellular functions. “This work […]

A study by clinical scientists at The University of Manchester has shown that schizophrenia may – in some part – be caused by disordered functioning of the immune system. The first-ever trial in the schizophrenia of the powerful immune suppressant drug, Methotrexate, produced what the team described as ‘promising’ effects on […]

Unbiased, high-throughput analysis pipeline improves utility of “minibrains” for understanding development and diseases such as Zika infection. The ability to culture cerebral organoids, or “minibrains,” using stem cells derived from people has given scientists experimentally manipulable models of human neurological development and disease, but not without confounding challenges. No two […]

Writing in The Lancet, a group of researchers from Imperial College London introduce a new global survey of 65 million children aged 5-19 years old in 193 countries, showing that poor nutrition during school years may have caused a 20 cm height gap between the tallest and shortest nations. This […]

A new drug discovered through a research collaboration between the University at Buffalo and Tetra Therapeutics took a major step toward becoming a first-in-class treatment for Fragile X Syndrome, a leading genetic cause of autism. The drug, BPN14770, achieved positive topline results in phase 2 clinical study. The innovative treatment […]

Computer-augmented brains, cure to blindness, and rebuilding the brain after injury all sound like science fiction. Today, these disruptive technologies aren’t just for Netflix, “Terminator,” and comic book fodder — in recent years, these advances are closer to reality than some might realize, and they have the ability to revolutionize […]

A team of researchers led by the University of Wisconsin–Madison professor David Gamm is developing a transplantable retinal patch intended to help restore vision to military personnel blinded in the line of duty and to treat individuals with degenerative eye diseases such as macular degeneration. The technology, funded by a […]

Before their third birthdays, children already have an adult-like preference for visual fractal patterns commonly seen in nature, report University of Oregon researchers. That discovery emerged among children raised in a world of Euclidean geometry, such as in houses with rooms constructed with straight lines in a simple nonrepeating manner, […]

It’s a paradox that has puzzled epidemiologists for a long time. Why do some studies suggest that a higher body mass index (BMI) can end up “protecting” against bloodstream infections? A team of researchers from the Yale School of Public Health, in collaboration with colleagues at the Norwegian University of […]

People diagnosed with an inflammatory skin condition known as granuloma annulare (GA) develop raised red lesions that emerge in ring-like patterns on the skin. For those with a chronic condition, these lesions can cover much of the body and degrade their quality of life. Until now, however, there has been […]