General

Lower levels of the vitamin negatively impacted balance and coordination. When it comes to vitamin D, most adults exhibit either frank deficiency, which results in clear clinical symptoms, or insufficiency, which often goes undetected. But how that insufficiency impacts physical health and the vulnerability of older adults to frailty as […]

In response to certain types of injury and inflammation, many organs produce tough scar tissue, a process called fibrosis, which can ultimately lead to organ failure or even death. Fibrosis is such a central component of so many different diseases – from cardiovascular disease to kidney failure – that scientists […]

Oregon State University scientists have developed a method that could potentially predict the cancer-causing potential of chemicals released into the air during wildfires and fossil fuel combustion. The research, which was recently published in the journal Toxicology in Vitro, was conducted as a part of the OSU Superfund Research Program.  The findings […]

A greater density of cells in a key reward centre of the brain is associated with obesity in children and predicts future weight gain, a new Yale-led study finds. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that a greater concentration of specialized cells in […]

The white blood cell TH17 helps the immune system fight infection by promoting inflammation. But it can be too much of a good thing: Excessive inflammation from TH17 overload has been tied to autoimmune disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and arthritis. Researchers led by Hening Lin, professor of chemistry […]

A University of Oregon-initiated project using tiny roundworms has identified defects tied to infertility that result when too much DNA is exchanged in the formation of sperm and eggs. The fundamental research, detailed in a paper placed online in PLOS Genetics, probed what happens when too many DNA exchanges, called […]

University of Alberta chemists have developed new tools for studying the human immune system that lay the foundation for research that could improve understanding of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. “Our lab studies sugar-binding receptors called Siglecs that control cells in our immune system,” explained Matthew Macauley, assistant professor […]

Cancer vaccines have shown promise in treating certain tumors, such as melanoma. But such vaccines have limitations. They often target normal proteins that may be more abundant in the tumor but also are present in healthy tissue, which can lead to off-target effects that cause autoimmune disorders and also reduce […]

A study lead by KI researcher and SciLifeLab Fellow Simon Elsässer elucidates a new flavour of heterochromatin, used by embryonic stem cells to silence ‘parasitic’ DNA-elements within the context of their highly dynamic pluripotent chromatin. The study was recently published in Nature Communications. So-called transposons are abundant DNA-elements found in […]

Electrical engineers, computer scientists and biomedical engineers at the University of California, Irvine have created a new lab-on-a-chip that can help study tumor heterogeneity to reduce resistance to cancer therapies. In a paper published in Advanced Biosystems, the researchers describe how they combined artificial intelligence, microfluidics and nanoparticle inkjet printing […]

A new study by University of California researchers shows the promise of high-throughput DNA-sequencing technologies to improve prenatal diagnosis and pregnancy outcomes for women who have experienced an abnormal prenatal ultrasound. In the UC San Francisco-led study, scientists used a technique called exome sequencing to identify genetic diseases as the underlying […]

Created using synthetic DNA, viltolarsen is an excellent example of precision medicine. A University of Alberta researcher’s past work has led to a new drug being approved for use in the United States to treat patients suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The drug, viltolarsen, was approved for use in […]

Injuries to peripheral nerves –– tissues that transmit bioelectrical signals from the brain to the rest of the body ­­–– often result in chronic pain, neurologic disorders, paralysis or disability. Now, researchers have developed a stretchable conductive hydrogel that could someday be used to repair these types of nerves when […]

For many people, getting older can, unfortunately, mean an increased risk of illnesses, from cardiovascular disease to cancer. University of Michigan scientists are actively researching the biological underpinnings of ageing with the aim of developing interventions that could help people live longer, healthier lives. A paper in the journal Science Advances describes […]

A study led by researchers at WIMR has, for the first time, demonstrated how CD47 – a cell surface protein – drives biological dysfunctions in the body, such as decreased circulation and poor metabolic homeostasis, both of which worsen with age. Researchers hope developing therapies that target CD47 will significantly reduce […]

All life depends upon DNA repair and replication. In every human cell the essential ability to replicate and repair genomes depends upon the coordinated actions of the genome sequence. Flaws or mistakes in repair and cell cycle regulation can lead to defects in the structure of the DNA and can […]

Individuals with traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, frequently experience the shrinking or atrophying of brain tissue near where the injury occurred, causing additional damage beyond the original harm. If this can be prevented, many could function in the future who cannot now. Few therapies currently exist to treat TBIs, but […]

Driven by a machine learning algorithm, the closed-loop biohybrid device maintained a set membrane voltage in human stem cells for 10 hours. In an impressive proof-of-concept demonstration, an interdisciplinary team of scientists has developed a bioelectronic system driven by a machine learning algorithm that can shift the membrane voltage in […]

People with pale coloured melanomas are more likely to have a gene mutation associated with albinism, University of Queensland research has found. Study lead author Dr Jenna Rayner said albinism, a rare genetic disorder affecting one in 10,000 people, prevented brown pigment from being synthesised in the body and led to fair hair and […]

Biology textbooks may need to be re-written, with scientists finding a new piece of DNA essential to forming male sex organs in mice. An international research collaboration with The University of Queensland found the Y-chromosome gene that makes mice male is made up of two different DNA parts, not one, as scientists […]

A new study published in The Lancet, led by a Liverpool based research collaboration, has identified the first effective treatment for a rare genetic condition known as Alkaptonuria (AKU). The aim of the study, led by Professor Lakshminarayan Ranganath and Professor James Gallagher of the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Life Course and Medical […]

Long-term memory is controlled by protein synthesis in inhibitory cells, an international team at UdeM, McGill University and the University of Haifa finds. A Canadian-Israeli research team involving scientists at Université de Montréal has discovered that during memory consolidation, there are at least two distinct processes taking place in two […]

The risk for melanoma, the most deadly skin cancer, can be estimated long before the detection of any suspicious moles, according to a UC San Francisco scientist who led a new study to detect DNA mutations in individual skin cells. Skin damage from the sun builds up over time but […]

Microplastic fibre pollution in the ocean affects larval lobsters at each stage of their development, according to new research. A U.S. National Science Foundation-funded study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin reports that the fibres affect the animals' feeding and respiration, and they could prevent some larvae from reaching adulthood. “In […]

A recent study by researchers at McGill University has identified polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an independent risk factor for gestational diabetes and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. The condition, known to lead to multiple reproductive complications, including infertility, affects 1 in 10 women of childbearing age. PCOS was already known […]

Researchers from The Liverpool Centre for Cardiovascular Science have contributed to a new study, published in The European Heart Journal, that shows people with atrial fibrillation (AF) have a reduced risk of dementia if they undergo a procedure called catheter ablation to restore the normal rhythm of their heart. AF is the […]

In 2015, researchers began noticing that a drug used to treat Type 2 diabetes, empagliflozin, came with the added benefit of decreasing hospitalization for heart failure and death from cardiovascular causes in those patients. “It was very unexpected, because this drug is targeted and marketed for Type 2 diabetes, not […]

Stopping the cannibalistic behavior of a well-studied enzyme could be the key to new drugs to fight age-related diseases, according to a new study published online in Nature Cell Biology. For the first time, researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania show how the self-eating cellular […]

The gut’s microbiome — a complex, dense mixture of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes — plays an integral role in human health. A new Yale study reveals just how early the microbiome is formed and begins delivering this benefit. For the first time, Yale scientists report that components of the […]

Astrocytes with the APOE4 gene variant show deficits of a key cellular function, but overexpressing the gene PICALM overcame the defect. In a new study, a team of scientists based at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research reveals evidence showing that […]