General

In years to come, personal memories of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to be etched in our minds with precision and clarity, distinct from other memories of 2020. The process which makes this possible has eluded scientists for many decades, but research led by the University of Bristol has made […]

Brain cancer in children is always a devastating diagnosis, but McMaster researchers may have found a way to have the most serious types of pediatric brain cancer respond better to therapies. Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant childhood brain tumour and it has recently been categorized into four molecular […]

What would you do if you knew how long you had until Alzheimer’s disease set in? Don’t despair. New UC Berkeley research suggests one defense against this virulent form of dementia — for which no treatment currently exists — is deep, restorative sleep, and plenty of it. Neuroscientists Matthew Walker […]

In rodents with type 2 diabetes, a single surgical injection of a protein called fibroblast growth factor 1 can restore blood sugar levels to normal for weeks or months. Yet how this growth factor acts in the brain to generate this lasting benefit has been poorly understood. Clarifying how this […]

As we get older, many of our body’s processes start slowing down. For instance, a cut on the hand will take longer to heal after middle age than in youth. That said, it still heals. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for the cells at the back of the eye, which […]

The number of cases of dementia in the U.S. is rising as baby boomers age, raising questions for boomers themselves and also for their families, caregivers and society. Dementia, which is not technically a disease, but a term for impaired ability to think, remember or make decisions, is one of […]

A malignant tumor is a bustling metropolis populated by many different kinds of cancer cells. This cellular diversity, however, is what makes cancer so difficult to treat, as each type of cell in a tumor responds differently – and sometimes not at all – to cancer therapies. This is especially […]

What determines the life span of a mouse, alligator, dog or human? A team of scientists at the University of Georgia believes they have new insight into this age-old question. Emily Bertucci and Benjamin B. Parrott, a research team at the Odum School of Ecology and the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, […]

Yale scientists have discovered an underlying mechanism for Fragile X syndrome — a leading cause of autism and the primary genetic driver of intellectual disability — as well as a drug that reversed the underlying abnormality and autism-like behaviours in mice. Their research appears in the edition of the journal […]

Aging is something we all have to deal with. And it’s no fun – your body gradually loses some of its capacities and you’re left wondering what you will be able to do tomorrow. One of the parts of aging is losing senses – older people tend to have impaired […]

Some people are into the sort of behaviour that we know is harmful. For example, millions and millions of people drink, use illicit drugs, smoke, gamble and so on. You may be one of those people. But why? This new study, led by scientists from UCL, found that these harmful […]

Cardiff University has signed an agreement with Cytox to help the company develop a genetic risk assessment tool for Alzheimer’s disease. Under the licence, Oxford- and Manchester-based Cytox will access the University’s intellectual property (IP) regarding polygenic risk scoring algorithms for predicting the future onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Cytox will […]

By genetically reprogramming the cellular machinery of yeast they created microscopic factories that convert sugars and amino acids into plant-based drugs. Since antiquity, cultures on nearly every continent have discovered that certain plant leaves, when chewed or brewed or rubbed on the body, could relieve diverse ailments, inspire hallucinations or, […]

If cancer is a series of puzzles, new study pieces together how several of those puzzles connect to form a bigger picture. One major piece is the immune system and the question of why certain immune cells stop doing their job. Another piece involves how histones are altered within immune […]

All cancers are the result of cells that have gone haywire, multiplying out of control and expanding beyond their normal constraints. But not all tumors are the same: for reasons that remain poorly understood, some are more likely to become aggressive and metastasize to other parts of the body. New […]

A team of scientists from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center has developed the first drug-like compounds to inhibit a key family of enzymes whose malfunction is associated with several types of cancer, including an aggressive form of childhood leukaemia. The enzymes — known as the nuclear receptor-binding SET domain […]

Mosaic ImmunoEngineering Inc., a private biotechnology company based in Novato, California, has signed a two-year option agreement with Case Western Reserve University and Dartmouth College, granting the company the exclusive right to license the technology for a novel platform technology using virus-like nanoparticles (“VLP”) to treat and prevent cancer and […]

In 2018, one-half of the Nobel Prize was awarded to Arthur Ashkin, the physicist who developed optical tweezers, the use of a tightly focused laser beam to isolate and move micron-scale objects (the size of red blood cells). Now Justus Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Vanderbilt University, has developed the […]

A simple test such as the strength of your handgrip could be used as a quick, low-cost screening tool to help healthcare professionals identify patients at risk of type 2 diabetes. In new research, scientists at the universities of Bristol and Eastern Finland measured the muscular handgrip strength of 776 […]

Two recent studies were unable to rule out that H1N1 (“swine flu”) vaccination (“Pandemrix”) and seasonal influenza vaccination given to pregnant women might be associated with autism spectrum disorder in the offspring. Now, a large study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in the journal Annals of Internal […]

Modafinil is used to treat conditions such as narcolepsy. Reports have associated the drug with an increased risk of malformation in babies born to mothers who had taken it while pregnant. Now, a large registry study involving over two million pregnant women in Sweden and Norway shows that there is […]

New stem cell technique offers hope for those with corneal damage. Harvard Medical School surgeons at Massachusetts Eye and Ear have replaced the ocular surface of four patients who each experienced chemical burns to one eye. The technique, cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell transplantation (CALEC), uses stem cells taken from […]

Findings are relevant to an understanding of the neural mechanisms present in mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. A new Tel Aviv University study examined the brain's reactions in conditions of uncertainty and stressful conflict in an environment of risks and opportunities. The researchers identified the areas of the […]

Minute differences in individual muscle cell contractions allow the entire muscle to flex with greater control and accuracy. Long dismissed as “noise” or error, experts now suspect that biological systems may have evolved to include unavoidable variation as a form of information in their communication channels. A team of experts […]

The neurodegenerative disease known as frontotemporal dementia (FTD) causes untold suffering. As neurons die in regions of the brain important for maintaining our personalities and living a purposeful life, patients experience steadily worsening cognitive and behavioural symptoms, and the disease is generally fatal within a decade of diagnosis. Though FTD […]

An enzyme proven to help regrow damaged nerve tissue in animals but too unstable for use in humans has been redesigned for stability in research co-led by Marian Hettiaratchi of the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon. With stability added, the enzyme […]

The world’s scientific community must engage with a broad range of stakeholders to develop guidelines on embryo and embryoid research, according to a new paper from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Human embryo and embryoid research have expanded in recent years due to technological advances. But inconsistent or ambiguous restrictions […]

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis identifies a specific gene’s previously unknown role infertility. When the gene is missing in fruit flies, roundworms, zebrafish and mice, the animals are infertile or lose their fertility unusually early but appear otherwise healthy. Analyzing genetic data in […]

Results Lay Groundwork for New, More Targeted Immune Therapies. New UC San Francisco research sheds light on how immune system B cells that infiltrate the central nervous system may drive multiple sclerosis (MS), pointing the way to a new generation of targeted immune therapies to halt the progression of the […]

Mitochondria are the power plants of our cells and play an important role in providing energy for normal function of the tissues in our body. Nerve cells are particularly dependent on mitochondria for their activity and decreased mitochondrial function is seen in both inherited and more common age-associated forms of […]