General

Chemical engineers from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have unlocked a fatal vulnerability in many cancer cells—sugar inflexibility. Like any cells in the body, cancer cells need sugar ­– namely glucose – to fuel cell proliferation and growth. Cancer cells in particular metabolize glucose at a much higher rate […]

New images of an enzyme in action as it interacts with the chromosome could provide important insight into how cells — including cancer cells — regulate their genes. The enzyme, LSD1, can “turn off” gene expression by removing chemical flags (methyl groups) from the nucleosome — tightly packed units of […]

One woman shares her experience with the Ross procedure, an aortic valve replacement surgery performed by only a few cardiac surgeons in the country. As a teacher at Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan, Anne McLeod, R.N., D.N.P., was able to let her nursing students hear the sound of a heart […]

A major U.S. study reveals large gaps between urban and rural patients in quality of care received after a stroke and rates of survival. In more rural areas, the ability of hospitals to deliver advanced stroke care is lower and mortality rates substantially higher, the research shows. The analysis, involving […]

The results of this work are presented in the medical journal Blood Advances published by the American Society of Hematology. Routine neonatal screening, although not yet available in Quebec, has led to an increase in the incidence of patients diagnosed with SCID in North America in recent years. This syndrome, a […]

The Recombinant Antibody Network (RAN), a consortium comprising research groups from UC San Francisco, the University of Chicago, and the University of Toronto, has entered into a second research collaboration with Celgene that aims to create and develop high-performance recombinant antibodies against diverse targets in human cells. The first RAN collaboration […]

Yale clinicians report promising results after treating COVID-19 patients at Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) with a drug that reduces hyper inflammation in cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy. The team initially gave the drug, tocilizumab, to the most severely ill COVID-19 patients — specifically, those experiencing a dangerous immune response known as […]

Metastasis accounts for approximately 90 percent of mortality in breast cancer patients. During the last few decades, there has been significant progress in understanding genetic, molecular and signaling mechanisms underpinning cancer cell migration. Biologists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) found another mechanism that affects the maintenance and expansion of malignant cells: […]

Having bad teeth hurts your mouth, blood vessels and blood itself, and even your brain. Many people have fear of dentists. But did you know there are dentists for phobic patients too? Visiting an oral health specialist may also have another – often hidden but positive consequence – a potential […]

Professor Vadim Fraifeld, the head of the Laboratory for Biology of Aging, together with his team announced new results from the study in which they have investigated the anti-aging effects of lower body temperature in mice. According to V. Fraifeld, lowering the temperature of biological systems and tissues is currently […]

Each year in Australia, it is estimated 2,400 babies are affected with congenital heart disease. People with complex and severe congenital heart disease require specialist treatment throughout their life. Understanding congenital heart disease and the factors that impact the maternal environment prior to and during pregnancy will be the focus […]

Researchers have created a device that can integrate and interact with neuron-like cells. This could be an early step toward an artificial synapse for use in brain-computer interfaces. In 2017, Stanford University researchers presented a new device that mimics the brain’s efficient and low-energy neural learning process. It was an […]

To defend the body, the immune system makes proteins known as antibodies that latch onto the perceived threat, be it HIV, the new coronavirus or, as is the case in autoimmune disease, part of the body itself. In a new proof-of-concept study in ACS Sensors, researchers describe a new system for […]

The risk of early-onset neonatal bacterial sepsis increases with maternal obesity, according to a new study of the University of Michigan and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Lead researcher Eduardo Villamor, a professor of epidemiology at U-M’s School of Public Health, said the study builds on previous research into exposure […]

A new method of screening thousands of drugs in freshly collected human tumor cells could help identify which of the drugs are most likely to be effective against those cancers, report Harvard Medical School researchers based at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology at HMS in a study published […]

DNA from uterine cells of women with endometriosis has different chemical modifications, compared to the DNA of women who do not have the condition, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. The changes involve DNA methylation — the binding of compounds known as methyl groups to DNA […]

Combining more healthy lifestyle behaviors was associated with a substantially lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease in a study that included data from nearly 3,000 research participants. Those who adhered to four or all of the five specified healthy behaviors were found to have a 60% lower risk of Alzheimer’s. The […]

An experimental drug that has been shown to improve the function of diseased and aged mitochondria binds to 12 key proteins involved in energy production, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine have found. The drug, elamipretide, also called SS-31, has shown promise for treating rare inherited diseases […]

The benefits of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test to screen men for prostate cancer may be greater than the harm, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Genitourinary cancer specialists from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, University of Washington School of Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, […]

Vanderbilt University’s Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement with San Diego-based ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc., which will seek to develop and commercialize treatments for central nervous system disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. This collaboration will focus on positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of […]

A neuroscientist’s neon pink arm cast led him and fellow researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to discover previously undetected neuronal pulses in the human brain that activate after an immobilizing illness or injury. The pulses appeared on MRI scans used to measure the brain activity […]

A new study by researchers at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have identified what they believe to be a key reason behind patients’ treatment-resistance in the rare inflammatory disorder HLH. The finding could offer additional insights into other immune conditions, including a type of childhood […]

Research from the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University has found that the practical advantages of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), or short bursts of all-out exercise, could be especially beneficial for people who have experienced spinal cord injuries (SCI). While many studies have proven the benefits of HIIT for the […]

A Rice University lab’s project to make better fluorescent tags has turned into a method to kill tumors. Switching one atom in the tag does the trick. Rice chemist Han Xiao and his colleagues found that replacing a single oxygen atom with a sulfur atom in a common fluorophore turns it into a photosensitizing molecule. When […]

Like finding that needle in the haystack every time, your T cells manage what seems like an improbable task: quickly finding a few invaders among the many imposters in your body to trigger its immune response. T cells have to react fast and do so nearly perfectly to protect people from diseases. […]

The brain and its surrounding blood vessels exist in a close relationship. The vessels supply the energy-hungry neuronal cells with nutrients. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now discovered how cells of the blood vessels sense the metabolic condition of the brain and […]

A world-first study of the epigenetics of posttraumatic growth and resilience points the way for further research into how people can overcome the negative impacts of trauma after events such as bushfires, serious motor vehicle accidents, domestic violence, childhood and work-related trauma. QUT trauma researcher Professor Jane Shakespeare-Finch from the […]

MIT researchers pinpoint mechanism and demonstrate that drugs could help. By developing a lab-engineered model of the human blood-brain barrier (BBB), neuroscientists at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have discovered how the most common Alzheimer’s disease risk gene causes amyloid protein plaques to disrupt the brain’s vasculature and […]

Scientists have discovered an important cell signaling pathway in the kidney which if stopped, could hold the key to treating chronic kidney disease as well as other deadly conditions, including heart attack and stroke. The pathway was already known to exist in the brain, where it helps to maintain the […]

Our brains use various reference frames—also known as coordinate systems—to represent the motion of objects in a scene. Some coordinate systems are more useful than others for representing information. To represent a location on Earth, for example, we might use an Earth-centered coordinate system such as latitude and longitude. In […]