General

A University of Michigan-led study is shedding new light on the way pancreatic cancer cells turn nearby connective tissue cells into co-conspirators in their deadly growth. The findings, which appear in Nature Metabolism, also suggest a new potential strategy against pancreatic cancer by identifying critical components of metabolic cross-talk between cells that might be […]

If you’ve ever been diagnosed with high cholesterol, also known as hyperlipidemia, your doctor has probably prescribed a statin. And while statins have been the go-to drug for managing cholesterol for nearly 25 years, there’s a new weapon in the fight. Recent studies suggest that adding a new class of medications — either […]

Researchers at Harvard Medical School, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have uncovered a genetic mechanism that helps drive clonal hematopoiesis, a common age-related condition known to increase the risk of blood cancer and cardiovascular disease. In clonal hematopoiesis or CH, some blood stem […]

A study from the National Institutes of Health showed that neurofilament light chain (NfL) delivered a superior diagnostic and prognostic performance as a blood biomarker for mild, moderate, and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) when compared to blood proteins glial fibrillary acidic protein, tau, and ubiquitin c-terminal hydrolase-L1. The research […]

The disposibility theory of aging is one of numerous evolutionary theories of aging that seek to explain why aging exists and is near universal across species. In this case, aging is viewed as the inevitable result of trade-offs between resources allocated to reproduction versus resources allocated to tissue maintenance. Like […]

One of the most common misconceptions is that one human year equals seven dog years in terms of aging. However, this equivalency is misleading and has been consistently dismissed by veterinarians. A recent study, published in the journal Cell Systems(link is external), lays out a new framework for comparing dog-to-human aging. In […]

Research by the universities of Liverpool and Oxford reveals new insight into age-related fertility decline in male fruit flies. Infertility is one of the most striking effects of ageing. The impact of ageing on females’ fertility is more severe and much better understood, but it also affects males. Male reproductive […]

First study of its kind shows formula-fed babies’ gut microbiomes more like those of breastfed babies when they live near natural environments. Living close to natural green space can mitigate some of the changes in infant gut bacteria associated with formula feeding, according to new research published in the journal Environment International. “Not […]

Volunteers can add data with a five-minute online session. Do you get nervous when you can’t think of a word? Chances are it’s a momentary lapse, but problems with language are one of the symptoms that can indicate a neurodegenerative disorder like Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, diagnosing these conditions requires scoring […]

A new study from Penn Medicine lends further evidence that the social behaviors tied to autism spectrum disorders (ASD) emerge from the abnormal function of sensory neurons outside the brain. It’s an important finding, published in the journal Cell Reports because peripheral sensory systems—which determine how we perceive the environment around us […]

To make new memories, our brain cells first must find one another. Small protrusions that bud out from the ends of neurons’ long, branching tentacles dock neurons together so they can talk. These ports of cellular chatter – called synapses, and found in the trillions throughout the brain – allow […]

A new model of the causes of breast cancer, created by a team led by researchers at UC San Francisco, Genentech and Stanford University, is designed to capture the complex interrelationships between dozens of primary and secondary breast cancer causes and stimulate further research. Breast cancer is the most common […]

Black men in the United States are known to suffer disproportionately from prostate cancer, but few studies have investigated whether genetic differences in prostate tumors could have anything to do with these health disparities. Now, in the largest study of its kind to date, researchers from Boston University School of […]

A little-studied liver protein may be responsible for the well-known benefits of exercise on the aging brain, according to a new study in mice by scientists in the UC San Francisco Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research. The findings could lead to new therapies to […]

UW microbiologists discovered a bacterial toxin that, when engineered, is a key part of a gene editor that can make single-base changes in human mitochondria. The genome in mitochondria — the cell’s energy-producing organelles — is involved in disease and key biological functions, and the ability to precisely alter this […]

Changes in a few small molecules involved in a cell’s metabolism seem to indicate whether a restricted “life extension” diet will actually extend, shorten, or have no effect on lifespan, a study of fruit flies has found. The findings suggest that analyzing the level of small molecules in cells, an […]

A research team from Yale and Baylor College of Medicine has completed the largest single-cell analysis to date of lungs affected by Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), revealing how cells change in response to the disease and identifying previously unknown cell types. The findings, published in the issue of Science Advances, deepen […]

There are innumerable studies showing small gains in mouse life span. Most cannot be reproduced, particularly the older ones, those that took place before it was common knowledge in the research community that one has to very aggressively control for accidental calorie restriction. If an intervention makes mice eat less, […]

In recent years academic interest has grown in the study of the gut microbiome. Researchers are making inroads into understanding the considerable influence of these microbial populations over the progression of health and aging. The gut microbiome may be as influential as physical activity in these matters. The balance of […]

Emory University researchers have shown that Zika virus infection soon after birth leads to long-term brain and behavior problems, including persistent socioemotional, cognitive and motor deficits, as well as abnormalities in brain structure and function. This study is one of the first to shed light on the potential long-term effects […]

A novel study from the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet indicates that antibodies against a small lipid entity, phosphorylcholine (PC), can be associated with protection in inflammatory systemic diseases, including SLE and Sjögren´s syndrome. The results support evidence for a potential treatment by providing antibodies (anti-PC) to patients […]

A sizable portion of the variable efficacy of first generation stem cell therapies as presently practiced may be due to a poor quality of cells following expansion in culture. Regardless of quality, near all such cells die shortly after transplantation. Few clinics and few approaches to cell therapy lead to […]

Why do we age? What exactly happens in the body? And: Can something be done about it? These are questions that have occupied science since time immemorial. The pharmacists Alexandra K. Kiemer and Jessica Hoppstädter from the Saarland University have not found a philosophical stone. But: they have uncovered processes […]

Everyone is aging – time is not choosing its victims. You start of young and beautiful and energized, but eventually your body and mind start falling behind and you have to retire. But when would be an appropriate time to retire? Scientists from the Newcastle University say that 50 year […]

Aichi Cancer Center(1) and NEC Corporation (NEC; 6701) today announced the launch of fundamental research aiming to realize the promise of advanced personalized cancer immunotherapy by improving the performance of NEC's neoantigen prediction system and developing predictive biomarkers for patient stratification through the fusion of AI and experimental immunology. This […]

Eating black raspberries might reduce inflammation associated with skin allergies, a new study indicates. In a study done with mice and published earlier in the journal Nutrients, researchers found that a diet high in black raspberries reduced inflammation from contact hypersensitivity – a condition that causes redness and inflammation in […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have imaged tau protein in the brains of living patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The amount and spread of tau proved a predictor of future memory loss. Brain imaging for measuring tau can be useful both for improving diagnosis and for developing more effective treatments, say the […]

Research produces dramatic results in laboratory studies involving fatal myelin disease that strikes children. A team led by Case Western Reserve University medical researchers has developed a potential treatment method for Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD), a fatal neurological disorder that produces severe movement, motor and cognitive dysfunction in children. It results […]

Senolytic drugs that destroy senescent cells, and later on, other senotherapies that either prevent senescence or block the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), are going to be very important in the treatment of aging. Senescent cells accumulate with age and are highly damaging to tissues. Via the SASP, even comparatively small […]

The age-related decline of the immune system has several causes, but the involution of the thymus is an important one. The thymus is responsible for the production of mature T cells of the adaptive immune system, but the organ atrophies with age. The supply of new T cells falls off […]