General

A new study from the University of Georgia has shown that exposure to a now-banned flame retardant can alter the genetic code in sperm, leading to major health defects in children of exposed parents. Published recently in Scientific Reports, the study is the first to investigate how polybrominated biphenyl-153 (PBB153), the […]

Octopuses, squids and other sea creatures can perform a disappearing act by using specialized tissues in their bodies to manipulate the transmission and reflection of light, and now researchers at the University of California, Irvine have engineered human cells to have similar transparent abilities. In a paper published in Nature […]

One promising strategy to treat cancer is stimulating the body’s own immune system to attack tumors. However, tumors are very good at suppressing the immune system, so these types of treatments don’t work for all patients. MIT engineers have now come up with a way to boost the effectiveness of […]

In a population-based cohort study from Sweden and Denmark of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) during 1969-2017 and matched reference individuals from the general population, Ola Olén, Jonas F Ludvigsson and colleagues found that IBD patients had an increased risk of small bowel cancer. The excess risks were especially […]

In most species, including our own, females live longer than males. Why this is the case is likely one of those simple questions that lacks a simple answer. At the root of it all are evolutionary pressures relating to sex-specific differences in mating strategy, but that says little about how and why an […]

One has to be cautious about studies in which metabolism is broken in some way, and symptoms of aging start to appear earlier as a result. Whether or not this has any relevance to normal aging is dependent on the fine details of the biochemistry involved, and can often be argued either […]

BCL-xL is a mitochondrial protein that acts to suppress the programmed cell death response of apoptosis, and is overexpressed in some cancers, as well as in senescent cells. Thus small molecules that bind to BCL-xL have been used as chemotherapeutics and more recently as senolytics that selectively destroy senescent cells. That removal of senescent cells is a legitimate rejuvenation therapy that quite literally turns back aging in animal […]

The anaesthetic drug ketamine has been shown, in low doses, to have a rapid effect on difficult-to-treat depression. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet now report that they have identified a key target for the drug: specific serotonin receptors in the brain. Their findings, which are published in Translational Psychiatry, give hope […]

What is and is not possible for natural evolution may be explained using models and calculations from theoretical physics, say researchers in Japan. Theoretically, every component of every chemical in every cell of all living organisms could vary independently of all the others, a situation researchers refer to as high […]

Fibre laser microscopy to be used in clinical applications. When investigating how tumors grow, or how pharmaceuticals affect different types of cells, researchers have to understand how molecules within a cell react – and interact. This is possible with modern laser microscopy. Until now, however, molecules in cell specimens had […]

People with an autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, may experience sensory hypersensitivity more often than people without ASD, according to the National Autism Association. Among other responses, this hypersensitivity can lead to “sensory overload,” when sensory systems like vision or hearing are “overwhelmed” by stimuli. Scientists do not fully understand […]

Researchers have found a way to design an antibody that can identify the toxic particles that destroy healthy brain cells – a potential advance in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Their method is able to recognise these toxic particles, known as amyloid-beta oligomers, which are the hallmark of the disease, […]

5.8 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s dementia, including 10% of all seniors 65 and older. Scientists at Cornell have discovered links between “stalls,” or clogged blood vessels in the brain, and Alzheimer’s. Stalls can reduce overall blood flow in the brain by 30%. The ability to prevent or remove stalls may […]

Many proteins are useful as drugs for disorders such as diabetes, cancer, and arthritis. Synthesizing artificial versions of these proteins is a time-consuming process that requires genetically engineering microbes or other cells to produce the desired protein. MIT chemists have devised a protocol to dramatically reduce the amount of time […]

A team of researchers led by ETH professor Martin Fussenegger has succeeded in using an electric current to directly control gene expression for the first time. Their work provides the basis for medical implants that can be switched on and off using electronic devices outside the body. This is how […]

A new study has been initiated to evaluate whole-genome and RNA-sequencing as a first-line diagnostic approach for patients in Sweden with acute leukemia. The study is conducted jointly by the national R&D platform Genomic Medicine Sweden and the biotech company Illumina – and is coordinated from Karolinska Institutet. The aim […]

A team of researchers has generated a developmental map of a key sound-sensing structure in the mouse inner ear. Scientists at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their collaborators analyzed data from 30,000 cells from a mouse cochlea, […]

Pairing a blood-thinning drug with aspirin daily for patients who have an angioplasty with a stent can contribute to better health outcomes, including lower risk of death, than aspirin alone, according to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Alberta and Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute. Led by Kevin […]

For most people who die of cancer, the spread of the initial tumor is to blame. “Metastasis is what kills most cancer patients,” says Serge Fuchs, a professor in Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine. “Yet there are not many, if any, drugs that specifically target metastatic processes.” In a paper in […]

In recent wars, about 53,000 U.S. military veterans have suffered serious injuries, often involving large amounts of tissue loss. Many more Americans also suffer from long-term injuries resulting from car crashes, accidents, and surgeries. Many of these injuries are disfiguring and debilitating. Now, imagine if lost skeletal muscle could be […]

UC Riverside engineers are transforming yeast, both the domesticated kind used to make bread and beer and lesser-known wild species, so it can be used in a variety of new ways — including fighting cancer. Yanran Li, a UC Riverside assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering, is working with […]

An adenovirus is now better able to target and kill cancer cells due to the addition of an RNA stabilizing element. Hokkaido University scientists have made an adenovirus that specifically replicates inside and kills cancer cells by employing special RNA-stabilizing elements. The details of the research were published in the […]

A new study has been initiated to evaluate whole-genome and RNA-sequencing as a first-line diagnostic approach for patients in Sweden with acute leukemia. The study is conducted jointly by the national R&D platform Genomic Medicine Sweden and the biotech company Illumina – and is coordinated from Karolinska Institutet. The aim […]

A team of scientists led by the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center has identified the binding site where drug compounds could activate a key braking mechanism against the runaway growth of many types of cancer. The discovery marks a critical step toward developing a potential new class […]

By targeting senescent cells using “senotherapy” researchers can greatly reduce tumors in models. “Senotherapy,” a treatment that uses small molecule drugs to target “senescent” cells, or those cells that no longer undergo cell division, blunts liver tumor progression in animal models according to new research from a team led by Celeste […]

At-home genetic-testing kits for breast and ovarian cancer risk are just as effective, and in some cases even more so, than the typical protocol for genetic testing, which requires repeated office visits and counseling, according to a study led by UW Medicine researchers. The results, published by the American Society of Clinical […]

Yale researchers have found a neural home of the feeling of stress people experience, an insight that may help people deal with the debilitating sense of fear and anxiety that stress can evoke, Yale researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. Brain scans of people exposed to highly stressful and troubling […]

Weight, blood pressure and blood fat elevations are greater in young people who develop type 2 diabetes according to scientists at the Universities of Glasgow and Manchester. The study, published in Diabetologia, examined known risk factors for heart disease between people with and without type 2 diabetes at similar ages. Its findings […]

One in three women in Europe inherited the receptor for progesterone from Neandertals – a gene variant associated with increased fertility, fewer bleedings during early pregnancy and fewer miscarriages. This is according to a study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary […]

Compounds that mimicked the process known as efferocytosis alleviated signs of leukocyte adhesion deficiency type-1 in an animal model, according to work led by the School of Dental Medicine’s George Hajishengallis. Owing to a rare genetic mutation, individuals with leukocyte adhesion deficiency type 1 (LAD1) experience a suite of symptoms […]