General

Cambridge-led study discovers new genetic causes of rare diseases, potentially leading to improved diagnosis and better patient care. A research programme pioneering the use of whole genome sequencing in the NHS has diagnosed hundreds of patients and discovered new genetic causes of disease. Whole genome sequencing is the technology used […]

Ribonucleic acid, or RNA, is part of our genetic code and present in every cell of our body. The best known form of RNA is a single linear strand, of which the function is well known and characterized. But there is also another type of RNA, so-called “circular RNA”, or […]

Most traditional cancer therapies target either the tumor cells themselves or indiscriminately kill any rapidly dividing cell. New findings by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine indicate that manipulating macrophages, a type of immune cell found abundantly in the tissues surrounding a tumor, could also be […]

Xiang-Dong Fu, PhD, has never been more excited about something in his entire career. He has long studied the basic biology of RNA, a genetic cousin of DNA, and the proteins that bind it. But a single discovery has launched Fu into a completely new field: neuroscience. For decades, Fu […]

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute studying embryonic development have identified a mechanism that helps explain how cells choose to become different types. The researchers previously made the surprising discovery that changes in metabolism influence how cells communicate with each other, which in turn affects […]

Researchers have discovered that Mediterranean populations may be more susceptible to an autoinflammatory disease because of evolutionary pressure to survive the bubonic plague. The study, carried out by scientists at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health, determined that specific genomic variants that cause […]

University of Alberta-led team develops synthetic molecule that stops production of toxic muscle-killing protein. Researchers have designed a potential new treatment for one of the most common forms of muscular dystrophy, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Toshifumi Yokota, professor of medical genetics […]

When Alzheimer’s disease strikes, the entire brain doesn’t crumble at once. Instead, the mind unravels like grim clockwork, beginning with the telltale degradation of a group of brain cells in the entorhinal cortex. These so-called vulnerable neurons are responsible for shuttling experiences into memories. They are always the first to […]

Light to moderate drinking may preserve brain function in older age, according to a new study from the University of Georgia. The study examined the link between alcohol consumption and changes in cognitive function over time among middle-aged and older adults in the U.S. “We know there are some older […]

Researchers at Yale have identified a molecule that plays a key role in the body’s inflammatory response to overeating, which can lead to obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases. The finding suggests that the molecule could be a promising therapeutic target to control this inflammation and keep metabolic diseases in […]

It’s common knowledge that the human body consists of trillions of cells. The cell nucleus, which houses DNA, is under attack every second of every day by environmental and behavioral factors. Researchers from Harvard University and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) recently used the Comet supercomputer at the San Diego […]

A method known as CAR-T therapy has been used successfully in patients with blood cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia. It modifies a patient’s own T-cells by adding a piece of an antibody that recognizes unique features on the surface of cancer cells. In a new study, researchers report that […]

When animal, insect or human embryos grow in a malnourished environment, their developing nervous systems get first pick of any available nutrients so that new neurons can be made. In this process, called organ sparing, resources are preferentially delegated to the nervous system at the cost of less important organs […]

Genetic deletions associated with neurodevelopmental disorders also important for development elsewhere in the body. Genes located in “copy number variants” (CNVs) — parts of chromosomes that are missing in some individuals and duplicated in others — that are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders affect more than just brain development, according to […]

Aging is no fun. Your entire body is getting worn out and it might pose certain health risks. One of the worst parts of aging is declining vision. Once you hit 40, your colour sensing ability and general sharpness of your eyes starts declining rapidly. But scientists from UCL say […]

In the watery inside of a cell, complex processes take place in tiny functional compartments called organelles. Energy-producing mitochondria are organelles, as is the frilly golgi apparatus, which helps to transport cellular materials. Both of these compartments are bound by thin membranes. But in the past few years, research at […]

When neurons fire an electrical impulse, they also experience a surge of calcium ions. By measuring those surges, researchers can indirectly monitor neuron activity, helping them to study the role of individual neurons in many different brain functions. One drawback to this technique is the crosstalk generated by the axons […]

In the largest exercise research program of its kind, researchers are poised to collect and turn data from nearly 2,600 volunteers into comprehensive maps of the molecular changes in the body due to exercise. It is well known that physical activity has substantial health benefits, but we do not fully […]

After examining the genes of more than 200,000 people all over the world who have type-2 diabetes, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center (CMCVAMC) found hundreds of genetic variants never before linked to the disease. The study also […]

Older adults with chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract may develop dementia more than seven years earlier than those without the condition, according to a new study by researchers at UC San Francisco and Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan. A review of nearly 19,200 Taiwanese patients found that those […]

In collaboration with Rigshospitalet, researchers from DTU Health Technology have developed a machine learning model that can predict chemotherapy-associated nephrotoxicity, a particularly significant side effect in patients treated with cisplatin. Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men. The number of new cases is increasing worldwide. There is […]

The way that speech processing differs from the processing of other sounds has long been a major open question in human neuroscience. Researchers at Aalto University have endeavored to answer this by investigating brain representations for naturally spoken words using machine learning models and comparing them with representations of environmental […]

An arthritis drug is to be trialed as a treatment for children with a fatal metabolic disorder which causes neurological deterioration thanks to the University of Manchester researchers. Sanfilippo syndrome is a rare genetic disease with devastating effects on the central nervous system which affects around 1 in 70,000 children, […]

Knowledge of how human fat tissue is affected by age has long been defined by numerous mouse-based studies. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now, for the first time, been able to conduct a prospective study on humans that provides novel insights into how our fat cells reduce lipid […]

Most of us know that feeling of trying to retrieve a memory that does not come right away. You might be watching a romantic comedy featuring that famous character actor who always plays the best friend and finds yourself unable to recall her name (it's Judy Greer). While memory retrieval […]

The evidence to date strongly suggests that environmental factors determine longevity for the vast majority of people. If there are significant longevity-affecting gene variants out there, then they have small and unreliable effects (APOE), or are restricted to tiny lineages (SERPINE1), or both. The overwhelming majority of contributions to longevity […]

T cells of the adaptive immune system collectively become less functional with age. The immune system as a whole becomes more inflammatory and less effectively, a state described by the terms inflammaging and immunosenescence. Researchers here note that T cells struggle to survive in the aged environment, and are as […]

In today's open access research, the authors report on the generation of a biomarker of aging from the study of proteins secreted by senescent cells. Low cost assays that map closely to biological age, the burden of damage, are a potentially useful tool for research and development of rejuvenation therapies. […]

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies target specific surface features on other cells by providing T cells with a way to recognize that feature – the CAR. T cells so equipped will selectively destroy other cells with the target surface feature. To produce a CAR T cell therapy, a […]

In a new study, a computer algorithm improved the accuracy and efficiency of cervical cancer screening compared with cytology (Pap test), the current standard for follow-up of women who test positive with primary human papillomavirus (HPV) screening. The new approach uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automate dual-stain evaluation and has […]