General

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 […]

Antibodies for potential use as medicines can be made rapidly in chicken cells grown in laboratories. Researchers refer to their technique as the human ADLib system, short for autonomously diversifying libraries. The technique automatically builds vast numbers, or libraries, of diverse antibodies using chicken immune system cells’ natural method for […]

Upon exposure to human skin, ultraviolet light from the sun almost instantly generates two types of “lesions” that damage DNA. It has long been unknown, though, whether one of these lesions is more responsible for activating a process that may increase cancerous mutations in cells. In a new paper, scientists […]

For followers of popular science news—or of the latest diet craze—the term “intermittent fasting” is decidedly trending. Each new mention of the eating plan brings with it more revelations about the health benefits it could offer. In the last six months alone, new studies have tied fasting to a reduced […]

During a 1989 lecture at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology, Yale School of Medicine professor Charles Janeway, MD, hypothesized the existence of an innate immune system and special receptors on immune cells (currently known as toll-like receptors) that trigger the body’s response to infection. Janeway’s research later […]

Tissue biopsy slides stained using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) dyes are a cornerstone of histopathology, especially for pathologists needing to diagnose and determine the stage of cancers. A research team led by MIT scientists at the Media Lab, in collaboration with clinicians at Stanford University School of Medicine and Harvard […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new sequencing method that makes it possible to map how DNA is spatially organised in the cell nucleus – revealing which genomic regions are at higher risk of mutation and DNA damage. The technique is described in an article published in the scientific […]

Sometimes cancer stays put, but often it metastasizes, spreading to new locations in the body. It has long been suspected that genetic mutations arising inside tumor cells drive this potentially devastating turn of events. Now researchers have shown for the first time that our own pre-existing genetics can promote metastasis. […]

For the first time, scientists have added microscopic tracking devices into the interior of cells, giving a peek into how development starts. For the first time, scientists have introduced minuscule tracking devices directly into the interior of mammalian cells, giving an unprecedented peek into the processes that govern the beginning […]

Increased blood flow to the brain after a microscopic stroke doesn’t mean that part of the brain has recovered. At least not yet. A study in Science Advances by Rice University neuro engineers Lan Luan and her colleagues used advanced neural monitoring technology to discover a significant disconnect between how long it […]

In a tour-de-force of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), UC San Francisco researchers have become to the first to solve the structure of a hard-working protein that helps reload neurons for repeated firing, enabling signals to be relayed along nerve pathways throughout the brain. More importantly, the scientists were able to use […]

TG4050 is being evaluated in two Phase 1 clinical trials. It combines Transgene's proprietary myvac platform with NEC's cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities to select patient-specific neoantigens – Data confirm that the prediction algorithm successfully identifies immunogenic cancer mutations, even among a large set of candidate mutations – Data will […]

MIT scientists have identified a potential new strategy for treating Fragile X syndrome, a disorder that is the leading heritable cause of intellectual disability and autism. In a study of mice, the researchers showed that inhibiting an enzyme called GSK3 alpha reversed many of the behavioral and cellular features of […]

A four-year-old girl with a severely painful, rare immune disorder received life-changing targeted therapy, following whole genome sequencing at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. Karla, now six years old, has a rare gene variant that affects an immune ‘checkpoint’ protein, resulting in an imbalance in her immune system that […]