General

A molecule commonly produced by gut microbes appears to improve memory in mice. A new study is among the first to trace the molecular connections between genetics, the gut microbiome and memory in a mouse model bred to resemble the diversity of the human population. While tantalizing links between the […]

New USC research reveals how APOE4 — a genetic culprit for Alzheimer’s disease — triggers leaks in the brain’s plumbing system, allowing toxic substances to seep into the brain areas responsible for memory encoding and other cognitive functions. The damage is linked to future problems in learning and memory, even […]

Cornell scientists have developed a new technique for imaging a zebrafish’s brain at all stages of its development, which could have implications for the study of human brain disorders, including autism. Zebrafish are translucent when young, making them good models for live imaging, but they become opaque with age, which […]

Researchers at the Waisman Center made a significant step in understanding the function of a specific protein, FMR1, whose absence causes fragile X syndrome, or FXS. Waisman investigators Xinyu Zhao, Ph.D., and Anita Bhattacharyya, Ph.D., with research associate Meng Li, published their paper “Identification of FMR1-regulated molecular networks in human […]

Two top scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine are seeking answers to questions about spinal cord injuries that have long frustrated the development of effective treatments. The scientists, Jonathan Kipnis and Kodi Ravichandran, are teaming up to understand why critical nerve cells called neurons continue to die after […]

A $2 million grant will let UO developmental neurobiologist Judith Eisen probe the relationship between symbiotic bacteria and neural development, using zebrafish as a model organism that could shed light on disease processes in humans. The new five-year grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation will allow Eisen to illuminate the […]

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a new mathematical machine-intelligence-based technique that spatially delineates highly complicated cell-to-cell and gene-gene interactions. The powerful method could help with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases ranging from cancer to COVID-19 through quantifying crosstalks between “good” cells and “bad” cells. By […]

It is widely appreciated that old people have a poor time of it when it comes to infectious disease. Seasonal influenza kills tens of thousands of older people every year in the US alone. The aged immune system functions poorly, and vaccinations for many conditions have low success rates in older people. Thus […]

Researchers here demonstrate a direct form of cellular reprogramming, converting skin cells directly into another cell type without going through intermediary stages of induced pluripotency and differentiation. In this case the goal is to produce patient-matched photoreceptor cells to treat retinal degeneration. Proof of concept is demonstrated in blind mice that exhibit restored light sensitivity following treatment. […]

“I’ve always been interested in science from a very young age, and my grandmother was actually a really big influence in that regard,” says Tarun Kamath, when asked about his academic inspirations. “She was a big believer in being very passionate and very good at what you might want to […]

African Americans with severe sleep apnea and other adverse sleep patterns are much more likely to have high blood glucose levels — a risk factor for diabetes — than those without these patterns, according to a new study funded in part by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), […]

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Stanford University have identified a biomarker in newborns that may signal autism spectrum disorder months or even years before troubling symptoms develop and such diagnoses typically are made. The researchers found that babies diagnosed with autism later in childhood […]

Lactating mothers who use e-cigarettes or nicotine replacement therapies may be putting their breastfed babies at risk for skull defects, a new study in animals suggests. Cigarette smoking has already been linked to increased risk for these abnormalities in previous research. This study tested the effects of nicotine alone on […]

New research by academics at the University of Bristol has found evidence that prolonged treatment of synthetic corticosteroid drugs increases adrenal gland inflammation in response to bacterial infection, an effect that in the long-term can damage adrenal function. Synthetic corticosteroid drugs are widely prescribed to treat many inflammatory and autoimmune […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of North Carolina have mapped out the cell types behind various brain disorders. The findings are published in Nature Genetics and offer a roadmap for the development of new therapies to target neurological and psychiatric disorders. One interesting finding was that cells from […]

A biological marker in infants that appears to predict an autism diagnosis has been identified in a small study led by researchers at the School of Medicine. The study of 33 individuals showed that the biomarker, a hormone called vasopressin, was present at lower levels during infancy in the cerebrospinal fluid of babies […]

Histology images hold great potential as a resource for target and biomarker discovery activities. However, in order to use such complex phenotypic data, it is imperative that robust image analysis tools are developed. Novo Nordisk is seeking an image analysis algorithm for the robust segmentation of histology sections. This is […]

Stanford University chemist Paul Wender and his colleagues are working to improve treatments for cancer, HIV, and Alzheimer’s – and they are betting that a drab, weedy marine invertebrate is the means to achieving that end. They have focused on this seemingly unremarkable organism, called Bugula neritina, because it cooperates with a […]

Researchers have discovered how cancer of the kidneys, or renal cancer, causes inflammation throughout the whole body. Stopping this inflammation might lead to effective treatments for patients whose renal cancer has spread, or metastasized. The American Cancer Society estimates that renal cancer will kill 9,860 men and 4,970 women in 2020. In Japan, […]

A key area of our biology targeted for potential interventions to slow down or even reverse aging are the caps on the ends of chromosomes called telomeres. These protective caps become shorter each time a cell divides and over time lead to the “fraying” of DNA and the eventual death […]

In everyday life, our tissues, for example skin and muscle, are stretched, pulled and compressed without causing damage to the cells or the DNA. A team of researchers led by Sara Wickström from the Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Ageing and the CECAD Cluster of Excellence at the […]

Cancer cells not only ravage the body – they also compete with each other. Cornell mathematicians are using game theory to model how this competition could be leveraged, so cancer treatment – which also takes a toll on the patient’s body – might be administered more sparingly, with maximized effect. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic demands action on many fronts, from prevention to testing to treatment. Not content to focus its research efforts on just one, the laboratory of George Church in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University is tackling the problem from […]

Physical exercise can act prophylactically for people with metabolic syndrome and protect them against cardiovascular diseases, a new study from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, and Karolinska Institutet published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology reports. Even light physical exercise has been shown to have […]

PNNL staff scientist Kristoffer Brandvold will lead a joint team of researchers in the new partnership. The internal clock that tells our bodies when to sleep, wake, and eat each day could be regulated by more than light exposure and caffeine consumption. Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have recently formed a […]

Babies born prematurely who require treatment to prevent blindness from retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) could be treated with a dose of Avastin (bevacizumab) that is a fraction of the dose commonly used for ROP currently. Results from the dose-finding study were published in JAMA Ophthalmology. The study was conducted by […]

Using induced pluripotent stem cells produced from the skin of a patient with a rare, genetic form of insulin-dependent diabetes called Wolfram syndrome, researchers transformed the human stem cells into insulin-producing cells and used the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to correct a genetic defect that had caused the syndrome. They then implanted […]

A team of University of Alberta engineers is refining a new imaging technique that could reduce the number of repeat surgeries patients undergo to remove cancerous tumors. The team, led by Roger Zemp, is using ultraviolet photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy (UV-PARS) to rapidly visualize and analyze tumor tissue while patients are […]

COVID-19 pandemic already caused almost 200 thousand deaths worldwide. And this is assuming the official data from all countries is accurate. This is a huge loss of life, which would be even worse if countries didn’t implement quarantine regiment. But how many years of life have we actually lost? Everyone […]

A genetic change increases the risk of developing schizophrenia and highlights new opportunities for drug treatment say researchers. The collaborative research by a team from Lancaster, Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities was funded by the Medical Research Council. In the human genome, small sections of DNA have been found to be duplicated (copied) […]