General

An unexpected discovery about fertilization from the University of Virginia School of Medicine reveals new insights on how sperm and egg fuse and could have major implications for couples battling infertility – and may lead to a future male contraceptive. The finding has the potential both to boost the success […]

What if you could cure cancer by re-engineering patients’ cells to better target and destroy their own tumors? With the advent of powerful new cellular engineering technologies, this is no longer the stuff of science fiction. In the past few years, these technologies have enabled the development of revolutionary engineered […]

Cases of melanoma among U.S. adolescents and young adults declined markedly from 2006 to 2015 – even as the skin cancer's incidence continued to increase among older adults and the general population during the span, new research shows. The finding, based on national cancer-registry data, suggests that public-health efforts advocating sun […]

Over 77,000 Canadians are living with multiple sclerosis, a disease whose causes still remain unknown. Presently, they have no hope for a cure. In a study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) identify a molecule named ALCAM which, once blocked, delays […]

Pemphigus, an autoimmune disease mediated by B cells and which causes painful blisters and sores on the skin and mucous membranes, is a rare chronic autoimmune condition that can be fatal if not treated. Treatment for pemphigus, most commonly through an oral medication, was often slow and would not result […]

Short-term increases in sugar consumption could increase the risk of inflammatory bowel disease and have a significant impact on our health, a new study out of the University of Alberta suggests. In a study published in Scientific Reports, U of A researchers found that mice had an increased susceptibility to chemically […]

Children who have received radiotherapy for a brain tumour can develop cognitive problems later in life. In their studies on mice, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now shown that the drug lithium can help to reverse the damage caused long after it has occurred. The study is published in the […]

All the tissues of our body have the same DNA, but they perform very different functions and have very different aspects. For example, a lymphocyte and a neuron share the same genetic material, but they play very different tasks, and their appearance under the microscope is entirely dissimilar. What gives […]

PNNL incorporates information of over 300,000 medical concepts, more than any existing AI data set, in effort to aid physicians’ diagnoses Artificial intelligence will never replace a doctor. However, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have taken a big step toward the day when AI can […]

One in three women of reproductive age has at least one chronic condition that could compromise their health or lead to adverse outcomes during pregnancy, according to the University of Utah Health scientists. Yet few of these women are using the most effective forms of contraception to prevent unplanned pregnancies. […]

Getting five or fewer hours of sleep a night is associated with low bone mineral density (BMD) and higher odds of osteoporosis, according to the findings of the largest study of sleep and BMD to date among U.S. postmenopausal women. “Our study suggests that sleep may negatively impact bone health, […]

A multidisciplinary team of experts has developed a ground-breaking ‘smart needle’ probe that uses light to pinpoint cancerous tissues or cells almost instantaneously. This optical biopsy uses a technique called Raman spectroscopy, which measures the light scattered by tissues when a low-power laser is shone onto it. Light is scattered […]

USC researchers have completed a detailed deconstruction of the kidney, revealing for the first time an intimate portrait of sexual differences and more in the organ. The findings could benefit 37 million Americans suffering from kidney disease by helping to distinguish how it affects men and women differently. They can […]

A protein that is linked with Alzheimer’s Disease has been found to be more likely to affect certain parts of brain cells that send messages than other parts of the cells. In a new study published in Scientific Reports, the team observed how amyloid beta (Aβ), a protein which accumulates […]

For decades, a transcription factor known as STAT3 has been a major therapeutic target in the treatment of cancer. But STAT3 has largely been considered “undruggable” due to the difficulty of developing compounds to effectively inhibit its activity. Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center have taken a promising […]

A new type of clinical trial for dementia that aims to accelerate treatments for neurodegenerative disease by adapting one of the precision medicine approaches that have defined 21st-century cancer therapy has been developed by clinician-scientists at the UC San Francisco Memory and Aging Center (MAC). Cancer researchers, realizing that seemingly different cancer […]

Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have developed a better way to determine what our genes do, allowing scientists to better probe the genetic causes of diseases and more efficiently determine whether new drugs will act on the intended target exactly as needed. The researchers believe the […]

Ergothioneine is a natural amino acid with antioxidative properties. It prevents cellular stress, which can lead to brain diseases, neurological damage, and cancer. In rats and roundworms, research shows that ergothioneine has promising effects in preventing neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s. Also, it has been reported that patients […]

Triple-negative breast cancer is aggressive cancer, one that’s likely to recur and to metastasize. It’s also quite diverse at the molecular level, and doctors currently don’t have a good method for determining which drugs are likely to work against each patient’s unique cancer. Sometimes a drug will work well against […]

The ability to synchronize behavioral, morphological and other transitions with the seasons is integral to the life cycle of most insects. A research team led by biologists at Tufts University has found two genes that may allow some insect species to survive climate change by adjusting their biological annual clocks, while others […]

A Rutgers-led team has created better biosensor technology that may help lead to safe stem cell therapies for treating Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and other neurological disorders. The technology, which features unique graphene and gold-based platform and high-tech imaging, monitors the fate of stem cells by detecting genetic material (RNA) […]

The human brain has some remarkable capabilities – including the ability to block cancer drugs from effectively reaching cancer cells in the brain. The greatest obstacle when it comes to treating cancer that has spread to the brain is the blood-brain barrier, the brain’s natural defense mechanism that is a […]

Mitochondria burn oxygen and provide energy for the body. Cells lacking oxygen or nutrients have to change their energy supply quickly in order to keep growing. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing have now shown that mitochondria are reprogrammed under depleted oxygen and nutrients. Tumours of […]

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) work on the principle that measurable changes in electrical brain activity occur just by thinking about performing a task. Signals can be read, evaluated, and then converted into control signals via a machine learning system, which can then be used to operate a computer or a prosthesis. […]

Hard-to-study mutations in the human genome, called short tandem repeats, known as STRs or microsatellites, are implicated in the expression of genes associated with complex traits including schizophrenia, inflammatory bowel disease and even height and intelligence. That’s the conclusion of a study published in the journal Nature Genetics by a […]

The protein adipsin helps protect insulin-secreting cells called pancreatic beta cells from destruction in type 2 diabetes, according to a new study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. The study, published in Nature Medicine, may have implications for the future development of type 2 diabetes therapies that target and […]

A newly-discovered molecular mechanism that allows damaged adult liver cells to regenerate could pave the way for drugs to treat conditions such as cirrhosis or other chronic liver diseases where regeneration is impaired. The mechanism, identified in mice, was discovered by researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Gurdon Institute. It […]

New preclinical research reported in animal models shows that exposure to compounds found in marijuana called cannabinoids (CBs), which includes cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), during early pregnancy can cause malformations in the developing embryo. The research also demonstrated that co-exposure to CBs and alcohol increased the likelihood of birth […]

In neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s disease, a specific group of neurons start to die one by one, causing movement problems and other symptoms. Scientists have long focused on finding out why these neurons die. Now it turns out, they might not even be dead. Researchers at The Rockefeller University found […]

The Kidney Project, a national effort to develop an implantable bioartificial kidney that could eliminate the need for dialysis, announced a key milestone in the presentation at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2019 conference in Washington, DC. The project team reported that UC San Francisco scientists successfully implanted […]