General

One of nature’s most familiar phenomena is collective behavior—fish swimming in schools, locusts marching together, birds flocking. The same thing happens in humans, with individual cells synchronizing into circadian rhythms, part of a biological clock that tells our bodies when to eat, sleep or reproduce. How this happens is something of […]

Mothers who drink moderate to high levels of alcohol during pregnancy may be changing their babies’ DNA, according to a Rutgers-led study. “Our findings may make it easier to test children for prenatal alcohol exposure – and enable early diagnosis and intervention that can help improve the children’s lives,” said […]

New insights into why a faulty gene involved in a devastating form of a kidney condition called nephrotic syndrome leads to disease in some patients have been identified in new Kidney Research UK-funded research led by the University of Bristol. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Society […]

When more rivals are around, they create and add extra protein to their seminal fluid making it extra potent. This boosts the number of offspring their partners produce, but the extra effort comes at a cost: it tires the male out and makes him sluggish to remate. It previously wasn’t […]

Sharks don’t only have powerful jaws. They also have enviably strong spines. Their spines constantly flex when they swim, but never wear out during the fish’s lifetime. Human bones, however, cannot endure the same kind of bending and become more fragile as people age. Northwestern Medicine scientist Stuart Stock is […]

A study from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and the Department of Veterans Affairs led by Anna Vilgelm, MD, PhD, and Ann Richmond, PhD, has identified a possible second-line treatment for melanoma patients. The potential treatment would render CDK4/6 inhibitors, a class of drugs prescribed for some breast cancers, also effective against […]

Metastasis, in which cancer cells break free from the primary tumor and form tumors at other sites, worsens the prognosis for many cancer patients. The lymph nodes — glands of the immune system located throughout the body — are typically the traveling cells’ first destination. Now, researchers have developed a […]

You’ve probably heard someone say, “Eat your carrots, they’re good for your eyes.” You may have also seen advertisements for nutritional supplements for eye health. What minerals and vitamins benefit your eyes most? A few nutrients can help maintain eye function, protect against harmful light and reduce the development of […]

Experts from the University of Alberta and two universities of California are teaming up to launch the world’s first open-source database for spinal cord injury research. The Open Data Commons for preclinical Spinal Cord Injury research (ODC-SCI) will improve research and treatment worldwide by making data more accessible, according to […]

Purdue aerospace engineer Alexey Shashurin assisted in the development of the Canady Helios Cold Plasma System and Scalpel, which has been approved by the FDA for use in clinical trials. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Cold atmospheric plasma technology, currently the only way to remove microscopic cancer tumors remaining from surgery, […]

More than three decades of research on Alzheimer’s disease have not produced any major treatment advances for those with the disorder, according to a UCLA expert who has studied the biochemistry of the brain and Alzheimer’s for nearly 30 years. “Nothing has worked,” said Steven Clarke, a distinguished professor of […]

In the battle of the sexes, males appear to have the innovative edge—from a genetic standpoint, at least. Scientists are finding that the testes are more than mere factories for sperm; these organs also serve as hotspots for the emergence of new genes, the raw material for the evolution of […]

Visit any drugstore and you’ll find a dizzying array of choices for skin-care products. That’s no surprise, says UC San Francisco dermatology professor Peter Elias, MD, since at least half of Americans, maybe more, have sensitive skin or a diagnosed skin condition such as eczema, atopic dermatitis or rosacea. But […]

Mice scurry around while foraging for food, but genetics may be the unseen hand controlling these meandering movements. Researchers at University of Utah Health are using machine learning to draw links between genetic controls that shape incremental steps of instinctive and learned behaviors. The results are available online in Cell Reports. “Patterns of […]

For a guy who studies other people's stress for a living, Robert-Paul Juster certainly seems to handle it well himself. The Université de Montréal neuroscientist is busy on many fronts, researching stress among the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, stress in the workplace, stress and aging, and stress […]

A team of scientists at UC San Francisco and the National Institutes of Health have achieved another CRISPR first, one which may fundamentally alter the way scientists study brain diseases. In a paper published in the journal Neuron, the researchers describe a technique that uses a special version of CRISPR […]

When a muscle or lung cell gets damaged beyond repair, self-destruct enzymes, known as caspases, spring into action, safely dismantling the cell. But in neurons, which are essentially irreplaceable, one of those enzymes actually helps to recycle old proteins instead of destroying the cell, a process that seems to stall […]

A combination of heart cells derived from human stem cells could be the answer to developing a desperately-needed treatment for heart failure, according to new research by scientists at the University of Cambridge, published in Nature Biotechnology. Researchers have found that, by transplanting an area of damaged tissue with a combination […]

New research reveals how increasing brain stiffness as we age causes brain stem cell dysfunction, and demonstrates new ways to reverse older stem cells to a younger, healthier state. The results, published in Nature, have far-reaching implications for how we understand the ageing process, and how we might develop much-needed […]

A team at the University of Cambridge has shown how, in osteoarthritis patients, the viscous lubricant that ordinarily allows our joints to move smoothly triggers a pain response from nerve cells similar to that caused by chilli peppers. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. It causes joint pain […]

Brain cells, or neurons, constantly tinker with their circuit connections, a crucial feature that allows the brain to store and process information. While neurons frequently test out new potential partners through transient contacts, only a fraction of fledging junctions, called synapses, are selected to become permanent. The major criterion for […]

A new model developed at MIT can help predict if patients at risk for Alzheimer’s disease will experience clinically significant cognitive decline due to the disease, by predicting their cognition test scores up to two years in the future. The model could be used to improve the selection of candidate […]

We receive half of our genes from each biological parent, so there’s no avoiding inheriting a blend of characteristics from both. Yet, for single-celled organisms like bacteria that reproduce by splitting into two identical cells, injecting variety into the gene pool isn’t so easy. Random mutations add some diversity, but […]

The microtubule-binding protein tau in neurons of the central nervous system can misfold into filamentous aggregates under certain conditions. These filaments are found in many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and progressive supranuclear palsy. Understanding the molecular structure and dynamics of tau fibrils is important […]

A stealthy new drug-delivery system disguises chemotherapeutics as fat in order to outsmart, penetrate and destroy tumors. Thinking the drugs are tasty fats, tumors invite the drug inside. Once there, the targeted drug activates, immediately suppressing tumor growth. The drug also is lower in toxicity than current chemotherapy drugs, leading […]

An international team of researchers led by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified a pair of genes that influence risk for both late-onset and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Most genes implicated thus far in Alzheimer’s affect neurons that transmit messages, allowing different regions of the […]

A crucial signaling pathway that can tell the immune system to fight off cancer can also be co-opted by cancer cells to put the brakes on the immune system, according to a new study from researchers in the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Researchers say this increased understanding […]

Air pollution — especially ozone air pollution which is increasing with climate change — accelerates the progression of emphysema of the lung, according to a new study led by the University of Washington, Columbia University and the University at Buffalo. While previous studies have shown a clear connection of air pollutants with […]

Researchers have now obtained the long-sought after, resting-state structure of a voltage-gated sodium channel.  These types of channels in living cells form a voltage-regulated pore that allows rapid passage of positively charged sodium atoms across the cell membrane. This generates a tiny electrical signal. Electrical signals in nerve and muscle […]

Beta-amyloid plaques, the protein aggregates that form in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, disrupt many brain functions and can kill neurons. They can also damage the blood-brain barrier — the normally tight border that prevents harmful molecules in the bloodstream from entering the brain. MIT engineers have now developed a […]