General

Case Western Reserve University and Boston-based Akouos have entered into an exclusive licensing agreement to develop a patented gene therapy with the potential to treat hearing loss associated with a type of Usher syndrome,  the most common deaf-blind disorder. Usher syndrome is characterized by partial or total hearing loss and vision loss that worsens […]

A new study led by Harvard Medical School researchers at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children has found that adolescent sleep timing preferences and patterns should be considered risk factors for obesity and cardiometabolic health, and that the effects are greater in girls than in boys. Poor quality and short duration […]

A single high dose of radiation aimed at the heart significantly reduces episodes of a potentially deadly rapid heart rhythm, according to results of a phase one/two study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Patients in the study were severely ill and had exhausted other standard treatment […]

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis appear to have solved a decades-long mystery regarding the precise biochemical pathway leading to a fatal genetic disorder in children that results in seizures, developmental regression and death, usually around age 3. Studying a mouse model with the same human […]

If your child has celiac disease, you will need two of everything in your kitchen—just one source of extra expense faced by families dealing with Canada’s most common autoimmune disorder. A new guide for parents, Growing Up Celiac, recommends that food for celiac children be prepared using a separate toaster, butter […]

Human life expectancy has more than doubled over the last century, and this sudden leap in longevity is triggering major shifts in our politics, economy and society — not to mention our personal health. Next week, UC Berkeley will host the second annual Aging, Research, and Technology Innovation Summit, a daylong […]

People living with inflammatory autoimmune disease could benefit from an ‘immune system reboot’, and researchers have isolated specific cells to target. The University of Queensland’s Professor Ranjeny Thomas said the research findings give hope for similar new immunotherapies for people with diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and vasculitis. “People with these diseases currently […]

The chances of surviving oral cancers can be predicted by state of the art AI algorithms – developed by scientists at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick – that precisely calculate the abundance of immune cells in the midst of tumour cells to help better understand […]

The patient in question – a 27-year-old male citizen of China – was diagnosed with AIDS back in 2016, and two weeks later found out he also had lymphoblastic leukaemia. With prospects bleak, the patient was offered to receive a bone marrow transplant engineered with CRISPR-Cas9 to be free of […]

Researchers have identified another part of the machinery that cells use to efficiently and precisely turn DNA into protein. The two factors that were identified might be useful drug targets for new ways to treat bacterial infections. The genetic information coded in our DNA goes through multiple processing steps before […]

Allergy to peanut, which is often severe, is one of the most common food allergies in the United States. Although previous studies have shown that peanut oral immunotherapy (OIT) — ingesting small, controlled amounts of peanut protein —can desensitize adults and children and prevent life-threatening allergic reactions, the optimal duration […]

Academic research has long been characterized by silos and protective instincts. A new crop of fresh-thinking physician scientists are turning that model on its head, and the results are saving little hearts. More than 1 in every 110 babies is born with some form of congenital heart disease. CHDs are the […]

New research from a group of Vanderbilt biomedical engineers reveals that while cancer cells move quickly in metastasis, they’re rather lazy in which paths they choose. According to the researchers, migrating cancer cells decide which path in the body to travel based on how much energy it takes, opting to […]

The research published in Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology examined whether there were any effects of taking paracetamol in mid-pregnancy and the behaviour of the offspring between the ages of 6 month and 11 years, with memory and IQ tested up until the age of 17.  Paracetamol is commonly used to relieve […]

A group of scientists and clinicians from the UK, the Netherlands, Italy and the USA have worked together and made an important discovery that explains an often fatal organ defect that affects unborn babies and children. Finding mutations of a key gene that controls how the urinary bladder grows before […]

It appears that when our nervous system is developing, only the most viable neurons survive, while immature neurons are weeded out and die. This is shown in a ground-breaking discovery by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The results indicate that the long-standing neurotrophic theory, which states that chance determines […]

While doctors agree that children can be diagnosed with autism as early as age two, the average age of diagnosis is about 4 years old. And for minority children, research indicates that age is much older. Yet the earlier children are diagnosed, the quicker they can take advantage of interventions […]

Scientists have determined a new way to protect the hair follicle from chemotherapy in an effort to prevent hair loss as a result of cancer treatments. Researchers based at The University of Manchester have discovered a new strategy for how to protect hair follicles from chemotherapy, which could lead to new treatments […]

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have identified 10 cancer drugs currently in clinical trials that do not work how clinicians thought they would. In identifying what went wrong, experts can now work to improve drug discovery and personalized medicine. The discovery started out with an entirely different goal. […]

Metastasizing breast cancers typically seek out the bones, lung and brain. Brain metastases are especially dangerous; many people survive for less than a year after diagnosis. How is the cancer able to get past the blood-brain barrier? And can it be blocked? Those questions led Harvard PhD candidate Golnaz Morad and her […]

The KRAS gene is one of the commonly mutated genes in cancer. More than 40 percent of colorectal cancers have a mutated KRAS gene, or oncogene, that is at least partially responsible for cancer development. Mutated KRAS genes are commonly found in other cancers as well, including pancreatic, lung, myeloma and endometrial, and not all KRAS mutations in […]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia but the changes in brain cell function underlying memory loss remains poorly understood. Researchers at the University of Bristol have identified that calcium channel blockers may be effective in treating memory loss. The team's findings, published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, […]

A new method for making stem cell colonies that mimic parts of early human development could help investigate important questions in maternal and child health, such as: What chemicals pose risks to developing embryos, and what causes certain birth defects and multiple miscarriages? The technique, developed at the University of […]

When Mason Thomas needed a heart transplant at age six, he asked to see his damaged heart so he could understand what was wrong with it, but the old organ was discarded after the surgery. Today, two years later, Mason got his wish, thanks to an innovative project by a […]

CAR T-cell therapy, a rapidly emerging form of immunotherapy using patients’ own cells to treat certain types of cancers, may be a viable treatment option for another life-threatening condition: heart disease. In a first-of-its-kind study, published in Nature, researchers at Penn Medicine used genetically modified T cells to target and remove activated […]

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals have successfully treated a months-old infant with a rare childhood leukemia using a targeted therapy approved for adults with inoperable liver cancer and advanced kidney cancer. The decision to use the drug, sorafenib, was made after pathologists identified a unique mutation in the form of two […]

Efforts to extend the human lifespan, or in more exotic cases – even to achieve immortality, have recently been rejuvenated by a small clinical trial which demonstrated that the body’s “epigenetic clock” which measures a person’s biological age might be amenable to successful pharmaceutical manipulation. In the trial, published on […]

A research team from the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center has found that a compound molecule used for drug delivery of insulin could be used to treat glioblastoma, an aggressive, usually fatal form of brain cancer. Glioblastoma, also known as GBM, is a fast-growing, web-like tumor that arises from supportive […]

Nearly two decades ago, a gene therapy restored vision to Lancelot, a Briard dog who was born with a blinding disease. This ushered in a period of hope and progress for the field of gene therapy aimed at curing blindness, which culminated in the 2017 approval of a gene therapy […]

New research reveals the mechanism that allows breastfeeding babies to absorb large amounts of calcium and build healthy bones—a discovery that could lead to treatment for osteoporosis and other bone diseases later in life. “We build our bone mineral density until we’re early adults and then stop, so we think […]