General

To a trained eye, the chromosome chart (karyotype) above has 4 irregularities, circled in red. They’re chromosome pairs of uneven size. The chromosomes represent genetic material missing or extra, but also a beautiful girl. Her father contacted me after he read my recent post about a friend’s child with a rare mutation […]

Eisai Co., Ltd. and Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd. has announced the manufacturing and marketing approval in Japan for the indication of improvement of wearing-off phenomenon in patients with Parkinson's disease under treatment with a drug containing levodopa for Equfina TABLETS (safinamide mesilate, “safinamide”), which was developed for use in […]

Major physical changes occurred in the human heart as people shifted from hunting and foraging to farming and modern life. As a result, human hearts are now less “apelike” and better suited to endurance types of activity. But that also means those who lead sedentary lives are at greater risk for […]

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown for the first time that severe brain cancers integrate into the brain’s wiring. The tumors, called high-grade gliomas, form synapses that hijack electrical signals from healthy nerve cells to drive their own growth. Experiments demonstrated that interrupting these signals with an existing […]

More than one million Americans per year experience myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack, as well as the healing and rebuilding phase that begins shortly thereafter – a complicated process which involves remodeling and repairing the heart. This process is known as the granulation phase and is critical […]

For more than a century, the humble and ubiquitous fruit fly has helped scientists shed light on human genetics, disease, and behavior. Now a new study by University of Miami researchers reveals that the tiny, winged insects have an innate time- and color-dependent preference for light, raising the intriguing possibility […]

Researchers from Tulane University School of Medicine have discovered that some cancer cells survive chemotherapy by eating their neighboring tumor cells. The study, which was published in the Journal of Cell Biology, suggests that this act of cannibalism provides these cancer cells with the energy they need to stay alive and initiate tumor […]

The timing of anemia—a common condition in late pregnancy—can make a big difference for the developing fetus, according to research at Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Psychiatry. The researchers found a link between early anemia and increased risk of autism, ADHD and intellectual disability in the child. Anemia discovered toward […]

Traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) have become common in athletes who suffer repeated blows to the head. Most recently, former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski revealed that he had sustained about 20 concussions during his nine-year career in the National Football League. Now, a team […]

The legal and regulatory tools designed to protect the public from the marketing of unproven stem cell therapies will remain ineffective without bureaucratic will and grassroots efforts, according to a University of Alberta health law expert. “There's this perception that stem cells are revolutionizing science and they have transformed medicine […]

Researchers have identified a potential new drug target in the fight against cancer. In a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers describe how a cancer-linked version of the protein mitoNEET can close the primary gateways in the outer surface of mitochondria, the “power plants” […]

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, are part of an ambitious plan at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, to eliminate animal testing by 2035. Their contribution: developing a way to test whether chemicals cause musculoskeletal birth defects using lab-grown human tissue, not live animals. Nicole zur Nieden, an […]

Every year, nearly 700,000 American women have surgery to remove their uterus (hysterectomy) or uterine fibroids (myomectomy). A laparoscopic surgical technique once commonly used in these procedures could be worsening the outcomes for women who have undiagnosed uterine cancer at the time of the procedure, reports a Yale-led study in the […]

A team of geneticists with a desire to understand the inner workings of genes implicated in cellular identity has discovered new biological targets that may help devise alternative therapies for cancers that are becoming resistant to existing drugs. First discovered in fruit flies, Polycomb genes were initially studied due to their essential […]

Researchers have developed soft robotic devices driven by neuromuscular tissue that triggers when stimulated by light – bringing mechanical engineering one step closer to developing autonomous biobots. In 2014, research teams led by mechanical science and engineering professor Taher Saif and bioengineering professor Rashid Bashir at the University of Illinois worked together to developed the first self-propelled biohybrid swimming and walking biobots […]

Cheese lovers, rejoice. Antioxidants naturally found in cheese may help protect blood vessels from damage from high levels of salt in the diet, according to a new Penn State study. In a randomized, crossover design study, the researchers found that when adults consumed a high-sodium diet, they also experienced blood […]

Concerted effort by friends, family and non-physician health workers can make a dramatic difference in reducing the risk factors for heart problems in patients with hypertension, an international study by Hamilton researchers has found. People with new or poorly controlled hypertension given an integrated and comprehensive intervention by non-physician health […]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of death among middle-aged adults around the world; however, in high-income countries deaths from cancer have become twice as frequent as those from CVD. The findings come from the first large prospective international study documenting the frequency of common diseases and death rates […]

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today awarded the University of California (UC), University of Vienna and Emmanuelle Charpentier a patent for CRISPR-Cas9 that, along with two others awarded this month, brings the team’s comprehensive portfolio of gene-editing patents to 14. The newest patent, U.S. 10,415,061, covers compositions comprising […]

The expression “you are what you eat” has taken on new meaning. In an experiment in fruit flies, or Drosophila melanogaster, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found that adding different species of microbes to the flies’ food caused populations to diverge genetically, racking up significant genomic changes in just five […]

The first signs of Huntington’s, an inherited disease that slowly deteriorates bodies and minds, don’t typically surface until middle age. But new findings suggest that something in the brain might be amiss long before symptoms arise, and earlier than has ever been observed. Using a new technology, Rockefeller scientists were […]

Two years after discovering a way to neutralize a rogue protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, University of Alberta Distinguished University Professor and neurologist Jack Jhamandas has found a new piece of the Alzheimer’s puzzle, bringing him closer to a treatment for the disease. In a study published in Scientific Reports, Jhamandas and his team found two […]

There’s a perception that surgery to treat prostate cancer will spell the end of a man’s sex life. And while that often used to be the case, survivorship programs, like the one at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, offer counseling and interventions to promote sexual recovery after cancer treatment. […]

Science is with James Corden. Fat shaming shouldn’t make a comeback, and it won’t solve the nation’s obesity epidemic. Through countless published scientific papers, research has continually exposed the complexity of obesity and being overweight, which affects more than 1.9 billion people worldwide. That research has led experts to conclude that potential treatment options […]

Caltech researchers have helped to design a new generation of heart valves that are longer-lasting, cost less to manufacture, and are more biocompatible than options that are currently available to patients. As part of an FDA trial, one of the new valves was implanted into a human for the first […]

Women have an increased risk of high-grade cervical lesions returning after surgery if there have been lesions in the resection margin, especially if high-risk HPV (human papillomavirus) is found in the follow-up test, reports a new longitudinal study from Karolinska Institutet published in The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. […]

A new method, developed by Banushree Kumar and Simon Elsässer at Karolinska Institutet, produces quantitative maps for modifications of so-called histone proteins that package the DNA molecules in every eukaryotic cell. The study, published in the journal Cell Reports, describes new properties of naïve pluripotent stem cells. Embryonic stem cells […]

Can a computer be used to explain why an environmental toxin might lead to neurodegenerative disease? According to Penn State College of Medicine researchers, a computer generated-simulation allowed them to see how a toxin produced by algal blooms in saltwater might cause Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The researchers investigated an […]

Ventrix, a University of California San Diego spin-off company, has successfully conducted a first-in-human, FDA-approved Phase 1 clinical trial of an injectable hydrogel that aims to repair damage and restore cardiac function in heart failure patients who previously suffered a heart attack. The trial is the first to test a […]

Eating your tomato sauce with meatballs piled on top could have a surprising downside, new research suggests. Some of the anti-cancer benefits of tomatoes, specifically those from a compound called lycopene, could disappear when they’re eaten with iron-rich foods, according to a new study from The Ohio State University. Researchers analyzed […]