General

For some parents, a physician’s advice to “just take him home and love him,” presumably letting nature take it’s most likely course, is just not acceptable. This blog has championed many such parents, who serve as catalysts for others. New to rare disease territory is Orah Lasko, whose toddler Jacob not […]

Music really is a universal language. All people regardless of their age and socioeconomic status can enjoy some music. And in some cases it is actually very useful. Scientists from the University of Helsinki say that music helps improving the spoken language of the hear­ing-im­paired. That is why Finnish scientists […]

Scleroderma is a rare autoimmune disease, affecting about 300,000 Americans, but for those it affects it can be challenging to manage. The disease is associated with chronic inflammation and fibrosis in the connective tissues and visibly results in hardening and tightening of the skin, among other symptoms. Depending on the severity, patients […]

Rearing its head in infancy, Christianson Syndrome is a rare disorder whose symptoms include intellectual disability, seizures and difficulty standing or walking. Although it is becoming increasingly diagnosed, with little being known about the neural mechanism behind the disease, therapeutic options for patients remain limited. Now, researchers at McGill University […]

Lung cancer cells use antioxidants, endogenous or dietary, to spread in the body by activating a protein called BACH1 and increasing the uptake and use of sugar, Swedish and American researchers report in two independent studies. The studies, which are published in the eminent scientific journal Cell, pave the way […]

University of Manchester and University of North Texas scientists are the first to show that an embryonic living heart can be programmed to survive the effects of a low oxygen environment in later life. The BBSRC funded study of juvenile Common Snapping Turtles for the first time explains the heart’s […]

According to a series of experiments performed on mice at Johns Hopkins Medicine suggests that the neuro-toxic protein alpha-synuclean (or α-syn), thought to be involved in the development of Parkinson’s disease, originates among cells in the gut and then makes its way to the brain via the vagus nerve. “These […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have studied which genes are expressed in overactive immune cells in mice with asthma-like inflammation of the airways. Their results, which are published in the journal Immunity, suggest that the synthesis and breakdown of fats plays an important part in the process. The job of the […]

Adelaide researchers are homing in on a new treatment target for the aggressive blood cancer multiple myeloma. The University of Adelaide’s SAHMRI-based Myeloma Research Laboratory’s studies, published in Neoplasia, demonstrated for the first time the importance of white blood cells called macrophages for the disease’s ability to establish and proliferate. Lead author and PhD […]

The Fast and the Furious movie franchise meets the Fast N’ Loud television series to define an oncogene that drives 35% of prostate cancers. A new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Centerfinds that the gene FOXA1 overrides normal biology in three different ways to drive prostate […]

Subarachnoid haemorrhage is the most lethal kind of disorders of the cerebral circulation. Around a half of the people affected die within the next three months. Smoking and high blood pressure have been identified as factors increasing the risk of the subarachnoid haemorrhage. Now scientists from Finland found that a […]

As animals explore their environment, they learn to master it. By discovering what sounds tend to precede predatorial attack, for example, or what smells predict dinner, they develop a kind of biological clairvoyance—a way to anticipate what’s coming next, based on what has already transpired. Now, Rockefeller scientists have found […]

Autoimmunity, in which a person’s own immune system attacks healthy cells, affects millions of people in the U.S. and around the world. Lupus, celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis and many other diseases all fall under this category. From its offices and labs in Buffalo, Aesku.NY, a life sciences startup, is developing […]

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells. It is a very complicated type of cancer, which initially doesn’t exhibit any symptom, making diagnosis a lot harder. After some time myeloma announces about itself with bone pain, bleeding, frequent infections, and anemia. The 5-year survival rate is just around 35% […]

Researchers at Oregon State University have developed an improved technique for using magnetic nanoclusters to kill hard-to-reach tumors. Magnetic nanoparticles – tiny pieces of matter as small as one-billionth of a meter – have shown anti-cancer promise for tumors easily accessible by syringe, allowing the particles to be injected directly […]

Yale researchers have discovered how metastasis, the spread of cancer cells throughout the body, is triggered on the molecular level, and have developed a tool with the potential to detect those triggers in patients with certain cancers. The discovery could lead to new ways for treating cancer. The study was […]

Researchers from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital have succeeded in using mice with a transplanted human immune system to study functions in the immune system which are otherwise particularly difficult to study. The method could turn out to be important in further research into e.g. cancer, HIV and autoimmune […]

It’s a you-are-what-you-eat story starring breast cancer cells. Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and U-M College of Engineering have found that breast cancer cells that swallow up nearby stem cells take on some of their properties, enhancing their ability to invade other tissues throughout the body and seed secondary tumors, […]

Patients with biliary tract cancer have altered genetic architecture in some immune system receptor systems. This has been shown by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden in a new study published in the journal Gastroenterology. It is hoped that the discovery will lead to new effective immunotherapy for these difficult […]

A study of thousands of patients’ health records found that those who were prescribed cholesterol-lowering statins had at least double the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The detailed analysis of health records and other data from patients in a private insurance plan in the Midwest provides a real-world picture […]

When medical devices are implanted in the body, the immune system often attacks them, producing scar tissue around the device. This buildup of tissue, known as fibrosis, can interfere with the device’s function. MIT researchers have now come up with a novel way to prevent fibrosis from occurring, by incorporating […]

Study finds altered gut microbiota in infants with food allergy; oral therapy to replenish bacteria prevented food allergy and suppressed established disease in mice. Every three minutes, a food-related allergic reaction sends someone to the emergency room in the U.S. Currently, the only way to prevent a reaction is for […]

A growing body of evidence suggests that traditional cancer treatments can paradoxically promote new tumor growth. Now, a team of Harvard Medical School scientists led by Dipak Panigrahy and Allison Gartung of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has demonstrated that administration of anti-inflammatory treatments and proresolution […]

Years before symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease appear, two kinds of damaging proteins silently collect in the brain: amyloid beta and tau. Clumps of amyloid accumulate first, but tau is particularly noxious. Wherever tangles of the tau protein appear, brain tissue dies, triggering the confusion and memory loss that are hallmarks […]

Cancer isn’t as common for horses as it is for humans and dogs and cats. And because equine cancer symptoms—weight loss, nausea, lethargy, loss of appetite, lameness, skin and coat conditions, among others—often don’t start appearing until the cancer has advanced, it can be hard to reverse its progression. For […]

More than three decades ago, scientists discovered that a chemical found in a synthetic opioid, MPTP, induced the onset of a form of Parkinson’s disease. In a new study led by scientists from the School of Veterinary Medicine, researchers found that an enzyme in the body can metabolize compounds formed […]

Researchers have discovered that a mysterious group of neurons in the amygdala – a key center for emotional processing in the brain – remain in an immature, prenatal developmental state throughout childhood. Most of these cells mature rapidly during adolescence, suggesting a key role in the brain’s emotional development, but some stay […]

A new study has found that variability in night-to-night sleep time and reduced sleep quality adversely affect the ability of older adults to recall information about past events. The study also found unexpected racial differences in the type of sleep patterns tied to lower memory performance across both younger and […]

Surgery prompted by automobile accidents, combat wounds, cancer treatment and other conditions can lead to bone infections that are difficult to treat and can delay healing until they are resolved. Now, researchers have a developed a double-duty hydrogel that both attacks the bacteria and encourages bone regrowth with a single […]

Pancreatitis is an inflammation of the pancreas that accounts for 275,000 hospitalizations in the United States annually. Patients who suffer from hereditary pancreatitis have a 40 to 50 percent lifetime risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Dannielle Engle, a former Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Cancer Center postdoctoral fellow who was recently appointed Assistant Professor […]