General

Like fishermen, Rice University bioengineers are angling for their daily catch. But their bait, biomolecules in a hydrogel scaffold, lures microscopic stem cells instead of fish. These, they say, will seed the growth of new tissue to heal wounds. The team led by Brown School of Engineering bioengineer Antonios Mikos and graduate student Jason Guo […]

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania have developed a unique technique that uses stem cells and flexible implantable bone-stabilizing plates to help speed the healing of large breaks or defects. The technique allows the stem cells applied to break sites to experience some […]

Cancer-related inflammation impacts significantly on cancer development and progression. New research has observed in zebrafish, for the first time, that inflammatory cells use weak spots or micro-perforations in the extracellular matrix barrier layer to access skin cancer cells. The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in Cell Reports, used translucent […]

Children can keep full visual perception — the ability to process and understand visual information — after brain surgery for severe epilepsy, according to a study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health. While brain surgery can halt seizures, it carries significant risks, […]

A mouse model of autism has revealed how exercise changes the structure of the brain by eliminating the excess connections between neurons characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). After one month of voluntary running on a wheel, behavioral differences disappeared and structural differences in ASD model mice’s brains were reduced. […]

Canadian researchers have discovered a molecular indicator of a mechanism that drives cancer progression, giving doctors the possibility of using precision medicine, that is, choosing which patients will respond to a particular anticancer drug. In a study published in Cancer Research, a team of biochemists at Université de Montreal found that a group […]

New University of Iowa research demonstrates that interactions between indoor and outdoor air pollution contribute to increased emergency room visits for asthma in both children and adults. The research by investigators in the UI College of Public Health is the first nationwide study to examine children and adults co-exposed to […]

A genetic mutation that a Chinese scientist attempted to create in twin babies born last year, ostensibly to help them fend off HIV infection, is also associated with a 21% increase in mortality in later life, according to an analysis by University of California, Berkeley, scientists. The researchers scanned more […]

PNNL team pinpoints changes that ease immune attack. PNNL scientist Wei-Jun Qian and colleagues have contributed to a study that offers clues for delaying or even preventing the autoimmune attack that’s at the core of type-1 diabetes. The study team, led by Rohit Kulkarni at the Joslin Diabetes Center at […]

Researchers hope to learn how cancer cells generate enough force to move from a tumor site through the body and then settle into bones. To fully understand why breast cancer spreads, or metastasizes, you must also consider the how. That's what researchers in a biophysics and imaging laboratory in the […]

In a discovery that might be likened to finding medicine’s version of the Loch Ness monster, a research team from Johns Hopkins Medicine, IBM Research and four collaborating institutions is the first to document the existence of long-doubted “X cell,” a “rogue hybrid” immune system cell that may play a […]

Growing up in poverty and experiencing traumatic events like a bad accident or sexual assault can impact brain development and behavior in children and young adults. Low socioeconomic status (L-SES) and the experience of traumatic stressful events (TSEs) were linked to accelerated puberty and brain maturation, abnormal brain development, and […]

A study has lodged a new kink in the breastfeeding dilemma that adds to the angst of exhausted new parents: While most newborns lose weight in the first days of life, do you or don’t you offer a little formula after breastfeeding if the weight loss is more than usual? […]

Help for patients with sickle cell disease may soon come from gene editing to fix the mutation that causes the disease and boost the patient’s own protective fetal hemoglobin. New research shows that using CRISPR-Cas9 and a corrective short DNA template to repair the sickle cell mutation in a patient’s hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) could be efficient […]

There are no approved treatment options for patients with advanced bladder cancer after they’ve received standard chemotherapy and immune treatments, but the results of a phase II clinical trial led by Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital researchers demonstrate an effective treatment for this deadly disease. The findings were presented […]

Diagnosing genetic diseases is a difficult task. Biomarkers are not always identified and analysing DNA takes a considerable amount of time. But now thanks to advancements in DNA testing diseases caused by genetic changes could be detected more readily. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh say that this achievement allows […]

A large, randomized immunotherapy clinical trial continues to show improved overall survival and progression-free survival in advanced lung cancer patients, researchers reported at this year’s American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting. The update on the KEYNOTE-189 trial provides nearly two years data on use of the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy […]

A technique that illuminates blood flow during surgery predicted which head and neck cancer patients were likely to have issues with wound healing. It could enable surgeons to make adjustments during surgery or recovery to improve outcomes. A team of surgeons at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center found the approach […]

New research suggests the composition of breast milk in normal weight mothers differs from that of overweight mothers, and that variations in small molecule metabolites found in breast milk are possible risk factors for childhood obesity. It’s known that maternal obesity is one of the strongest predictors of childhood obesity. […]

A specialized pain management program for patients who underwent robotic surgery for urologic cancers resulted in just eight percent going home with narcotics after discharge, compared to 100 percent who would have received them without this enhanced recovery protocol. What’s more, the group of patients who did receive narcotics went home with […]

Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered how a protein pump distinguishes between chemicals that it will expel from a cell and inhibitors that block its action. The pump, called P-glycoprotein, protects cells by removing potentially harmful chemicals, but it contributes to drug resistance when those chemicals are therapeutic drugs — which […]

Scientists have identified a new internal regulator that helps control the body’s response to fight infection. The discovery could be a target for new drugs to tackle autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and scleroderma, where healthy tissues are attacked by the body’s own immune system. The international collaboration was led […]

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects an estimated one in 59 people in the United States, causing a variety of difficulties with social communication and repetitive behavior. Many factors, including genetic and environmental effects, are believed to influence symptoms, and there are no approved treatments. Now, using mouse models, Caltech researchers […]

New findings from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania provide clues about immune response of tumors in patients with BRCA 1/2-related breast cancers. The research, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, could shape treatment strategies and clinical trial design for these patients, who make up about […]

A Penn study of nearly 3,000 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders in China revealed strong connections between 30 to 60 minutes of shuteye at least three days a week and positive outcomes in a handful of areas. Ask just about any parent whether napping has benefits and you’ll likely hear […]

The enzyme Nocturnin, which governs daily tasks such as fat metabolism and energy usage, works in an entirely different way than previously thought, reported a team of researchers at Princeton University. The newly discovered mechanism reveals the molecular link between the enzyme’s daily fluctuations and its energy-regulating role in the […]

Can your liver sense when you’re staring at a television screen or cellphone late at night? Apparently so, and when such activity is detected, the organ can throw your circadian rhythms out of whack, leaving you more susceptible to health problems. That’s one of the takeaways from two new studies […]

When Sandie Read was diagnosed with dementia at 57, she felt a mixture of fear, anxiety and depression. Fifteen years later and not only is she offering support to fellow sufferers but she’s also working with researchers to improve the way people communicate and interact with those living with the […]

The composition of the vaginal microbiome is an indicator of whether a woman will experience preterm birth, or carry the fetus full term, according to one of the largest studies of its kind.  The findings are publishedmicrobio in Nature Medicine. The microbiome is the collection of organisms growing in a particular location. […]

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young people (such as the unexpected near fatal cardiac arrest suffered by the-then 23 year old footballer Fabrice Muamba), but the microscopic heart muscle abnormalities behind these tragic events can only be picked up in a post-mortem. Now, in […]