General

We now know living organisms’ gametes aren’t the exclusive vehicles of DNA. “It was said that DNA is the only thing that offspring inherit from their parents via gametes, but we now know that RNA and histone proteins in sperm nuclei are also indirectly inherited,” says Professor Yuki Okada, who […]

Proton therapy results in fewer side effects than traditional X-ray radiation therapy for many cancer patients, according to a new study led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania. Even with reduced side effects, proton therapy resulted in […]

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has announced two awards for the study of influenza immunity in children. The awards, which may total more than $64 million over seven years, will support studies led by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center […]

New findings from a study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, show that U.S. incidence rates for aggressive subtypes of uterine cancer rose rapidly among women ages 30 to 79 from 2000 to 2015. The findings also reveal racial disparities, including […]

In 1972, Easter Island, called Rapa Nui, famous for its moai statues, offered a new wonder: the discovery of the drug rapamycin. Over the past three decades, rapamycin, which was isolated from soil bacteria, has been applied as an immuno-suppressor in a multitude of ways, including to coat coronary stents […]

Preterm birth (PTB) — defined as birth before the 37th week of gestation — is the leading complication of pregnancy. If doctors had a simple, accurate and inexpensive way to identify women at risk for the condition, they could develop better prevention strategies. Now researchers have created a 3D-printed microchip electrophoresis device that […]

A University of California, Riverside, research team has come up with a new approach to targeting cancer cells that circumvents a challenge faced by currently available cancer drugs. A cancer target is often a rogue protein that signals cancer cells to proliferate uncontrollably and invade organs. Modern cancer drugs have […]

Working with bacteria, a multidisciplinary team at the University of California San Diego has provided new insight into a longstanding question in science: What are the underlying mechanisms that control the size of cells? Nearly five years ago a team led by Suckjoon Jun, a biophysicist at UC San Diego, […]

Neonatal exposure to nicotine alters the reward circuity in the brains of newborn mice, increasing their preference for the drug in later adulthood, report researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine in a study published “in press” in Biological Psychiatry. A UC San Diego School of Medicine […]

Recent studies suggest that long-term sufferers of Cachexia may be in for some much needed good news. Experienced by as many as half of all cancer patients – and responsible for the deaths of around 22% – Cachexia may have met its match with new technologies on the horizon already […]

A simple slice of the finger sends a complex series of interactions between types of cells into motion. Two types of cells in particular, called macrophages and fibroblasts, work together to clean up and repair the fibers destroyed by the cut. As they do so, they influence each other, they […]

Cancer survivors Monique Russier and Tyler Rabey owe their lives to a molecule called UM-171. In 2014, on a hiking trip in the mountains of Savoie, in France, Russier came down with a high fever and started coughing. A blood test and X-ray of her lungs later revealed that the […]

Tissue engineering could transform medicine. Instead of waiting for our bodies to regrow or repair damage after an injury or disease, scientists could grow complex, fully functional tissues in a laboratory for transplantation into patients. Proteins are key to this future. In our bodies, protein signals tell cells where to […]

A new fluorescent sensor developed by researchers from the University of Adelaide can detect migrating cancer cells and could be used to target medication to stop metastasis in aggressive cancers. Metastasis – the uncontrolled migration of cancer cells which creates new tumours at different locations in the body – is […]

Most living things have a suite of genes dedicated to repairing their DNA, limiting the rate at which their genomes change through time. But scientists at Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered an ancient lineage of budding yeasts that appears to have accumulated a remarkably high load […]

By the time someone gets diagnosed with diabetes — in either of its forms — the insulin-making factory inside their body has ground to a halt, or at least a slow crawl. And in people with obesity, insulin supply often struggles to keep up with demand — especially if the […]

New research from the University of Missouri identifies potential therapies for metabolic disease associated with diet and exercise. Despite countless fad diets, both obesity and metabolic diseases continue to plague communities across the U.S. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri believe that the clue to treatment might be related to estrogen […]

Environmental conditions, lifestyle choices, chemical exposure, and foodborne and airborne pathogens are among the external factors that can cause disease. In contrast, internal genetic factors can be responsible for the onset and progression of diseases ranging from degenerative neurological disorders to some cancers. A team led by Ivaylo Ivanov of […]

Scientists have identified the first chemical compounds able to inhibit and regulate CRISPR systems, which could ultimately make CRISPR gene-editing technologies more precise, efficient, and safe. To identify these compounds, the researchers developed a new platform for rapidly finding small molecules that suppress CRISPR enzymes. Sometimes referred to as “anti-CRISPRs,” […]

Gastric cancer, Q fever, Legionnaires' disease, whooping cough—though the infectious bacteria that cause these dangerous diseases are each different, they all utilize the same molecular machinery to infect human cells. Bacteria use this machinery, called a Type IV secretion system (T4SS), to inject toxic molecules into cells and also to […]

The desire to own a dog is not a choice, it’s in your DNA, according to a new study involving researchers from the University of Liverpool. A team of Swedish and British scientists have studied the heritability of dog ownership using information from 35,035 twin pairs from the Swedish Twin […]

Your mother was right: Broccoli is good for you. Long associated with decreased risk of cancer, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables—the family of plants that also includes cauliflower, cabbage, collard greens, Brussels sprouts and kale—have now been found to contain a molecule that inactivates a gene known to play a […]

Instead of searching for a needle in a haystack, what if you were able to sweep the entire haystack to one side, leaving only the needle behind? That’s the strategy researchers in the University of Georgia College of Engineering followed in developing a new microfluidic device that separates elusive circulating tumor […]

A University of Bristol researcher who discovered that cooling babies who have suffered a lack of oxygen at birth improves their survival without brain damage in later childhood, is named by Universities UK as one of the ‘Nation’s Lifesavers’. One in 1,000 babies born at full term in the UK […]

As spring arrives in the northern hemisphere, many people are cursing ragweed, a primary culprit in seasonal allergies. But scientists might have discovered a promising new use for some substances produced by the pesky weed. In ACS’ Journal of Natural Products, researchers have identified and characterized ragweed compounds that could help […]

A new way to cleanly separate out cancer cells from a blood sample enables comprehensive genetic profiling of the cancer cells, which could help doctors target tumors and monitor treatments more effectively. It is a dramatic improvement over current approaches because it also encompasses the variation among cancer cells within […]

If a tumour is made up of cells with many different genomes, a single drug might not kill them all. A technique developed by a team of DTU researchers makes it possible to identify cancer cells on the genetic level—potentially paving the way for tailored and more effective treatments. “The […]

Ever cracked a joke about old people? It might seem funny, but in a world where the population aged 60 or over is growing faster than all younger age groups, ageism is no laughing matter, says a University of Alberta researcher. “Ageism is now thought to be the most common […]

Not all cells are destined for greatness. Deemed unfit to serve in the body, some are killed off during early development through a process called cell competition. This phenomenon has previously been documented in flies and is now turning out to occur in mammals as well. In a recent study, […]

University at Buffalo researchers have identified the first human-specific fusion gene—a hybrid of two genes—implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. The finding suggests that a neurotransmitter receptor, previously successful in animal studies but that failed in human trials for Alzheimer’s, might still turn out to be a valuable therapy. In a paper published in […]