General

Growing muscle tissue on grooved platforms helps neurons more effectively integrate with the muscle, a requirement for engineering muscle in the lab that responds and functions like muscle in the body, University of Illinois researchers found in a new study. Such engineered muscle with integrated nerves has applications in reconstructive and […]

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) — an intermediate form of cancer cell between a primary and metastatic tumor cell — carry a treasure trove of information that is critical to treating cancer. Numerous engineering advancements over the years have made it possible to extract cells via liquid biopsy and analyze them […]

AIDS patients suffer higher rates of cancer because they have fewer T-cells in their bodies to fight disease. But new research examines why HIV-infected patients have higher rates of cancer—among the leading causes of death among that population—than the general population. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Dental […]

Older patients with a diagnosis of chronic sinusitis — a disease of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses that often persists over many years — have a unique inflammatory signature that may render them less responsive to steroid treatment, according to a new study published by Vanderbilt researchers. The study […]

Although chemotherapy can kill cancer cells very effectively, healthy cells also suffer. If doctors could remove excess chemotherapy drugs from a patient’s bloodstream after the medicines have done their job, they might reduce side effects such as hair loss and nausea. Now, researchers have developed a 3D-printed device that absorbs […]

We often design and build genetic devices in isolation and then bring the plasmids encoding them together in one cell; most of the time this results in an unexpected behavior. The devices function differently when sharing the same cell than they did when alone. Recent work suggests that this is, […]

Scientists at Cardiff University are helping to bring personalised treatments for Parkinson’s disease closer to the clinic, thanks to a major investment of over £50,000 from American charity, The Summit for Stem Cell Foundation. Working in partnership with Professor Jeanne Loring of the Scripps Research Institute, Cardiff University’s Dr Mariah […]

A new study finds acupressure could be a low-cost, at-home solution to a suite of persistent side effects that linger after breast cancer treatment ends. Researchers from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center had reported in 2016 that acupressure helped reduce fatigue in breast cancer survivors. In their new study, they looked at the […]

For patients affected by systemic scleroderma (also known as systemic sclerosis), a chronic autoimmune disease marked by hardening of the skin and internal organ involvement, the need for treatments is well understood. “Scleroderma has the highest mortality rates of any rheumatic disease,” says Dinesh Khanna, M.D., M.Sc., director of the Michigan Medicine Scleroderma Program. “This […]

A new study from Harvard Medical School researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital has found that the hypertension drug losartan, which targets the angiotensin signaling pathway, may improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy agents used to treat ovarian cancer. Previous research from the same team identified a similar effect for losartan in […]

Using a novel patient-specific stem cell-based therapy, researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) prevented blindness in animal models of geographic atrophy, the advanced “dry” form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is a leading cause of vision loss among people age 65 and older. The protocols established by the […]

Nerve axons serve as the wiring of the nervous system, sending electrical signals that control movement and sense of touch. When axons are damaged, whether by injury or as a side effect of certain drugs, a program is triggered that leads axons to self-destruct. This destruction likely plays an important […]

Scientists working to develop more effective treatments for diabetes are turning to stem cells. Such cells can be transformed into cells that produce insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar. But there’s a major challenge: the amount of insulin produced by theses cells is difficult to control. Now, by tweaking […]

Up to 20 percent of women develop gestational diabetes – high blood sugar – during pregnancy, but the long-term effects on their children haven’t been known. Now, the first study to analyze the long-term effects found the 10-to-14-year-old children of women who had untreated gestational diabetes are more likely to […]

Early adult general cognitive ability (GCA) — the diverse set of skills involved in thinking, such as reasoning, memory and perception — is a stronger predictor of cognitive function and reserve later in life than other factors, such as higher education, occupational complexity or engaging in late-life intellectual activities, report […]

Young adults in the U.S. are engaging in binge drinking later into their 20s, according to a recent analysis from the long-term Monitoring the Future study that has tracked the attitudes and behaviors of young adults since the 1970s. The analysis, led by University of Minnesota Professor Megan Patrick, Ph.D., was recently published in […]

Many people nowadays are experiencing sleeping problems. Sometimes it is difficult to fall asleep and sometimes it is actually difficult to get some rest. A new study from the University of Adelaide revealed that older men who are suffering from extended episodes of interrupted breathing while asleep have a high […]

Hundreds of thousands of deaths every year can be traced back to hypertension, better known simply as high blood pressure. This condition plays a role in such diseases as heart attack, kidney disease and stroke. Now a team of scientists led by the University of Edinburgh discovered that a particular […]

Research scientists around the world are now able to investigate the structural, cellular and developmental intricacies of the human brain using bioengineered stem cell-based models called organoids. But the ethics to help guide researchers and regulators lag behind the technological capability to “grow” brains in a petri dish. That is […]

Exercise can protect both muscle and nerves from damage caused by the restoration of blood flow after injury or surgery, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine shows. UVA’s Zhen Yan, an expert on the cellular benefits of exercise, and his team are working to better understand how the […]

With a little help from HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” University of California, Irvine neurobiologists have uncovered a key component of how the human brain marks time. Using high-powered functional MRI on college students watching the popular TV show, they were able to capture the processes by which the brain stores […]

A new study by researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT finds that the protein CPG2 is significantly less abundant in the brains of people with bipolar disorder (BD) and shows how specific mutations in the SYNE1 gene that encodes the protein undermine its expression and […]

Researchers have developed a new way to image the brain with unprecedented resolution and speed. Using this approach, they can locate individual neurons, trace connections between them, and visualize organelles inside neurons, over large volumes of brain tissue. The new technology combines a method for expanding brain tissue, making it […]

3D printed implants could one day help restore neural connections and lost motor function in patients with spinal cord injury. The implants, developed by engineers and neuroscientists at the University of California San Diego, are soft bridges that guide new nerve cells to grow across the site at which the […]

Scientists at UNSW Sydney have made a breakthrough discovery about cholesterol transportation in cells that opens the way for new drugs to increase the body’s ‘good cholesterol’ levels. And the knowledge could also be used to develop a new strategy to fight cancer. Until now, drugs including statins – the […]

Genetic testing for breast cancer has become more complex. Newer tests now evaluate a panel of multiple genes, compared to older tests looking only at BRCA genes. The new complexity often brings more uncertainty about the results. But, a new study finds that these more extensive tests are not causing […]

new anti-inflammatory compound developed at the University of California, Davis, acts as a “surge protector” to suppress inflammation and reduce cancer growth, at least in mouse models of cancer. The work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We are excited about this research and its potential,” […]

When it comes to disease and health, which is more powerful—ZIP code or genetic code? The degree to which nature and nurture affect disease and health remains one of the eternal—and still unanswerable—questions in medicine. Now a team of investigators from Harvard Medical School and the University of Queensland in Australia […]

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal condition that leaves lung tissue permanently scarred and leads to the decline and eventual failure of the respiratory system. For those diagnosed with the disease, treatment options are limited and the prognosis is poor. But a new study published in the journal Nature Immunology breathes […]

In laboratory experiments, UC San Francisco researchers successfully beat back the growth of aggressive liver cancers using a surprising new approach. Traditionally, targeted cancer therapies aim to disable proteins borne of cancer-driving genes. Instead, the UCSF scientists prevented these proteins, including those that shield tumors from the immune system, from […]