General

An immunotherapy clinical trial based in Seattle, among other U.S. sites, was pivotal to the Dec. 19 approval by the Food and Drug Administration of the drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to treat Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare and often fatal skin cancer. The FDA’s accelerated approval of the drug was based on findings […]

undreds of new genes linked to blindness and other vision disorders have been identified in a screen of mouse strains. Many of these genes are likely important in human eye vision and the results could help identify new causes of hereditary blindness in patients. The work was published in Nature Communications […]

Two drugs commonly prescribed to treat Type 2 diabetes carry a high risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, heart failure or amputation, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. “People should know if the medications they’re taking to treat their diabetes could lead to serious cardiovascular harm,” […]

In a new study by Yale Cancer Center (YCC), scientists suggest that as the number of clinical trials in cancer immunotherapy grows exponentially, some caution should be exercised as we continue to better understand the biology of these new therapeutic targets. The findings are published in the journal Cell. Researchers around the world […]

Researchers have discovered age- and health-related differences in fragments of DNA found floating in the bloodstream (not inside cells) called cell-free DNA (cfDNA). These differences could someday be used to determine biological age — whether a person’s body functions as older or younger than their chronological age, the researchers say. In […]

Dermal fibroblasts are specialized cells deep in the skin that generate connective tissue and help the skin recover from injury. Some fibroblasts have the ability to convert into fat cells that reside under the dermis, giving the skin a plump, youthful look and producing a peptide that plays a critical […]

In recent years, public health officials have warned about a rising epidemic of loneliness, with rates of loneliness reportedly doubling over the past 50 years. In a new study, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine put a specific, concerning and surprising face to the issue. Published […]

According to a report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in February of 2018, worldwide obesity levels have almost tripled since the 1970’s. What once may have been a shocking revelation cam as little surprise to health professionals at the time, who’ve spent decades tackling one of the world’s […]

Medicine is always created to fulfil a specific purpose. It has to be tried not only to make sure it is effective, but also if it is safe. Knowing all possible side effects is a crucial result of extensive laboratory and clinical tests. However, some drugs can be used to […]

Research led by neuroscientists at Trinity College Dublin has found for the first time that regions of the brain responsible for complex thought do not shut off in the unconscious state. The research sheds new light on how the unconscious mind works and how the human brain gives rise to […]

Millions of people worldwide are living with chronic spinal cord injuries, with 250,000 to 500,000 new cases each year—most from vehicle crashes or falls. The most severe spinal cord injuries completely paralyze their victims and more than half impair a person’s ability to breathe. Now, a breakthrough study published in Nature […]

After learning their son Andrew had a serious peanut allergy, Jennifer and Daniel Ayala did everything they could to protect him, from becoming master label readers to sending him to birthday parties with his own treats. Still, there were times Andrew accidentally ingested peanut, most often from an outside food […]

A change in the genome of Caucasians could explain much higher rates of the most common type of esophageal cancer in this population, a new study finds. It suggests a possible target for prevention strategies, which preliminary work suggests could involve flavonoids derived from cranberries. Flavonoids are a class of […]

Findings from a new study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) show that patients treated with chemotherapy for most solid tumors during 2000–2014 experienced an increased risk of therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myeloid leukemia (tMDS/AML). The study, which used U.S. population-based cancer registry data from NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and […]

MIT chemical engineers and neuroscientists have devised a new way to preserve biological tissue, allowing them to visualize proteins, DNA, and other molecules within cells, and to map the connections between neurons. The researchers showed that they could use this method, known as SHIELD, to trace the connections between neurons […]

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama launched a precision medicine initiative, saying that its promise was “delivering the right treatments, at the right time, every time to the right person.” A biomedical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has answered the call by making a significant step toward precision medicine […]

The technology for an eye specialist to review a picture of a patient’s eye taken miles away to screen for eye disease has been around for decades. Yet, less than half of Wisconsin adults with diabetes, who are particularly vulnerable to vision-threatening diseases, get annual eye screenings. Dr. Yao Liu, […]

Doctors may be able to assess the survival rates of melanoma patients following the discovery of a molecule that allows the cancer to spread from the skin to other parts of the body. University of Queensland researchers hope that targeting this molecule may offer a way to stop the cancer from […]

There is growing evidence that lithium could be re-purposed as an anti-aging drug, and a new study from King’s College London suggests that lithium’s protective effects are due to a slowing down of the molecular aging process in cells. The research, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, also finds some individuals may benefit from […]

Could a change in diet be beneficial to people with autoimmune diseases such as lupus? A Yale-led team of researchers have revealed how a dietary intervention can help prevent the development of this autoimmune disease in susceptible mice. The study was published in Cell Host & Microbe. For the study, led […]

Skin has a remarkable ability to heal itself. But in some cases, wounds heal very slowly or not at all, putting a person at risk for chronic pain, infection and scarring. Now, researchers have developed a self-powered bandage that generates an electric field over an injury, dramatically reducing the healing […]

From birth, it takes humans almost two decades to reach adulthood; for a fruit fly, it takes only about 10 days. During a fly embryo's initial stages of development, the insect looks different from minute to minute, and its body plan is defined in just a few hours. Caltech researchers […]

Artificial intelligence model improves prediction six-fold. It’s one thing to detect sites in the genome associated with mental disorders; it’s quite another to discover the biological mechanisms by which these changes in DNA work in the human brain to boost risk. In their first concerted effort to tackle the latter, […]

Experts studying the evolutionary differentiation of organisms into male and female sexes have identified a very small sex chromosomal region called “OSU” in the first male-like green alga. They found OSU by comparing the whole genome sequences of two different types of algae from immediately before and after the evolution […]

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have made a discovery about human papillomavirus, or HPV for short, that could lead to new treatments for cervical cancer and other cancers caused by the virus. HPV is responsible for nearly all cases of cervical cancer and 95 percent of anal cancers. It is the most common […]

New research on remyelination, the spontaneous regeneration of the brain’s fatty insulator that keeps neurons communicating, could lead to a novel approach to developing treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other inflammatory diseases. The pre-clinical findings published in Cell Reports by a University at Buffalo team reveal that activation of a specific […]

Among the major challenges of studying Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-related brain disorders: modeling and replicating the biological structures that play a huge role in those conditions. The pathological version of the tau protein, which is responsible for the neurofibrillary tangles present in the brains of those with any of […]

Recent breakthroughs in immunotherapy are making a huge difference in treating some forms of cancer, especially metastatic cancer. But breast cancer has proven a tricky foe for this new therapy, and an interdisciplinary team of FSU researchers is now a little bit closer to figuring out why. Associate Professor of […]

A selfish streak in genes known to drive species apart might occasionally bring them closer together, says a new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Rochester. Though the vast majority of genes are essential to organisms’ survival and reproduction, some selfishly turn against their counterparts to improve […]

Since the 1960s, scientists have known of a modification that occurs to a particular molecule in muscles, especially after exercise. What scientists haven’t known is how that modification happens, or even why. Now, in a serendipitous finding that started with seemingly unrelated work in viral infections, a team of Stanford […]