General

A randomized clinical trial involving 97 medical centers in 20 countries, including Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, found that treating patients who have chemotherapy-resistant head and neck cancer with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab is more effective and less toxic than standard chemotherapy, reports an international team of […]

Jellyfish undergo an amazing metamorphosis, from tiny polyps growing on the seafloor to swimming medusae with stinging tentacles. This shape-shifting has served them well, shepherding jellyfish through more than 500 million years of mass extinctions on Earth. “Whatever they’re doing has really worked for them,” said David Gold, an assistant professor […]

A study of the dual pathways that process the essential vitamin folate by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators unexpectedly revealed a new way the cancer drug methotrexate works and may suggest strategies to boost its cancer-killing effects. For the study, published in Cell, the investigators used genome editing and biochemical experiments […]

As if a cancer diagnosis isn’t bad enough, women with one of the most common forms of ovarian cancer face a hard reality. By the time they get the news, the cancer has likely already spread, and the drugs doctors use to fight back will likely stop working within just […]

Immune cells known as microglia have been found to protect the brain from injury and infection and are critical during brain development, helping circuits wire properly. They also seem to play a role in disease—showing up, for example, around brain plaques in people with Alzheimer’s. In an ambitious study, perhaps […]

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Or just stick with recycle. A plant relies on cellular machinery to recycle materials during times of stress, but that same machinery has a remarkable influence on the plant’s metabolism even under healthy growing conditions, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis. Autophagy is […]

Heart disease kills millions every year. It is one of the leading causes of death, because of how crucial heart is for our survival. However, situation is completely different for some animals. A tiny Mexican tetra fish is able to repair its own heart. Scientists from UCL and the University […]

Proteins are the workhorses of our cells, carrying out essential tasks to keep our cells – and our bodies ­– functioning properly. But proteins can only do their jobs if they fold into the right shape. When a protein mis-folds, the cell can try to salvage the situation by re-folding […]

Death is something we will all have to go through. It is something inevitable and something we should all be aware of. However, for some of us it is going to come sooner. A new UCL-led study has identified the key signs and symptoms that allow palliative care doctors to […]

You know that smoking is not good for you, but do you know exactly how? Most smokers do not really care to hear about the damaging effects of smoking, although they definitely should remember them. It is not just about an increased risk of lung cancer, yellow teeth, bad smell, […]

Baby kicking in mother‘s belly is somewhat of milestone in his development. Everyone puts their hands on the growing belly trying to feel it move. But scientists from UCL say that there may be more to kicking than previously believed – it may actually serve a very important function. Scientists […]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first ever inhibitor drug specifically approved for treating patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a mutation in the Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) gene. Patients with these mutations who have relapsed or refractory AML have very […]

A new, low-cost wound dressing developed by University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers could dramatically speed up healing in a surprising way. The method leverages energy generated from a patient’s own body motions to apply gentle electrical pulses at the site of an injury. In rodent tests, the dressings reduced healing times […]

Su-Chun Zhang, a Waisman Center researcher and UW School of Medicine and Public Health professor of neurology and neuroscience, was the first in the world to craft human brain cells from human embryonic stem (ES) cells, and later from the related induced pluripotent (iPS) cells. In light of the 20th […]

In this project, Microsoft is helping Princeton to better understand the mechanisms of biofilm formation by providing advanced technology that will greatly extend the type of research analysis capable today. Biofilms — surface-associated communities of bacteria — are the leading cause of microbial infection worldwide and kill as many people […]

More than 50% of women and 20% of men over the age of 50 will experience a bone fracture during their lifetime. One way to prevent these fractures—particularly in the most sensitive parts of the skeleton—is delivery of stem cells by means of an injectable carrier, which safeguards the cells […]

It can be frightening to watch a person experiencing an epileptic seizure. But some seizures can’t be seen, and these play a role in a different form of devastation—Alzheimer’s disease (AD)—according to work led by University of Minnesota researcher Keith Vossel. With colleagues at the University of California San Francisco […]

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), also known as an enlarged heart, is associated with a nearly two times higher risk of dementia according to a recent University of Minnesota School of Public Health study published in the American Heart Journal. LVH is a condition in which the muscle wall of the heart's left pumping […]

Does  where you live affect your health? Research has shown that neighborhoods with high socioeconomic deprivation also have higher mortality rates. But, those studies were a snapshot in time and did not consider how changes in socioeconomic deprivation—either positive or negative—corresponded to changes in health. Most research also didn’t track subjects over […]

Researchers say that new ‘mini-placentas’ – a cellular model of the early stages of the placenta – could provide a window into early pregnancy and help transform our understanding of reproductive disorders. Details of this new research were published in the journal Nature. Many pregnancies fail because the embryo does […]

Osteoarthritis, a disease that causes severe joint pain, affects more than 20 million people in the United States. Some drug treatments can help alleviate the pain, but there are no treatments that can reverse or slow the cartilage breakdown associated with the disease. In an advance that could improve the […]

As we age, neurons in our brains can become damaged by free radicals. MIT biologists have now discovered that this type of damage, known as oxidative stress, produces an unusual pileup of short snippets of RNA in some neurons. This RNA buildup, which the researchers believe may be a marker […]

Using a multidisciplinary approach, an international team of researchers, including scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, reports that complex interactions between complex sugars and the microbiome in breast milk influence neonatal rotavirus infection. Published in the journal Nature Communications, the authors say the study provides new understanding […]

Anti-malaria drugs known as chloroquines have been repurposed to treat cancer for decades, but until now no one knew exactly what the chloroquines were targeting when they attack a tumor. Now, researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania say they have identified that target – an enzyme called […]

Over the past 30 years, interventional cardiology has transformed heart care — replacing many interventions that used to require open-heart surgery with less invasive procedures. Today, that same revolution has arrived for pulmonary medicine with interventional pulmonology, or IP. The subspecialty offers a variety of minimally invasive procedures to diagnose […]

Meticulous new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine has changed a well-accepted scientific belief about neurons, the vital nerve cells that allow us to experience the world and record those experiences as memories in our brains. UVA’s new discovery reveals that these unique cells recycle and dispose […]

UC San Francisco scientists have figured out why some lung cancers become drug-resistant after initially responding to targeted therapies. In the process, they devised a new two-pronged approach that yields an effective treatment for these cancers in the laboratory and holds tremendous promise for the future of precision medicine, they […]

Nerve cells stripped of their insulation can no longer carry vital information, leading to the numbness, weakness and vision problems often associated with multiple sclerosis. A new study shows an overlooked source may be able to replace that lost insulation and provide a new way to treat diseases like MS. […]

A unique partnership between a Virginia Tech scientist and a University of Virginia oncologist could result in a solution to reduce discomfort during cancer treatment for women. Tim Long, a professor of chemistry with the Virginia Tech College of Science, and Tim Showalter, a radiation oncologist at UVA’s Cancer Center, are testing […]

Do any genes protect against Alzheimer’s disease? And do any predispose a person to its ravages? The answer is yes to both, according to work led by U of M researcher Lisa James. Along with colleagues at the U of M and the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, James is […]