General

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 […]

Our bodies contain two types of fat: white fat and brown fat. While white fat stores calories, brown fat burns energy and could help us lose weight. Now, scientists at the University of Cambridge have found a way of making the white fat ‘browner’ and increasing the efficiency of brown […]

Searching through the mountains of published cancer research could be made easier for scientists, thanks to a new AI system. The system, called LION LBD and developed by computer scientists and cancer researchers at the University of Cambridge, has been designed to assist scientists in the search for cancer-related discoveries. It is […]

A material based on a natural product of bones and citrus fruit, called citrate, provides the extra energy that stem cells need to form new bone tissue, according to a team of Penn State bioengineers. Their new understanding of the mechanism that allows citrate to aid in bone regeneration will […]

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of Cyprus and University of California San Diego School of Medicine, have identified a previously unknown, large-scale association between molecular gene expression activity in blood leukocyte cells and altered neural responses to speech in toddlers with autism as measured […]

Differences in the cells that give skin its resilience and strength during wound repair may explain why individuals heal differently, according to a new Yale study published in the journal Science. Fibroblasts, the cells that form the protein structure beneath the surface of the skin, were once thought to be […]

The study suggests that the order in which bacterial species stake out unclaimed territory in the gut can shape an intestinal ecosystem for a lifetime, potentially shifting the odds of certain health outcomes in the process. Though timing wasn’t everything, multiple experiments showed that species given early access to the […]

A new study by University of Minnesota biomedical engineers shows how they stopped cancer cells from moving and spreading, even when the cells changed their movements. The discovery could have a major impact on millions of people undergoing therapies to prevent the spread of cancer within the body. The research […]

In the first paper to emerge from a series of research projects aimed at understanding the health needs of older adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ), Jason Flatt of the Institute for Health & Aging at the UC San Francisco School of Nursing found that nearly 25 percent of the LGBT adults aged […]

The Mexican tetra fish can repair its heart after damage — something researchers have been striving to achieve in humans for years. Now, new research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) published in Cell Reports suggests that a gene called lrrc10 may hold the key to this fish’s remarkable ability. Around 1.5 million […]

Melanoma skin cancer tumors grow larger and are more likely to metastasize due to interactions between a pair of molecules, according to experiments in mice and human cells. The results may restore the potential for a type of cancer therapy previously abandoned in clinical trials. The results also implicate one […]

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects roughly 200,000 individuals in the United States each year. In most, it comes on slowly, gradually blurring the central field of vision used for activities like reading and driving. While treatments exist to slow its progression, there is no cure. A team led by Kathleen Boesze-Battaglia of […]

To treat and prevent pregnancy-related disorders, researchers must understand not only what can go wrong, but when. Complications, such as preeclampsia and pre-term birth, often occur in the second or third trimester, and most research to date has focused on those later stages of pregnancy. But the biological events that […]

It takes a lot of cells to make a human brain. The organ houses not only an enormous quantity of neurons (tens of billions), but also an impressive diversity of neuron types. In recent years, scientists have been developing inventories of these cell classes—information that will be essential for understanding […]

New research from Portland State University finds vitamin D, or a lack thereof can trigger or suspend embryonic development in a species of fish. The study also provides evidence suggesting the vitamin is critical to the early development of vertebrates generally. The annual killifish Austrofundulus limnaeus lives its entire life in seasonal ponds […]

Research on a bacterial toxin first discovered in Adelaide has led to the development a new blood test for the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer – a disease which kills over 1000 Australian women and 150,000 globally each year. The new blood test has the potential to dramatically improve early […]

In two recently published papers, a scientific team at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine reports on the discovery and implementation of a new, more efficient method for generating an important brain stem cell in the laboratory. The findings pave the way for greater understanding of the underlying mechanisms […]

A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet supports the theory that replacement of dysfunctional immune cells in the brain has therapeutic potential for neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and Alzheimer’s disease. The study, which involved repopulating the brain with new immune cells in an experimental disease model, is published in Nature […]

In the first large-scale analysis of cardiovascular complications linked to immune checkpoint inhibitors, Vanderbilt researchers have shown that heart and vessel complications include myocarditis, pericarditis, vasculitis and arrhythmias, and that they occur early in the course of treatment. The study, published online in The Lancet Oncology, augments previous work by Vanderbilt […]