General

New King’s College London research reveals how blood inflammation affects the birth and death of brain cells, which could offer new treatment targets for antidepressants. Mounting evidence points to high levels of inflammation as an important biological abnormality leading to depression in at least one third of patients. However, this […]

UCLA scientists have discovered a potential combination treatment for glioblastoma, the deadliest form of brain cancer in adults. The three-year study led by David Nathanson, a member of UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, found that the drug combination tested in mice disrupts and exploits glucose intake, essentially cutting off the […]

An international team of researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center, with colleagues at Sun Yet-sun University Cancer Center and other collaborating institutions, have developed a new diagnostic and prognosis method for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), based on a simple blood […]

  An international team led by scientists at the National Institutes of Health is the first to discover a new way that cells fix an important and dangerous type of DNA damage known as a DNA-protein crosslink (DPC). The researchers found that a protein named ZATT can eliminate DPCs with […]

You would not expect diamonds to have anything to do with cancer treatment. But they can actually they improve patients’ chances of survival. “Using traditional techniques, it’s almost impossible to determine whether a cancer treatment has been 100 per cent or 99.9 per cent effective. The difference can have major […]

A team of researchers at Cardiff University’s Schools of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Medicine, and Biosciences, together with the Basque Foundation for Science in Spain, has discovered a new way of tagging these nanobodies that are made naturally by cells. Exosomes play an important role in the way in which […]

Researchers from the Aboobaker lab in the Department of Zoology used the worms (planarians) which are known for their ability to regenerate their tissues and organs repeatedly. This process is enabled by their stem cells, which constantly divide to make new cells. Cell migration – or the movement of cells […]

Proteins and drugs are often attached to lipids to promote crystallization or ensure delivery to targeted tissues within the body, but only the smallest proteins and molecules fit within these fat structures. A new study reveals a lipid structure that can support much larger proteins and molecules than before, potentially […]

UCLA biophysicists have developed a new method to rapidly determine a single cell’s stiffness and size — which could ultimately lead to improved treatments for cancer and other diseases. The method allows researchers to make standardized measurements of single cells, determine each cell’s stiffness and assign it a number, generally […]

New research will seek to understand why people who are HIV positive are more susceptible to a progressive cerebrovascular disease that can ultimately give rise to dementia.  One of the goals of the research is to identify new ways to prevent the blockages that occur in blood vessels and cause […]

The immune system is contantly performing surveillance to detect foreign organisms that might do harm. But pathogens, for their part, have evolved a number of strategies to evade this detection, such as secreting proteins that hinder a host’s ability to mount an immune response. In a new study, a team […]

A new collaboration between two UC Santa Barbara labs explores the underlying molecular mechanism of a remarkable process called anastasis, a Greek word meaning “rising to life.” Building on earlier work showing that cells can recover from the brink of death, the new study demonstrates that anastasis is an active […]

Biological clocks are ticking everywhere throughout our body. They trigger the release of the hormone melatonin during sleep, leading to the secretion of digestive enzymes at lunchtime or keep us awake at the busiest moments of the day. A “master clock” in the brain synchronises all the subsidiary ones in […]

A new cancer treatment with the ability to normalise tumour blood vessels and boost the body’s immune system has been developed by researchers from The University of Western Australia and the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. Many tumours can become resistant to the body’s immune system by creating a […]

In a first-of-its-kind study, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers report that a blood sample, or liquid biopsy, can reveal which patients will respond to checkpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapies. “We can help predict response to immunotherapy by measuring the number of mutations in circulating tumor DNA using a […]

In a new study, Yale researchers have described how nervous systems and immune systems talk to each other to control metabolism and inflammation. Their finding furthers scientists’ understanding of why older adults fail to burn stored belly fat, which raises the risk of chronic disease. The study also points to […]

Like a string of pearls, the spine is made of a series of similar vertebrae. A so-called segmentation clock creates this repetitive arrangement in developing embryos: Each time the clock ticks, a vertebra starts to form. In a paper published Sept. 21 in Cell, Harvard Medical School genetics professor Olivier Pourquié—whose lab […]

Cancers driven by mutations in the KRAS gene are among the most deadly. For decades, researchers have tried unsuccessfully to directly target mutant KRAS proteins as a means to treat tumors. Instead of targeting mutant KRAS itself, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine are now looking […]

In 2014, new combination therapies to treat patients with metastatic melanoma hit the market, helping extend the lives of those with this aggressive disease. Yet unfortunately, after several months of treatment, almost all patients on the regimen eventually relapsed. A study out this week in Nature, led by scientists from the University […]

Tufts University researchers had recently discovered the brain to take an active part in bodily development well before movement or other independent behaviours occur. “Our research shows that the brain is engaged before that [autonomous activity], before it’s even fully built,” said corresponding author on the paper Michael Levin, PhD. […]

Adding or removing water from a stem cell can change the destiny of the cell, researchers have discovered in a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). The research found that altering the volume of a cell changed […]

In contrast to previous assumptions, the hippocampus, a brain structure that is central to learning and memory, does not complete its maturation until adolescence. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, and the University of Stirling were […]

The first symptom of Parkinson's disease is often an impaired sense of smell. This neurodegenerative disease primarily causes irreparable damage to nerve cells in a brain area involved in movement control. How it affects the olfactory system has been unclear. Researchers at the Max Planck Research Unit for Neurogenetics in […]

Freshwater planarians, found around the world and commonly known as “flatworms,” are famous for their regenerative prowess. Through a process called “fission,” planarians can reproduce asexually by simply tearing themselves into two pieces— a head and a tail—which then go on to form two new worms within about a week. […]

Inspired by the Labyrinth of Greek mythology, a new chip etched with fluid channels sends blood samples through a hydrodynamic maze to separate out rare circulating cancer cells into a relatively clean stream for analysis. It is already in use in a breast cancer clinical trial. Tumor cells isolated from […]

Ketogenic diets – extreme low-carbohydrate, high-fat regimens that have long been known to benefit epilepsy and other neurological illnesses – may work by lowering inflammation in the brain, according to new research by UC San Francisco scientists. The UCSF team has discovered a molecular key to the diet’s apparent effects, […]

Whether it’s running, walking, cycling, swimming or rowing, it’s been well-known since ancient times that doing some form of aerobic exercise is essential to good health and well-being. You can lose weight, sleep better, fight stress and high blood pressure, improve your mood, plus strengthen bones and muscles. “Whether muscle […]

Patients with any stage of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) carry signs of the disease in their blood that may be found through special laboratory tests, according to a new study led by HMS researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. The study, published online in Ophthalmology, describes a new technique known as “metabolomics,” […]

Early-stage UAlberta research suggests that taking a cholesterol-lowering statin regularly may help boost the body’s ability to fight off chronic conditions like HIV and cancer. “We concluded that atorvastatin (marketed under Lipitor, among other brands) may be beneficial to patients with HIV and cancer by preventing their T-cells—a type of white […]

People who handle paper receipts regularly may be at increased risk for exposure to a chemical linked to breast and prostate cancers, according to new UAlberta research. “We found that people who handled receipts printed on thermal paper containing the chemical had it lingering in their body for a week […]