General

Researchers at MIT have developed a synthetic gene circuit that triggers the body’s immune system to attack cancers when it detects signs of the disease. The circuit, which will only activate a therapeutic response when it detects two specific cancer markers, is described in a paper published in the journal Cell. […]

People who have a healthier diet throughout their adult lives are more likely to be stronger and fitter in older age than those who don’t, according to a new study led by the University of Southampton. Scientists from the University’s Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit (MRC LEU), in partnership with colleagues […]

A rare cancer in patients with breast implants may be on the rise, but not all patients and physicians may be aware of the risks associated with the procedure, according to a group of Penn State College of Medicine researchers. Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma — or BIA-ALCL — […]

Menopause causes metabolic changes in the brain that may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a team from Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of Arizona Health Sciences has shown in new research. The findings, published in PLoS One, could help solve a long-standing mystery about Alzheimer’s: namely, why women get […]

A Food and Drug Administration warning against a tool used to break up fibroid tissue during laparoscopic surgeries has led to a shift toward more invasive surgeries for hysterectomies for women with uterine fibroids, according to a new study by researchers at UCSF Health. The authors say this shift could […]

Many people with Parkinson‘s disease eventually develop dementia as disease progresses. While it is incurable, doctors do have tool to help manage the condition and improve the quality of life, if dementia signs are noticed early. Now scientists from UCL have developed a new 'Cats-and-Dogs' test to predict dementia among […]

A discovery in Marina Guenza's UO chemistry lab, published in a major physics journal, is already being tapped by outside scientists working on a new medical treatment for tuberculosis. The UO research, however, included a detour. Jeremy Copperman, a doctoral student leading it, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in the final year […]

Scientists from For-Robin Inc., a University at Buffalo biotechnology spinoff, have published new research results showing that the company’s cancer-fighting antibody can target, penetrate and kill human tumor cells effectively. The findings, reported in September in the journal Neoplasia, bring the company one step closer to human clinical trials. “This is a […]

Older adults worried about losing their cognitive functions could consider volunteering as a potential boost, according to a University of Missouri researcher. While volunteering and its associations with physical health are well known, less has been known about its associations with mental functioning. Now, Christine Proulx, an associate professor in the Human […]

Pregnant women who had low socioeconomic status during childhood and who have poor family social support appear to prematurely age on a cellular level, potentially raising the risk for complications, a new study has found. Researchers at The Ohio State University examined blood from pregnant women to evaluate the length […]

Using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), a Harvard Medical School research team has bioengineered functional small intestine segments that, when implanted into rats, were capable of delivering nutrients into the bloodstream. The investigators describe their accomplishment in the online journal Nature Communications. Get more HMS news here. “In this study […]

The National Institutes of Health and 11 leading biopharmaceutical companies today launched the Partnership for Accelerating Cancer Therapies (PACT), a five-year public-private research collaboration totaling $215 million as part of the Cancer Moonshot.  PACT will initially focus on efforts to identify, develop and validate robust biomarkers — standardized biological markers […]

Data from a clinical trial at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech to treat brain tumors in dogs may eventually be used to help humans. The study is trying to determine the safety of a new chemotherapeutic drug and drug delivery method in the treatment of brain tumors in dogs. It’s […]

High cholesterol levels have been associated with breast cancer spreading to other sites in the body, but doctors and researchers don’t know the cause for the link. A new study by University of Illinois researchers found that the culprit is a byproduct of cholesterol metabolism that acts on specific immune cells so […]

Many approved cancer therapies target a protein called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) that regulates many crucial cellular processes and can speed the proliferation of tumor cells. Yale Cancer Center scientists now have made a fundamental discovery about EGFR signaling, reported in the journal Cell, that may open the potential for new types […]

Melanoma, a cancer of skin pigment cells called melanocytes, will strike an estimated 87,110 people in the U.S. in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A fraction of those melanomas come from pre-existing moles, but the majority of them come from sources unknown – until now. […]

Scientists have had positive results from a laboratory-based study using a well-known alcohol aversion drug to try to combat chemotherapy resistance in the most common type of lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The findings from the scientists at Trinity College Dublin and St James’s Hospital have been published […]

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have made a discovery around treatment-resistant breast cancer that may turn the phrase, ‘don’t shoot the messenger’, on its head. The scientists have found that cell to cell messengers released by cancer cells which are not responding to treatment, can negatively affect the body’s immune […]

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 […]