Related Science News

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have identified new Alzheimer's disease mechanisms in neurons. The scientists have discovered that changes in the structure of chromatin, a tightly coiled form of DNA, trigger neurons to lose their specialized function and revert to an earlier cell state. That results in the loss […]

For many years, investigators have been trying to pin down the tantalizing connection between vitamin D and cancer. Epidemiological studies have found that people who live near the equator, where exposure to sunlight produces more vitamin D, have lower incidence and death rates from certain cancers. In cancer cells in […]

Any given tumor is composed of a multitude of cell types that can each look or behave differently from its neighbors. An emerging body of research suggests that these differences can influence disease progression or the way a tumor responds to drugs. Now, a new study by Harvard Medical School […]

Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have demonstrated that the CRISPR/Cas9 system is very effective in treating metastatic cancers, a significant step on the way to finding a cure for cancer. The researchers developed a novel lipid nanoparticle-based delivery system that specifically targets cancer cells and destroys them by genetic manipulation. The […]

Early and repeated exposures to diagnostic imaging, such as X-rays and CT scans, may increase the risk of testicular cancer, suggests a new study from Penn Medicine researchers published online in PLOS ONE. “The steady rise in testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) cases over the past three or four decades suggests there is an […]

Last year, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, identified the early origins of neural crest cells — embryonic cells in vertebrates that travel throughout the body and generate many cell types — in chick embryos. Now the researchers have used a human model to figure out when neural crest cells […]

Case Western Reserve University researchers are part of an international team striving to crack the secrets of how our neurons—the nerve cells that send and receive signals to and from the brain—work together to regulate physical movements. The work is supported by a $3 million grant from the National Institutes […]

New research by University of Georgia scientists sheds light on why people with obstructive sleep apnea may have associated autoimmune disorders. The results could lead to better approaches to treatment and possibly new drug therapies. The study, led by Bradley Phillips, builds on previous research showing that obstructive sleep apnea increases the […]

Cells enter a senescent state constantly throughout life, largely because they have reached the Hayflick limit on replication, but also due to molecular damage, cancerous mutations, injury to tissue, radiation, or other causes. A senescent cell stops replicating, swells in size, and begins to secrete a mix of inflammatory signals, […]

When Meghan Martin ’21, a biochemistry and American Sign Language double major, was a sophomore in high school, she began experiencing intense, chronic pain. An avid runner and soccer player, she was crippled by cramps, nausea, and back spasms that left her unable to participate in the sports she loved. […]

Researchers at Duke University and the University of California, Los Angeles have developed a biomaterial that significantly reduces scar formation after wounding, leading to more effective skin healing. The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded research demonstrates that activating an immune response can trigger regenerative wound healing. The work builds on the team's previous research […]

Researchers from Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, have developed a novel microcarrier for large-scale cell production and expansion that offers higher yield and cost-effectiveness compared to traditional methods and reduces steps required in the cell retrieval process. Microcarriers are particles used in bioreactor-based […]

The SynergyAge database is intended to collect information on interactions between longevity-related mutations. Many such genetic alterations have been studied in laboratory species – yeast, flies, worms, mice, and so forth – but interactions between mutations are only sparsely investigated in comparison. This is true for all interventions in aging, […]

The risk of serious adverse effects on the blood status and bone marrow of patients during chemotherapy can be predicted by a model developed at LiU. This research may make it possible to use genetic analysis to identify patients with a high probability of side effects. It is often difficult […]

Scientists from the Tokyo University of Science have made a breakthrough in the development of potential drugs that can kill cancer cells. They have discovered a method of synthesizing organic compounds that are four times more fatal to cancer cells and leave non-cancerous cells unharmed. Published in the American Chemical […]

Deep inside your cells, DNA provides the instructions to produce proteins, the essential molecules that grow and maintain your body. RNA is the intermediary nucleic acid that carries these instructions from DNA to ribosomes, where proteins are produced within the cell. But in humans and in plants, only a tiny […]

An international team of scientists led by The University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust has found that shift workers, especially those working permanent night shifts, showed increased risks of asthma, especially moderate or severe asthma. The study of 280,000 UK Biobank participants also revealed that irregular night shift workers […]

You might recall that OneSkin recently launched a cosmetic product claimed to reduce levels of senescent cells in aged skin, as measured by the usual markers for cellular senescence, such as p16 expression and senescence-associated β-galactosidase. Removal of senescent cells is more or less literal rejuvenation, given that the accumulation […]

Research by University at Buffalo biomedical engineers Ruogang Zhao and Yun Wu may help discover new drugs to treat pulmonary fibrosis, a severe lung disease that can be life-threatening. Pulmonary fibrosis has many causes, including smoking, ageing, environmental factors and viral infections, such as those associated with COVID-19. There is […]

A gene that cured a man of HIV a decade ago has been successfully added to developing monkey embryos in an effort to study more potential treatments for the disease. Timothy Brown, known for years as “the Berlin Patient,” received a transplant of bone marrow stem cells in 2007 to […]

University of Saskatchewan (USask) pharmacologist Robert Laprairie will use a Brain Canada research grant to determine how a mother’s use of cannabis during pregnancy affects the brain of the developing fetus she’s carrying. Laprairie is one of 20 Canadian neuroscientists each awarded $100,000 today as part of Brain Canada’s Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research Program.  “Following on Canada’s legalization of cannabis in […]

Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) and Fujitsu Laboratories Limited have recently completed, in less than a day, estimation of the network that represents the influence relationship between genes and prediction of their relationship with infiltration and metastasis based on genes highly likely to be involved in cancer development. TMDU […]

James Cook University researcher Dr Brandon Mahan worked with a team of French researchers at the Université de Paris, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (UP, IPGP; Paris, France) who compared brains with and without Alzheimer’s to discover what made them different. “Our study is the first time it […]

For the first time, medication has impacted heart muscle thickness and function for patients with the most common inherited heart condition, rather than simply addressing their symptoms. “This is the first study to show a favourable impact of a medication on cardiac structure and function in any form of hypertrophic […]

This short commentary looks at just one cell type, T cells of the adaptive immune system, in which loss of mitochondrial function produces issues such as cellular senescence that contribute to broader degenerative aging throughout the body. Every cell contains hundreds of mitochondria, responsible for producing adenosine triphosphate, an energy […]

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown way that pancreatic cells decide how much insulin to secrete. It could provide a promising new target to develop drugs for boosting insulin production in people with Type 2 diabetes. In a pair of papers recently published in Cell Metabolism, scientists from the University of […]

A drug that has shown promise for treating multiple sclerosis may actually make the debilitating disease worse, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggests. The drug has not yet made it to human trials for MS, but the UVA scientists are warning their fellow researchers to proceed […]

The transcriptome of a cell is an assessment of gene expression at a moment in time, specifically which genes have RNA transcripts under production, and the relative amounts of those transcripts. Like all such detailed cell data, the transcriptome changes with age in characteristic ways, a reaction to the presence […]

A high-sugar diet reprograms the taste cells in fruit flies, dulling their sensitivity to sugar and leaving a “molecular memory” on their tongues, according to a University of Michigan study. Examining fruit flies, researchers Monica Dus, Anoumid Vaziri and collaborators found that high-sugar diets completely remodelled the flies’ taste cells, […]

When it comes to complex life — that of the multicellular variety — cell death can be just as important as survival. It allows organisms to clean house and prevent the proliferation of damaged cells that could compromise tissue function. Several years ago, biologist Denise Montell, a distinguished professor at UC […]