Related Science News

June 22, 2020

Rare Heart Procedure Keeps Aortic Valve Healthy for Over 20 Years

One woman shares her experience with the Ross procedure, an aortic valve replacement surgery performed by only a few cardiac surgeons in the country. As a teacher at Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan, Anne McLeod, R.N., D.N.P., was able to let her nursing students hear the sound of a heart […]
June 22, 2020

Stroke survival rates worse in rural areas, study says

A major U.S. study reveals large gaps between urban and rural patients in quality of care received after a stroke and rates of survival. In more rural areas, the ability of hospitals to deliver advanced stroke care is lower and mortality rates substantially higher, the research shows. The analysis, involving […]
June 19, 2020

Recombinant Antibody Network Partners with Bristol Myers Squibb to Develop Novel Therapies

The Recombinant Antibody Network (RAN), a consortium comprising research groups from UC San Francisco, the University of Chicago, and the University of Toronto, has entered into a second research collaboration with Celgene that aims to create and develop high-performance recombinant antibodies against diverse targets in human cells. The first RAN collaboration […]
June 19, 2020

Repurposed drug shows promise for treating COVID-19 inflammation

Yale clinicians report promising results after treating COVID-19 patients at Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) with a drug that reduces hyper inflammation in cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy. The team initially gave the drug, tocilizumab, to the most severely ill COVID-19 patients — specifically, those experiencing a dangerous immune response known as […]
June 19, 2020

Signaling breast cancer metastasis

Metastasis accounts for approximately 90 percent of mortality in breast cancer patients. During the last few decades, there has been significant progress in understanding genetic, molecular and signaling mechanisms underpinning cancer cell migration. Biologists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) found another mechanism that affects the maintenance and expansion of malignant cells: […]
June 18, 2020

Simple Connection: How Brushing Your Teeth can Extend Your Lifespan

Having bad teeth hurts your mouth, blood vessels and blood itself, and even your brain. Many people have fear of dentists. But did you know there are dentists for phobic patients too? Visiting an oral health specialist may also have another – often hidden but positive consequence – a potential […]
June 18, 2020

Israeli Researchers Investigating the Anti-Aging Effects of Lower Body Temperature

Professor Vadim Fraifeld, the head of the Laboratory for Biology of Aging, together with his team announced new results from the study in which they have investigated the anti-aging effects of lower body temperature in mice. According to V. Fraifeld, lowering the temperature of biological systems and tissues is currently […]
June 18, 2020

Understanding Congenital Heart Disease

Each year in Australia, it is estimated 2,400 babies are affected with congenital heart disease. People with complex and severe congenital heart disease require specialist treatment throughout their life. Understanding congenital heart disease and the factors that impact the maternal environment prior to and during pregnancy will be the focus […]
June 18, 2020

Artificial synapse that works with living cells

Researchers have created a device that can integrate and interact with neuron-like cells. This could be an early step toward an artificial synapse for use in brain-computer interfaces. In 2017, Stanford University researchers presented a new device that mimics the brain’s efficient and low-energy neural learning process. It was an […]
June 18, 2020

Detecting antibodies with glowing proteins, thread and a smartphone

To defend the body, the immune system makes proteins known as antibodies that latch onto the perceived threat, be it HIV, the new coronavirus or, as is the case in autoimmune disease, part of the body itself. In a new proof-of-concept study in ACS Sensors, researchers describe a new system for […]
June 18, 2020

Maternal obesity linked to increased risk of early-onset neonatal sepsis

The risk of early-onset neonatal bacterial sepsis increases with maternal obesity, according to a new study of the University of Michigan and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Lead researcher Eduardo Villamor, a professor of epidemiology at U-M’s School of Public Health, said the study builds on previous research into exposure […]
June 18, 2020

Assessing Potential

A new method of screening thousands of drugs in freshly collected human tumor cells could help identify which of the drugs are most likely to be effective against those cancers, report Harvard Medical School researchers based at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology at HMS in a study published […]
June 18, 2020

NIH-funded study links endometriosis to DNA changes

DNA from uterine cells of women with endometriosis has different chemical modifications, compared to the DNA of women who do not have the condition, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. The changes involve DNA methylation — the binding of compounds known as methyl groups to DNA […]
June 18, 2020

Combination of healthy lifestyle traits may substantially reduce Alzheimer’s

Combining more healthy lifestyle behaviors was associated with a substantially lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease in a study that included data from nearly 3,000 research participants. Those who adhered to four or all of the five specified healthy behaviors were found to have a 60% lower risk of Alzheimer’s. The […]
June 18, 2020

Study yields clues to how drug may boost aged mitochondria

An experimental drug that has been shown to improve the function of diseased and aged mitochondria binds to 12 key proteins involved in energy production, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine have found. The drug, elamipretide, also called SS-31, has shown promise for treating rare inherited diseases […]
June 18, 2020

PSA screening affords men long-term benefits, study finds

The benefits of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test to screen men for prostate cancer may be greater than the harm, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Genitourinary cancer specialists from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, University of Washington School of Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, […]
June 17, 2020

Vanderbilt University partners with ACADIA Pharmaceuticals to develop novel treatments for central nervous system disorders

Vanderbilt University’s Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement with San Diego-based ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc., which will seek to develop and commercialize treatments for central nervous system disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. This collaboration will focus on positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of […]
June 17, 2020

Previously undetected brain pulses may help circuits survive disuse, injury

A neuroscientist’s neon pink arm cast led him and fellow researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to discover previously undetected neuronal pulses in the human brain that activate after an immobilizing illness or injury. The pulses appeared on MRI scans used to measure the brain activity […]
June 17, 2020

Rice lab turns fluorescent tags into cancer killers

A Rice University lab’s project to make better fluorescent tags has turned into a method to kill tumors. Switching one atom in the tag does the trick. Rice chemist Han Xiao and his colleagues found that replacing a single oxygen atom with a sulfur atom in a common fluorophore turns it into a photosensitizing molecule. When […]
June 17, 2020

‘Relaxed’ T cells critical to immune response

Like finding that needle in the haystack every time, your T cells manage what seems like an improbable task: quickly finding a few invaders among the many imposters in your body to trigger its immune response. T cells have to react fast and do so nearly perfectly to protect people from diseases. […]
June 16, 2020

Brothers in arms: the brain and its blood vessels

The brain and its surrounding blood vessels exist in a close relationship. The vessels supply the energy-hungry neuronal cells with nutrients. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now discovered how cells of the blood vessels sense the metabolic condition of the brain and […]
June 16, 2020

Epigenetics tell the story of trauma and recovery

A world-first study of the epigenetics of posttraumatic growth and resilience points the way for further research into how people can overcome the negative impacts of trauma after events such as bushfires, serious motor vehicle accidents, domestic violence, childhood and work-related trauma. QUT trauma researcher Professor Jane Shakespeare-Finch from the […]
June 16, 2020

Study finds path for addressing Alzheimer’s blood-brain barrier impairment

MIT researchers pinpoint mechanism and demonstrate that drugs could help. By developing a lab-engineered model of the human blood-brain barrier (BBB), neuroscientists at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have discovered how the most common Alzheimer’s disease risk gene causes amyloid protein plaques to disrupt the brain’s vasculature and […]
June 16, 2020

Study: Neurons can shift how they process information about motion

Our brains use various reference frames—also known as coordinate systems—to represent the motion of objects in a scene. Some coordinate systems are more useful than others for representing information. To represent a location on Earth, for example, we might use an Earth-centered coordinate system such as latitude and longitude. In […]
June 16, 2020

Pregnancy Complications in Assisted Reproduction Linked to a Specific Process

Researchers found that efforts should be focused on optimizing embryo culture to ensure healthy outcomes for mothers and offspring. An experimental study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania links a specific procedure – embryo culture – that is part of the assisted reproduction […]