Related Science News

May 30, 2020

Antibody designed to recognise pathogens of Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers have found a way to design an antibody that can identify the toxic particles that destroy healthy brain cells – a potential advance in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Their method is able to recognise these toxic particles, known as amyloid-beta oligomers, which are the hallmark of the disease, […]
May 29, 2020

Clog Loss: Advance Alzheimer’s Research with Stall Catchers

5.8 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s dementia, including 10% of all seniors 65 and older. Scientists at Cornell have discovered links between “stalls,” or clogged blood vessels in the brain, and Alzheimer’s. Stalls can reduce overall blood flow in the brain by 30%. The ability to prevent or remove stalls may […]
May 29, 2020

New technology enables fast protein synthesis

Many proteins are useful as drugs for disorders such as diabetes, cancer, and arthritis. Synthesizing artificial versions of these proteins is a time-consuming process that requires genetically engineering microbes or other cells to produce the desired protein. MIT chemists have devised a protocol to dramatically reduce the amount of time […]
May 29, 2020

Using electrical stimulus to regulate genes

A team of researchers led by ETH professor Martin Fussenegger has succeeded in using an electric current to directly control gene expression for the first time. Their work provides the basis for medical implants that can be switched on and off using electronic devices outside the body. This is how […]
May 29, 2020

oint effort to develop whole-genome sequencing for patients with acute leukemia

A new study has been initiated to evaluate whole-genome and RNA-sequencing as a first-line diagnostic approach for patients in Sweden with acute leukemia. The study is conducted jointly by the national R&D platform Genomic Medicine Sweden and the biotech company Illumina – and is coordinated from Karolinska Institutet. The aim […]
May 29, 2020

Study charts developmental map of inner ear sound sensor in mice

A team of researchers has generated a developmental map of a key sound-sensing structure in the mouse inner ear. Scientists at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their collaborators analyzed data from 30,000 cells from a mouse cochlea, […]
May 29, 2020

Two paths better than one for treating patients with heart stents, study shows

Pairing a blood-thinning drug with aspirin daily for patients who have an angioplasty with a stent can contribute to better health outcomes, including lower risk of death, than aspirin alone, according to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Alberta and Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute. Led by Kevin […]
May 29, 2020

Blocking tumor signals can hinder cancer’s spread

For most people who die of cancer, the spread of the initial tumor is to blame. “Metastasis is what kills most cancer patients,” says Serge Fuchs, a professor in Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine. “Yet there are not many, if any, drugs that specifically target metastatic processes.” In a paper in […]
May 29, 2020

Engineers develop device to automate tissue manufacturing for muscle repair

In recent wars, about 53,000 U.S. military veterans have suffered serious injuries, often involving large amounts of tissue loss. Many more Americans also suffer from long-term injuries resulting from car crashes, accidents, and surgeries. Many of these injuries are disfiguring and debilitating. Now, imagine if lost skeletal muscle could be […]
May 29, 2020

Coveting yeast? It's much more than a loaf of bread

UC Riverside engineers are transforming yeast, both the domesticated kind used to make bread and beer and lesser-known wild species, so it can be used in a variety of new ways — including fighting cancer. Yanran Li, a UC Riverside assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering, is working with […]
May 28, 2020

Exploiting viruses to attack cancer cells

An adenovirus is now better able to target and kill cancer cells due to the addition of an RNA stabilizing element. Hokkaido University scientists have made an adenovirus that specifically replicates inside and kills cancer cells by employing special RNA-stabilizing elements. The details of the research were published in the […]
May 28, 2020

Joint effort to develop whole-genome sequencing for patients with acute leukemia

A new study has been initiated to evaluate whole-genome and RNA-sequencing as a first-line diagnostic approach for patients in Sweden with acute leukemia. The study is conducted jointly by the national R&D platform Genomic Medicine Sweden and the biotech company Illumina – and is coordinated from Karolinska Institutet. The aim […]
May 28, 2020

Turning on the ‘off switch’ in cancer cells

A team of scientists led by the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center has identified the binding site where drug compounds could activate a key braking mechanism against the runaway growth of many types of cancer. The discovery marks a critical step toward developing a potential new class […]
May 28, 2020

New Liver Cancer Research Targets Non-Cancer Cells to Blunt Tumor Growth

By targeting senescent cells using “senotherapy” researchers can greatly reduce tumors in models. “Senotherapy,” a treatment that uses small molecule drugs to target “senescent” cells, or those cells that no longer undergo cell division, blunts liver tumor progression in animal models according to new research from a team led by Celeste […]
May 28, 2020

At-home screening for ovarian, breast cancers is effective

At-home genetic-testing kits for breast and ovarian cancer risk are just as effective, and in some cases even more so, than the typical protocol for genetic testing, which requires repeated office visits and counseling, according to a study led by UW Medicine researchers. The results, published by the American Society of Clinical […]
May 28, 2020

Yale researchers find where stress lives

Yale researchers have found a neural home of the feeling of stress people experience, an insight that may help people deal with the debilitating sense of fear and anxiety that stress can evoke, Yale researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. Brain scans of people exposed to highly stressful and troubling […]
May 27, 2020

Weight and blood pressure greater in young people who develop type 2 diabetes

Weight, blood pressure and blood fat elevations are greater in young people who develop type 2 diabetes according to scientists at the Universities of Glasgow and Manchester. The study, published in Diabetologia, examined known risk factors for heart disease between people with and without type 2 diabetes at similar ages. Its findings […]
May 27, 2020

Women with Neandertal gene give birth to more children

One in three women in Europe inherited the receptor for progesterone from Neandertals – a gene variant associated with increased fertility, fewer bleedings during early pregnancy and fewer miscarriages. This is according to a study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary […]
May 27, 2020

More effective human antibodies possible with chicken cells

Antibodies for potential use as medicines can be made rapidly in chicken cells grown in laboratories. Researchers refer to their technique as the human ADLib system, short for autonomously diversifying libraries. The technique automatically builds vast numbers, or libraries, of diverse antibodies using chicken immune system cells’ natural method for […]
May 27, 2020

Troublemaking ‘lesion’ singled out in UV-caused skin cancer

Upon exposure to human skin, ultraviolet light from the sun almost instantly generates two types of “lesions” that damage DNA. It has long been unknown, though, whether one of these lesions is more responsible for activating a process that may increase cancerous mutations in cells. In a new paper, scientists […]
May 27, 2020

Ketostasis: nature’s sweet spot

For followers of popular science news—or of the latest diet craze—the term “intermittent fasting” is decidedly trending. Each new mention of the eating plan brings with it more revelations about the health benefits it could offer. In the last six months alone, new studies have tied fasting to a reduced […]
May 27, 2020

Exploring the frontiers of immunity and healing

During a 1989 lecture at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology, Yale School of Medicine professor Charles Janeway, MD, hypothesized the existence of an innate immune system and special receptors on immune cells (currently known as toll-like receptors) that trigger the body’s response to infection. Janeway’s research later […]
May 26, 2020

Deep learning accurately stains digital biopsy slides

Tissue biopsy slides stained using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) dyes are a cornerstone of histopathology, especially for pathologists needing to diagnose and determine the stage of cancers. A research team led by MIT scientists at the Media Lab, in collaboration with clinicians at Stanford University School of Medicine and Harvard […]
May 26, 2020

New method reveals where DNA is at risk in the cell

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new sequencing method that makes it possible to map how DNA is spatially organised in the cell nucleus – revealing which genomic regions are at higher risk of mutation and DNA damage. The technique is described in an article published in the scientific […]
May 26, 2020

Study reveals first evidence inherited genetics can drive cancer’s spread

Sometimes cancer stays put, but often it metastasizes, spreading to new locations in the body. It has long been suspected that genetic mutations arising inside tumor cells drive this potentially devastating turn of events. Now researchers have shown for the first time that our own pre-existing genetics can promote metastasis. […]
May 26, 2020

Nanodevices show how cells change with time, by tracking from the inside

For the first time, scientists have added microscopic tracking devices into the interior of cells, giving a peek into how development starts. For the first time, scientists have introduced minuscule tracking devices directly into the interior of mammalian cells, giving an unprecedented peek into the processes that govern the beginning […]
May 25, 2020

How a Key Protein Juggles Multiple Demands to Keep Neurons Firing

In a tour-de-force of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), UC San Francisco researchers have become to the first to solve the structure of a hard-working protein that helps reload neurons for repeated firing, enabling signals to be relayed along nerve pathways throughout the brain. More importantly, the scientists were able to use […]
May 25, 2020

Blood flow recovers faster than brain in micro strokes

Increased blood flow to the brain after a microscopic stroke doesn’t mean that part of the brain has recovered. At least not yet. A study in Science Advances by Rice University neuro engineers Lan Luan and her colleagues used advanced neural monitoring technology to discover a significant disconnect between how long it […]
May 24, 2020

Transgene and NEC Demonstrate High Accuracy of AI-based Neoantigen Prediction for the Design of Individualized Cancer Vaccine TG4050

TG4050 is being evaluated in two Phase 1 clinical trials. It combines Transgene's proprietary myvac platform with NEC's cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities to select patient-specific neoantigens – Data confirm that the prediction algorithm successfully identifies immunogenic cancer mutations, even among a large set of candidate mutations – Data will […]