Related Science News

December 2, 2019

New principle for activation of cancer genes discovered

Researchers have long known that some genes can cause cancer when overactive, but exactly what happens inside the cell nucleus when the cancer grows has so far remained enigmatic. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found a new mechanism that renders one canonical driver of cancer overactive. The […]
December 2, 2019

High fiber, yogurt diet associated with lower lung cancer risk

A diet high in fiber and yogurt is associated with a reduced risk for lung cancer, according to a study by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers published in JAMA Oncology. The benefits of a diet high in fiber and yogurt have already been established for cardiovascular disease and gastrointestinal cancer. The new […]
December 2, 2019

Cancer Seems to Have Trouble Spreading in Microgravity

There are a number of health risks that come with going to space. Aside from the increased exposure to solar radiation and cosmic rays, there are the notable effects that microgravity can have on human physiology. As Scott Kelly can attest, these go beyond muscle and bone degeneration and include […]
November 29, 2019

New path forward for pancreatic cancer treatment

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers – by the time most cases are diagnosed, the cancer is advanced and spreading to other parts of the body. But what if these spreading cancer cells could, in fact, hold the key to guiding better treatment? Dr. Omid Faridani, recipient […]
November 29, 2019

Cards and board games help people staying mentally sharp later in life

Have you noticed that many older people love playing cards and board games. This is their way to socialize and have some fun. However, what they may not know is that this fun freetime activity also helps them protecting their thinking skills. This what a new study from the University […]
November 28, 2019

Study connects air pollution, memory problems and Alzheimer’s-like brain changes

Women in their 70s and 80s who were exposed to higher levels of air pollution experienced greater declines in memory and more Alzheimer’s-like brain atrophy than their counterparts who breathed cleaner air, according to USC researchers. The findings of the nationwide study, published in the journal Brain, touch on the […]
November 28, 2019

Camel Milk and Autism: Connecting the Genetic Dots

Most of us know camels as curiosities at zoos. As beasts of burden highly adapted to hot and dry climates, they’ve served the trade routes that helped build civilizations, and may indeed flourish in our increasingly hot and dry world. We value their hide, meat, and especially their milk. Camels […]
November 28, 2019

How do cytotoxic lymphocytes kill and do not get killed?

Cytotoxic lymphocytes are the real MVPs. They guard our bodies from cancerous and virus-infected cells by killing them. In this way they are aggressive defenders, but how their actions do not kill them? A new study from UCL might have found the answer. Cytotoxic lymphocytes to you may be better […]
November 28, 2019

Portable photoacoustic breast imaging system shows promise during initial lab tests

A new, portable breast imaging system under development in Buffalo has the potential to better identify breast cancer in women with dense breast tissue. That is among the findings of a study published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. The study was led by University at Buffalo researchers in […]
November 28, 2019

It’s About Time

Time can be measured in many ways: a watch, a sundial, the body’s natural circadian rhythms. What about the sexual behavior of a fruit fly? “If you ask a bunch of scientists whether animals can keep time, many would say they cannot—that things happen over time, but time itself is […]
November 28, 2019

Animal embryos evolved before animals

A new study by an international team of researchers, led by scientists from the University of Bristol and Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, has discovered that animal-like embryos evolved long before the first animals appear in the fossil record. Animals evolved from single-celled ancestors, before diversifying into 30 or […]
November 27, 2019

Self-restrained genes enable evolutionary novelty

Changes in the genes that control development can potentially make large contributions to evolution by generating new morphologies in plants and animals. However, because developmental genes frequently influence many different processes, changes to their expression carry a risk of “collateral damage”. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding […]
November 27, 2019

Tracking inheritance of human mitochondrial DNA

New insight into how genetic information stored in human mitochondria is passed from one generation to the next could have important implications for genetic counseling of women planning pregnancies, according to a study by researchers at Penn State and the University of California, Berkeley. The findings are especially relevant to […]
November 27, 2019

Technique identifies T cells primed for certain allergies or infections

When your immune system is exposed to a vaccine, an allergen, or an infectious microbe, subsets of T cells that can recognize a foreign intruder leap into action. Some of these T cells are primed to kill infected cells, while others serve as memory cells that circulate throughout the body, […]
November 27, 2019

Vicious Circles: Ring-shaped DNA Provides Cancer Cells with a Malignant Twist

Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA encodes information, not only in its sequence but also in its shape. Building upon previous revelatory work, a team of scientists, led by researchers at University of California San Diego, the UC San Diego branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Stanford University and the […]
November 27, 2019

Blood test for deadly eye melanoma

A simple blood test could soon become the latest monitoring tool for the early detection of melanoma in the eye. University of Queensland scientists have discovered markers in the blood that can differentiate between a benign mole and a melanoma, while also identifying if the cancer has spread to other areas […]
November 27, 2019

MS linked to variant of common herpes virus through new method

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new method to separate between two different types of a common herpes virus (HHV-6) that has been linked to multiple sclerosis. By analyzing antibodies in the blood against the most divergent proteins of herpesvirus 6A and 6B, the researchers were able to show […]
November 27, 2019

Annual Over Biennial Mammograms Linked to Less Advanced Breast Cancer

How often should women get a mammogram? A new study makes a case for getting screened every year instead of every other year. Women diagnosed with breast cancer after receiving yearly mammograms had smaller tumors and less-advanced disease than women who had mammograms every other year, researchers from the University of […]
November 27, 2019

Cerebral organoid model provides clues about how to prevent virus-induced brain cell death

Scientists have determined that La Crosse virus (LACV), which can cause inflammation of the brain in children, affects brain cells differently depending on their developmental stage. Neurons—the primary brain cells of the central nervous system—evolve from neural stem cells and during development “commit” to becoming neurons. A new National Institutes […]
November 27, 2019

Autism-Related Genetic Mutations Occur in Aging Brains of Alzheimer's Patients

Researchers believe that autism is caused by mutations that occur sporadically in the egg or sperm or during pregnancy. Activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP) is a dominant gene whose de novo (during pregnancy) mutations are known to cause autism-related intellectual disabilities. A new Tel Aviv University study has found that ADNP mutations continue to occur […]
November 27, 2019

Newborn Immune System Detects Harmful Skin Bacteria

The immune system must learn from early in life to tolerate bacteria that normally populate healthy skin, while still defending against more dangerous “bugs,” but how immune cells make this distinction has long been a mystery. In a study of young mice, UC San Francisco scientists found that an early-life […]
November 27, 2019

Living in an area with strong air pollution increases the risk of glaucoma

More and more people choose to live in cities. They are looking for more opportunity, bigger salaries and a different standard of living. However, they are putting themselves in harms way of pollution. A new  UCL-led study revealed that people who live in areas with greater air pollution are at […]
November 26, 2019

Study paves way to better understanding, treatment of arthritis

Oregon State University research has provided the first complete, cellular-level look at what’s going on in joints afflicted by osteoarthritis, a debilitating and costly condition that affects nearly one-quarter of adults in the United States. The study, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, opens the door to better understanding how interventions […]
November 26, 2019

Babies in the womb may see more than we thought

By the second trimester, long before a baby’s eyes can see images, they can detect light. But the light-sensitive cells in the developing retina — the thin sheet of brain-like tissue at the back of the eye — were thought to be simple on-off switches, presumably there to set up […]
November 26, 2019

Gut microbes alter characteristics of norovirus infection

The highly contagious norovirus causes diarrhea and vomiting and is notorious for spreading rapidly through densely populated spaces, such as cruise ships, nursing homes, schools, and daycare centers. Each year, it is responsible for some 200,000 deaths, mostly in the developing world. There are no treatments for this intestinal virus, […]
November 26, 2019

Next-Gen Medicine

From gene therapies to cancer immunotherapies to cancer vaccines, recent biomedical advances have redefined what is possible in medicine. Yet, despite the advent of such transformative therapies, bottlenecks in the discovery pipeline and backlogs in production remain pressing challenges that hamper the rapid and widespread delivery of new lifesaving treatments […]
November 26, 2019

Intestinal Stem Cell Genes May Link Dietary Fat and Colon Cancer

Two genes that appear to help stem cells in the intestine burn dietary fat may play a role in colon cancer, according to a Rutgers study. The study, published in the journal Gastroenterology, describes a new connection between the way cells consume fat and how genes regulate stem cell behavior in the […]