Related Science News

September 10, 2019

Ancient pathway uncovers calcium’s role in egg development

A new study of fruit flies (Drosophila) uncovers an ancient and fundamental mechanism that provides details into a long-standing mystery of reproductive biology. The results, which are relevant to higher animals including humans, add to a growing body of evidence in other organisms about the role of calcium in the […]
September 10, 2019

Overcoming resistance in pancreatic cancer

Cancer is relentless and resilient. When a drug blocks a cancer cell’s main survival pathway, the cell avoids the obstacle by taking different pathways or detours to save itself. This tactic is called “developing resistance,” and it’s one of the key challenges researchers face when seeking effective therapeutics to combat […]
September 10, 2019

Protein Mapping Pinpoints Why Most Metastatic Melanoma Patients Do Not Respond to Immunotherapy

Tel Aviv University and Sheba Medical Center researchers say they have discovered why more than half of patients with metastatic melanoma do not respond to immunotherapy cancer treatments. Wielding proteomics, an innovative “protein mapping” approach, a team of researchers led by Prof. Tami Geiger, Prof. Gal Markel, and Dr. Michal Harel of TAU's Sackler School of […]
September 9, 2019

FAK Protein Linked to Chemotherapy Resistance in Ovarian Cancer

Although the number of women being diagnosed and dying of ovarian cancer is declining, recurrence, drug resistance and mortality remain high for women with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma, the most common form of epithelial ovarian cancer. A new study in the journal eLife by University of California San Diego School of Medicine […]
September 9, 2019

Synthetic Biologists Extend Functional Life of Cancer-Fighting Circuitry in Microbes

Bioengineers and biologists at the University of California San Diego have developed a method to significantly extend the life of gene circuits used to instruct microbes to do things such as produce and deliver drugs, break down chemicals and serve as environmental sensors. Most of the circuits that synthetic biologists […]
September 9, 2019

Bristol researchers lead new national guidance on how to stay fit and healthy

The physical activity guidelines issued today by the four Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, offer advice to all age groups and – for the first time – pregnant women, new mums and disabled adults. Drawing on the most up-to-date scientific evidence for the benefits of physical activity, […]
September 9, 2019

Hidden Hearing Loss Effects

Chronic conductive hearing loss, a condition that can result from middle-ear infections, may interfere with  speech recognition deficits, according to the results of a new study led by Harvard Medical School scientists at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and published in the journal Ear and Hearing. This  finding suggests that not properly […]
September 9, 2019

Bedrest for high-risk pregnancies may be linked to premature birth

Newborns whose mothers spent more than one week on bedrest had poorer health outcomes, according to a new study out of the University of Alberta that further challenges beliefs about pregnancy and activity levels. A team led by cardiovascular health researcher Margie Davenport conducted a review of every available randomized controlled trial of prenatal […]
September 9, 2019

High-fat diets affect your brain, not just your physical appearance

Much research has pointed to how an unhealthy diet correlates to obesity, but has not explored how diet can bring about neurological changes in the brain. A recent Yale study has discovered that high-fat diets contribute to irregularities in the hypothalamus region of the brain, which regulates body weight homeostasis […]
September 9, 2019

UGA-led portal holds key to unlocking glycoscience

Glycans, or complex sugars, cover the surfaces of our cells and play a key role in biological processes ranging from interacting with other cells to recognizing and fighting pathogens. With cancer, for example, they mediate the mechanisms controlling cell division, growth and mobility that affect tumor development. Glycans are ubiquitous, but […]
September 8, 2019

Scientists found a new approach to treat inflammatory autoimmune diseases – the key is within fat bubbles

Rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis and other inflammatory autoimmune diseases have a huge impact on patients’ quality of life. Autoimmune diseases, characterized by the immune system attacking the body, affect 5 to 10% of the global population. Women are affected more usually than men. It is treatable, but autoimmune disease is incurable. […]
September 8, 2019

Nanotherapy: the controlled delivery of chemotherapeutics to fight cancer stem cells

Researchers at IMDEA Nanociencia investigate the efficiency of gold nanoclusters as drug carriers against cancer cells. Chemotherapy is one of the most used treatments against cancer, together with surgery and radiotherapy. In a chemotherapy treatment, one or several drugs are administered to the patient to remove or damage cancer cells. […]
September 6, 2019

New hair follicles can corral skin cancer

The same genetic mutations that can trigger cancer in some tissues are relatively harmless in others. A new Yale study has identified an unlikely source of protection against some forms of skin cancer — hair follicle regeneration. The regeneration of hair follicles protects against tumor growth even in the presence […]
September 5, 2019

Fertility-sparing surgery is as good as radical surgery for early ovarian cancer

Young women with early stage ovarian cancer can undergo fertility-preserving surgery without affecting the safety of their cancer treatment, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report in a national study published in the journal Gynecologic Oncology. Non-epithelial ovarian cancer (NEOC) is an unusual form of cancer most commonly diagnosed in […]
September 5, 2019

Killing cancer cells with nanoparticles

Another collaborative project from a nanoparticles expert at The University of Texas at Arlington has yielded promising results in the search for more effective, targeted cancer treatments. Wei Chen, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Rhode Island and Brown University, recently published a new paper in the Proceedings […]
September 5, 2019

Cracking “virus code” could help fight cancer

Ad26 is a virus of great interest to the scientific and medical community. Ad26 is both a human pathogen causing severe respiratory distress, and potentially death in vulnerable patients, and a key component in new vaccines to fight deadly diseases. An Ad26 based vaccine is currently being deployed in Africa […]
September 5, 2019

Mood of children during earliest stages of life linked to maternal mental health

Researchers and clinicians have long understood that depression and other mood disorders in mothers can have substantial, detrimental effects on the mental health of children in their care. In fact, maternal depression is now recognized as one of the most important risk factors in the cognitive and socioemotional development of […]
September 4, 2019

Why transporters really matter for cell factories

Scientists discover the secret behind some protein transporters’ superiority. One transporter, MAE1, can export organic acids out of yeast spending close-to-zero energy. Organic acids are utilized as building blocks for plastic and rubber, and the finding could become important in industrial biotech. In a new study published in PNAS, scientists […]
September 4, 2019

Onset mechanism of schizophrenia is different between males and females, new study shows

Schizophrenia affects more than 21 million people worldwide. It is a mental disorder, characterized by a decreased ability to understand reality. People with this condition suffer from unclear or confused thinking, hearing voices, violent thoughts and other symptoms. Men are affected more often than women, which is why scientists set […]
September 4, 2019

Liver Transplant Candidates with Public Insurance Have Worse Waitlist Outcomes Than Those with Private Insurance

Patients with similar liver cancer characteristics on the waitlist for a liver transplant had significantly worse outcomes with public insurance compared to Kaiser Permanente or other private insurance, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco. Their findings appeared online in JAMA Network Open. “Public insurance should be […]
September 4, 2019

Parkinson's disease may originate in the intestines

In 2003, a German neuropathologist proposed that Parkinson’s disease, which attacks the brain, actually might originate from the gut of the patients. Researchers from Aarhus have now delivered decisive supportive evidence after seeing the disease migrate from the gut to the brain and heart of laboratory rats. The scientific journal Acta […]
September 4, 2019

NIH launches novel nationwide search for neuroprotective stroke therapies

Recently the National Institutes of Health called on researchers to make the standards and practices for conducting early stage, or preclinical, medical research on animals more like those used for clinical trials. To facilitate this change, NIH will fund a nationwide preclinical trial platform designed to systematically and efficiently test […]
September 4, 2019

Poor diet can lead to blindness

An extreme case of “fussy” or “picky” eating caused a young patient’s blindness, according to a new case report published in Annals of Internal Medicine. The University of Bristol researchers who examined the case recommend clinicians consider nutritional optic neuropathy in any patients with unexplained vision symptoms and poor diet, […]
September 4, 2019

Mumps study shows immunity gaps among vaccinated people

Immunity against mumps virus appears insufficient in a fraction of college-aged people who were vaccinated in childhood, research from Emory Vaccine Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates. The findings highlight the need to better understand the immune response to mumps and mumps vaccines. The results of […]