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So audacious was Marcus Bray’s experiment that even he feared it would fail. In the system inside cells that translates genetic code into life, he replaced about 1,000 essential linchpins with primitive substitutes to see if the translational system would survive and function. It seemed impossible, yet it worked swimmingly, […]

In a process known as directed evolution, scientists reengineer biomolecules to find ones that perform beneficial new functions. The field is revolutionizing drug development, chemical engineering and other applications, but to realize its promise involves painstaking and time-consuming laboratory work. In a study published in the journal Cell, University of California, […]

Scientists have long known that cancer can hijack a cell’s existing regulatory circuitry and transform healthy cells into deadly malignancies. But a new discovery from UC San Francisco demonstrates that cancer is more than just a mutineer that seizes control of the cell’s administrative operations – it’s also a clever […]

Sadly, dementia is in the cards for many people. Detected early it can be slowed down, which is why scientists are looking for new, more accurate early diagnosis measures. Now researchers at UCL have found that neck scan could predict risk of developing cognitive decline. This new idea is based […]

Valerie Chang kept waking up breathless in the middle of the night. As a regular swimmer and non-smoker, she figured it was a fluke, a remnant of her childhood asthma, perhaps. But after a lung test, doctors told her that she had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); her lung function […]

An innovative San Francisco program of community choirs for older adults found that singing in a choir reduced loneliness and increased interest in life, but did not improve cognition or physical function, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco. The program – Community of Voices – was a collaboration […]

Genetics may predispose some people to both Alzheimer’s disease and high levels of blood lipids such as cholesterol, a common feature of cardiovascular disease, according to a new study by an international team of researchers led by scientists at UC San Francisco and Washington University School of Medicine in St. […]

All vertebrates need muscles to function; they are the most abundant tissue in the human body and are integral to movement. In a recent article published in Nature Communications, an international team of researchers discovered two proteins essential to the development of skeletal muscle. This research, led by Jean-François Côté, a […]

We all start out as a clump of identical cells. As these cells divide and multiply, they gradually take on distinct identities, acquiring the traits necessary to form, for instance, muscle tissue, bone, or nerves. A recent study from Rockefeller scientists offers new insight into how these cellular identities are […]

People with autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis are at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease, even though none of these conditions seem to target the cardiovascular system directly. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis believe they have begun to understand the […]

Newborn breastfed babies’ saliva combines with breastmilk to release antibacterial compounds that help to shape the bacterial communities (microbiota) in babies’ mouths, biomedical scientists have found. A study led by Dr Emma Sweeney and Adjunct Associate Professor Christine Knox, from QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, with colleagues at the […]

Scientists have made a major discovery that shines a new, explanatory light on the link between obesity and cancer. Their research confirms why the body’s immune surveillance systems – led by cancer-fighting Natural Killer cells – stutter and fail in the presence of excess fat. Additionally, it outlines possible paths […]

New research suggests that infant girls fed soy formula are more likely to develop severe menstrual pain as young adults. The finding adds to the growing body of literature that suggests exposure to soy formula during early life may have detrimental effects on the reproductive system. The study appears online […]

Studying DNA from more than 1.5 million people, an international team of researchers — led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California, San Francisco — has identified points of DNA that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and also heighten the risk for […]

Our ability to selectively forget distracting memories is shared with other mammals, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge. The discovery that rats and humans share a common active forgetting ability – and in similar brain regions – suggests that the capacity to forget plays a vital role in […]

A new gene therapy can turn certain brain glial cells into functioning neurons, which in turn could help repair the brain after a stroke or during neurological disorders like Alzheimer's or Parkinson’s diseases. In a series of studies in animals, a team of Penn State researchers led by Gong Chen […]

Children who suffer abuse are more likely to age faster, while those who endure food insecurity or neglect may develop more slowly, according to new research led by the University of Washington. Violence, psychological or emotional abuse, deprivation and neglect — adverse childhood experiences — can affect both epigenetic, or […]

Stanford biologist Shripad Tuljapurkar had assumed humans were approaching the limit to their longevity – that’s what previous research had suggested – but what he observed in 50 years of lifespan data was more optimistic than he was. Analyzing the average age of death in people who lived to be […]

Unlike old dogs, old adults can indeed learn new tricks thanks to a protein molecule called netrin. Netrin is known to help set up the healthy nervous system in an infant’s developing brain by directing brain cells to make appropriate connections with other brain cells. New research conducted by scientists […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified a protein that determines the identity and invasive properties of breast cancer cells. The finding could lead to the development of new therapeutic and diagnostic strategies to target breast cancer invasion and metastasis. The study is published in the scientific journal Cancer Research. Cancer cell […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, having compared the development of allergies in children with and without the recommended vaccinations, find no support for the claim that childhood vaccination can increase the risk of allergy. The study is published in EClinicalMedicine, a new open access journal published by The Lancet. “Even though Sweden has […]

Women who are 'larks', functioning better at the beginning of the day than the end of the day, have a lower of risk breast cancer, according to new research led by the University of Bristol presented at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference. The study of several hundred thousand women, which […]

A small device that contains human cells in a 3D matrix represents a giant leap in the ability of scientists to test how those cells respond to stresses, drugs and genetic changes. About the size of a thumb drive, the devices are known as tissue chips or organs on chips. […]

A new immunotherapy screening prototype developed by University of California, Irvine researchers can quickly create individualized cancer treatments that will allow physicians to effectively target tumors without the side effects of standard cancer drugs. UCI’s Weian Zhao and Nobel laureate David Baltimore with Caltech led the research team that developed […]

Stanford scientists and their collaborators have identified two key genes responsible for the rapid growth of deer antlers. They hope their insights will open the door to new approaches for treating bone diseases and fractures. Each spring, male deer sprout a new pair of antlers, which are essentially temporary external […]

Researchers can design the perfect molecule to edit a gene, treat cancer or guide the development of a stem cell, but none of that will matter in the end if they can’t get their molecule into the human cells they want to manipulate. The solution to that problem, described in […]

Skeletal stem cells are valuable because it’s thought they can heal many types of bone injury, but they’re difficult to find because researchers don’t know exactly what they look like or where they live. Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified a type of skeletal stem cell in the […]

Lung cancer is among the most frequently occurring forms of cancer, second only to prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women. It’s also the most lethal cancer type, claiming the lives of more adults than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined. About 8 in 10 lung cancer cases […]

Ovarian cancer claims the highest mortality rate of all gynecologic cancers – as high as 70 percent – in part because the disease is rarely detected earlier than stage 3 or 4. When the disease is discovered early in its development, however, survival rates are high. An effective screening technique […]

New Vanderbilt research finds how long humans and other warm-blooded animals live—and when they reach sexual maturity—may have more to do with their brain than their body. More specifically, it is not animals with larger bodies or slower metabolic rates that live longer; it is animals with more neurons in […]