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Doctors have many drugs available to treat multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. However, there is no way to predict, by genetic markers or other means, how a patient will respond to a particular drug. This can lead to months of treatment with a drug that isn’t working. Researchers […]

“The biological clock ensures that a plant times its metabolism according to the environment,” says Dorothee Staiger. “Thus enabling it to directly use the first rays of sunlight for photosynthesis to produce carbohydrates, for example.” As the Nobel Prize winners have shown, individual genes in the genome of plants, animals […]

Since it first evolved in the common ancestor to multicellular animals some one billion years ago, the p53 family of genes has played the role of genomic guardian for countless organisms. So essential is its task—to protect the DNA of cells from damage and stress—that some form of p53 can […]

Folding your laundry or doing the dishes might not be the most enjoyable parts of your day. But simple activities like these may help prolong your life, according to the findings of a new study in older women led by the University at Buffalo. In the U.S. study of more […]

Nevan Krogan, PhD, is a mapmaker, but the object of his exploration is not any newfound continent or alien world. Instead, he and his colleagues map cells. Rather than cities, towns and interstates, these maps show proteins, genes, and the shifting, convoluted network of interactions between them. Learning to read […]

Scientists have created mini biological models of human primary liver cancers, known as organoids, in the lab for the first time. In a paper published in Nature Medicine, the tiny laboratory models of tumours were used to identify a new drug that could potentially treat certain types of liver cancer. Primary liver cancer […]

Cornell researchers have taken a major step toward answering a key question in cancer research: Why is testicular cancer so responsive to chemotherapy, even after it metastasizes? Professional cyclist Lance Armstrong, for example, had testicular cancer that spread to his lung and brain, yet he made a full recovery after […]

Harvard Medical School researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital have reversed type 1 diabetes in mice by infusing blood stem cells pretreated to produce more of a protein called PD-L1, which is deficient in mice and people with type 1 diabetes. The stem cells curbed the autoimmune reaction in cells from […]

The team of researchers, working with biopharmaceutical company Autolus Ltd, have discovered a method of targeting the cancer without destroying healthy T-cells, essential to the immune system. Lymphomas arise when immune cells, called lymphocytes, that protect us against germs, become cancerous. There are two types of lymphocytes: B-cells and T-cells. […]

Primary liver cancer is now the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and its incidences and mortality are increasing rapidly in the United Stated. In late stages of the malignancy, there are no effective treatments or drugs. However, an unexpected finding made by a team of University of California […]

Paving the way for testing experimental drugs in more realistic environments, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered how to make tiny colonies of cells grow in useful new ways inside petri dishes. The research team’s discoveries might help designers of miniature “lab-on-a-chip” technologies to […]

New research shows that the number of people with Parkinson’s disease will soon grow to pandemic proportions.  In a commentary appearing today in the journal JAMA Neurology, University of Rochester Medical Center neurologist Ray Dorsey, M.D. and Bastiaan Bloem, M.D., Ph.D., with Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, argue that the medical […]

A recent multi-centre study, led by King’s College London and the University of Manchester, has established that synapse loss in Alzheimer’s disease is driven by a specific signalling pathway. This pathway is called the Wnt-planar cell polarity (PCP) signalling pathway and it may be pivotal to the progressive neurodegeneration seen […]

Certain prostate cancers and lymphomas have a major genetic weakness that doctors can exploit to help save patients’ lives, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered. The weakness makes the subset of cancers particularly vulnerable to chemotherapy and radiation therapy, suggesting that those approaches should be […]

The busy world inside a cell is directed by its DNA blueprint. When the blueprints are altered, cells can sicken, die or become cancerous. To keep DNA in working order, cells have ways to detect and mend damaged DNA. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis […]

Honeycomb-like arrays of tiny, lab-grown cancers could one day help doctors zero in on individualized treatments for ovarian cancer, an unpredictable disease that kills more than 14,000 women each year in the United States alone. A team of researchers has devised a process that can grow hundreds of cultured cell […]

Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of dementia. Because of its effects Alzheimer’s is usually thought to be a condition which starts at the brain. While scientists are pushing forward to curing and preventing Alzheimer’s they are trying to look at it from many different angles. Now they are starting […]

A new UC San Francisco-led study challenges the dogma in oncology that most cancers are caused by one dominant “driver” mutation that can be treated in isolation with a single targeted drug. Instead, the new research finds one of the world’s most deadly forms of lung cancer is driven by […]

A group of researchers at the University of Tokyo found that a particular gene, interleukin-11, functions as a key factor in inducing and maintaining undifferentiated cells when tadpoles regenerate their tail. Some animal species have the remarkable ability to reconstruct lost appendages. The African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) is one such […]

In its latest pioneering effort to harness the power of focused ultrasound to battle disease, the University of Virginia Health System is examining the scalpel-free surgery’s potential to enable the body to identify and destroy metastatic breast cancer cells. UVA Cancer Center researchers Dr. Patrick Dillon and Dr. David Brenin […]

The blood-brain barrier is the brain’s gatekeeper. A nearly impenetrable shield of cells, it keeps toxins and other agents that may be in circulating blood from gaining access to and harming the brain. A critical anatomical structure, the barrier is the brain’s first and most comprehensive line of defense. But […]

Researchers investigating ways to deliver high doses of cancer-killing drugs inside tumors have shown they can use a laser and light-activated gold nanoparticles to remotely trigger the release of approved cancer drugs inside cancer cells in laboratory cultures. The study by researchers at Rice University and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine […]

Study explains success of some types of cancer immunotherapy, provides new targets for the development of additional immunotherapies. Chronic inflammation is known to drive many cancers, especially liver cancer. Researchers have long thought that’s because inflammation directly affects cancer cells, stimulating their division and protecting them from cell death. But […]

Can environmental toxins disrupt circadian rhythms – the biological “clock” whose disturbance is linked to chronic inflammation and a host of human disorders? Research showing a link between circadian disruption and plankton that have adapted to road salt pollution puts the question squarely on the table. “This research shows that […]

Cancer, the still-dreaded disease because it takes the lives of millions with no proven cure still in sight, might finally get a beating in the next few years. Ascribe it to the courage and innovation of biotech companies which have not given up  the fight against the Big C. They […]

For an illness like cancer, doctors in search of definitive diagnosis often turn to computed tomography (CT) scans based on reconstructing a three-dimensional image of an organ from multiple two-dimensional image slices. At the molecular level, such 3-D scans could become an important part of precision medicine: a future of […]

Vision scientists at UC Berkeley and the University of Toronto have discovered that naturally occurring molecules known as lipid mediators have the potential to halt the progression of glaucoma, the world’s second-leading cause of blindness. Their findings, published today in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, mark a […]

Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to develop a new technique to detect ovarian cancer early and accurately. The team has identified a network of circulating microRNAs – small, non-coding pieces of genetic material – that are associated with […]

A study led by scientists from Harvard Medical School reveals “hidden” variability in how tumor cells are affected by anticancer drugs, offering new insights on why patients with the same form of cancer can have different responses to a drug. The results, published in Nature Communications on Oct 30, highlight strategies to […]

Stem cells taken from muscle tissue could promote better blood flow in patients with diabetes who develop peripheral artery disease, a painful complication that can require surgery or lead to amputation. A new study in mice at the University of Illinois found that an injection of the stem cells prompted […]