2021

The ability to make membrane-bound organelles is a defining characteristic of eukaryotic cells — cells that constitute the bodies of all animals, plants and fungi on Earth. Membranes create enclosures that provide specialized environments for certain structures and their functions, such as the nuclei that store genetic information, or the […]

University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have shed new light on how our brains develop, revealing that the very last step in cell division is crucial for the brain to reach its proper size and function. The new findings identify a potential contributor to microcephaly, a birth defect in […]

Human bodies have roughly 30,000 genes dictating not only how we look, but also critical biological processes. Now, a Florida State University and Australia National University research team has discovered a key aspect of gene regulation and ultimately how that process is implicated in cancer. Jonathan Dennis, an associate professor […]

The primary function of the lung is to facilitate the transfer of oxygen to the bloodstream. Crucial to this lifegiving task are endothelial cells, which line blood vessels permeating the lung and through which gas exchange occurs. Malfunction of these cells is implicated in a range of different diseases, including […]

Viji Santhakumar, an associate professor of molecular, cell and systems biology at the University of California, Riverside, has received funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disaster and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health to further pursue research on moderate concussive brain injury, which results from car accidents or sports-related concussions. […]

Up to half of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma will experience tumor recurrence or new tumors—tumors that often spread and are difficult to treat. A team of scientists led by the University of Michigan School of Dentistry identified a mechanism by which head and neck cancer cells […]

Follow-up data from the landmark SPRINT study of the effect of high blood pressure on cardiovascular disease have confirmed that aggressive blood-pressure management—lowering systolic blood pressure to less than 120 mm Hg—dramatically reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke and death from these diseases, as well as death from all […]

Continuous skin-to-skin contact starting immediately after delivery even before the baby has been stabilised can reduce mortality by 25 per cent in infants with very low birth weight. This according to a study in low- and middle-income countries coordinated by the WHO on the initiative of researchers at Karolinska Institutet […]

Children born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy were at increased risk of having congenital heart disease, a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has found. The study was led by the University of Bristol, in an international collaboration with researchers from seven institutions. It […]

New research has found that one in every 340 people might carry a mutation in a single gene that makes them more likely to have a greater weight from early childhood and, by 18 years of age, they could be up to 30 pounds heavier with the excess weight likely […]

A cardiac MRI of athletes who had COVID-19 is seven times more effective in detecting inflammation of the heart than symptom-based testing, according to a study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine with 12 other Big Ten programs. The findings are published online by JAMA Cardiology. The […]

Normal cells usually have multiple solutions for fixing problems. For example, when DNA becomes damaged, healthy white blood cells can use several different strategies to make repairs. But cancer cells may “put all their eggs in one basket,” getting rid of all backup plans and depending on just one pathway […]