2021

A new smell test developed by Queen Mary University of London researchers has been found to be easy to use in patients with Parkinson’s disease, and could also be helpful in diagnosing COVID-19 in the broader population. Smell tests have the potential to support the diagnosis of certain neurological conditions, […]

A single dose of vaccine boosts potent responses against SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus variants in those with previous COVID-19, a study has found. In those who have not previously been infected and have so far only received one dose of vaccine the immune response to variants of concern may be insufficient. The […]

Yale researchers have shown that developmental abnormalities, including those that lead to pregnancy loss and autism, are controlled by the genetics of the fetus and placenta — and not the mother’s intrauterine environment. The findings are reported in the online edition of the journal Placenta. One out of every 33 […]

It’s one of the most audacious projects in biology today—reading the entire genome of every bird, mammal, lizard, fish, and all other creatures with backbones. And now comes the first major payoff from the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP): near complete, high-quality genomes of 25 species, including the greater horseshoe bat, […]

Cancerous tumors thrive on blood, extending their roots deep into the fabric of the tissue of their host. They alter the genetics of surrounding cells and evolve to avoid the protective attacks of immune cells. Now, Penn State researchers have developed a way to study the relationship between solid, difficult-to-treat […]

Fixing traumatic injuries to the skin and bones of the face and skull is difficult because of the many layers of different types of tissues involved, but now, researchers have repaired such defects in a rat model using bioprinting during surgery, and their work may lead to faster and better […]

Penn scientists use cryo-electron microscopy to illuminate how piperlongumine works against glioblastoma. Piperlongumine, a chemical compound found in the Indian Long Pepper plant (Piper longum), is known to kill cancerous cells in many tumor types, including brain tumors. Now an international team including researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine […]

Sperm doesn’t shift into high gear in mammals just to show off, new research shows. It originally needed that extra speed to break the egg barrier. Later on, evolution enabled sperm to use its souped-up swimming to navigate tricky reproductive pathways even before reaching the egg. That is the finding […]

Women who receive COVID-19 mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna while in their third trimester of pregnancy generate a strong immune response and pass protective antibodies through umbilical cord blood to their babies, according to a study conducted by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian researchers, published in Obstetrics & Gynecology. […]

Using ultra-high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to map the brains of people with Down syndrome (DS), researchers from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and other institutions detected subtle differences in the structure and function of the hippocampus—a region of the brain tied to memory and learning. Such […]

Adding RNA sequencing to current genetic methods could help diagnose and treat thousands of patients with mystery diseases. Imagine having a terrible medical condition and not knowing what it was. More than 400,000 Albertans have a rare disease. Many of them face challenges getting the right diagnosis, let alone finding […]

A research project from the lab of University of Oregon evolutionary biologist Bill Cresko is setting out to explore the effects of a remarkable evolutionary innovation: male pregnancy in seahorses, pipefish and seadragons. “This is an amazingly diverse family of fish, and some species are the only vertebrates in which […]