2021

Cryopreservation, or the long-term storage of biomaterials at ultralow temperatures, has been used across cell types and species. However, until now, the practical cryopreservation of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) — which is crucial to genetics research and critical to scientific breakthroughs benefiting human health — has not been available. […]

Stretching out the DNA in all 46 chromosomes packed into one human cell would make a string of DNA two meters long. Accurately replicating all that DNA is vital to survival; cells must control this process with tremendous precision in time and space. Origin recognition complexes (ORCs) initiate the task […]

From cancer treatment to sunlight, radiation and toxins can severely damage DNA in both harmful and healthy cells. While the body has evolved to efficiently treat and restore damaged cells, the mechanisms that allow this natural repair remain misunderstood. In a new study, Northwestern University researchers have used cryogenic electron […]

A multi-institutional team of researchers has identified both the genetic abnormalities that drive pre-cancer cells into becoming an invasive type of head and neck cancer and patients who are least likely to respond to immunotherapy. “Through a series of surprises, we followed clues that focused more and more tightly on […]

How do different parts of the brain communicate with each other during learning and memory formation? A new study by researchers at the University of California San Diego takes a first step at answering this fundamental neuroscience question. The study was made possible by developing a neural implant that monitors […]

In almost ten per cent of myocardial infarctions, no obvious cause in the coronary artery can be found. Some of the patients are diagnosed with the broken-heart syndrome, while others are left without a diagnosis. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden suggests that early magnetic resonance (MR) imaging […]

COVID-19 patients who are overweight or obese have more severe symptoms and are highly likely to require invasive respiratory support, according to a new international study. The research, led by The University of Queensland and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), found obese patients had a 73 per cent greater chance of […]

The COVID-19 vaccine isn’t having any trouble attracting suitors. But there’s another, an older model that’s been mostly ignored by the young men of America: the HPV vaccine. Using data from the 2010-2018 National Health Interview Surveys, Michigan Medicine researchers found that just 16% of men who were 18 to […]

When a person views a familiar image, even having seen it just once before for a few seconds, something unique happens in the human brain. Until recently, neuroscientists believed that vigorous activity in a visual part of the brain called the inferotemporal (IT) cortex meant the person was looking at […]

Traits that allow cancer cells to escape the body’s natural defence system and develop into tumours are actually a good indicator to a patient’s survival prognosis, according to University of Queensland researchers. UQ Diamantina Institute researcher Dr Janin Chandra described the discovery as a “catch-22 situation” and good news for patients with either […]

The heart damage seen in many severely ill COVID-19 patients results in part from infection-activated immune cells called macrophages, which infiltrate the heart and secrete cell-damaging chemicals, according to a study co-led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai and Columbia University Irving […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found links between certain blood groups and a total of 49 diseases, including a new finding that having blood group B seems to be a protective factor against kidney stones. The study, which includes data on more than five million people and over 1,000 diseases, […]