2021

An interesting fact about the adaptive immune system: the number of T cells in the body remains much the same across the entire lifespan, even after the supply of new T cells all but ceases in middle age. T cells are created as thymocytes by hematopoietic cells in the bone […]

Delaying second doses of COVID-19 vaccines should reduce case numbers in the near term; however, the longer-term case burden and the potential for evolution of viral ‘escape’ from immunity will depend on the robustness of immune responses generated by natural infections and one or two vaccine doses, according to a […]

Reducing the initial screening age and including those with lower smoking exposures would help avert lung cancer-related deaths, according to a new study by the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network, led by a University of Michigan researcher. The modeling study, commissioned by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and […]

Just because you are exposed to a pathogen does not mean you will become sick. Increasingly, scientists have shown that genetics play a central role in determining whether the pathogens that cause a wide range of disease—including influenza, warts, and COVID-19—end up causing serious diseases. The lab of Jean-Laurent Casanova, which has spent 25 […]

One of the more interesting studies of cellular senescence in recent years was the demonstration that topical treatment with rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR signaling, over a period of months meaningfully reduced the burden of cellular senescence in the skin of aged individuals, leading to improvement in skin quality. It […]

People over 65 shouldn’t take three or more medicines that act on their brain and nervous system, experts strongly warn, because the drugs can interact and raise the risk of everything from falls to overdoses to memory issues. But a new study finds that 1 in 7 people with dementia who […]

New research from the University at Buffalo suggests that breast cancer patients who drink sugar-sweetened beverages regularly are at increased risk for death from any cause and breast cancer in particular. Compared to women who never or rarely drank non-diet soda, those who reported drinking non-diet soda five times or […]

Some of Princeton’s leading cancer researchers were startled to discover that what they thought was a straightforward investigation into how cancer spreads through the body — metastasis — turned up evidence of liquid-liquid phase separations: the new field of biology research that investigates how liquid blobs of living materials merge […]

Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have developed a tool to monitor communications within the brain in a way never before possible, and it has already offered an explanation for why Alzheimer’s drugs have limited effectiveness and why patients get much worse after going off of them. The […]

PNNL bioinformatics experts tease out link to DNA repair signaling Night shift work disrupts the natural 24-hour rhythms in the activity of certain cancer-related genes, making workers more vulnerable to damage to their DNA while at the same time causing the body’s DNA repair mechanisms to be mistimed to deal with […]

Being active and fit slows the impact of aging on the brain. A diverse set of mechanisms are involved, and, as is often the case in these matters, it is far from clear as to which of these mechanisms are the most important. Fitness helps to maintain the vascular system […]

For cancer cells to metastasize, they must first break free of a tumor’s own defenses. Most tumors are sheathed in a protective “basement” membrane — a thin, pliable film that holds cancer cells in place as they grow and divide. Before spreading to other parts of the body, the cells […]