2021

Taking the first deep dive into how the immune system is behaving in patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found that children with this condition have highly activated immune […]

Study reveals details of how coronavirus infects heart; models of tissue damage may help develop potential therapies. Since early in the pandemic, COVID-19 has been associated with heart problems, including reduced ability to pump blood and abnormal heart rhythms. But it’s been an open question whether these problems are caused […]

An international team of bioethicists and scientists, led by a researcher at Case Western Reserve University, contends it may be justified to go beyond the standing 14-day limit that restricts how long researchers can study human embryos in a dish. Going beyond this policy limit could lead to potential health […]

New treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are desperately needed, but numerous clinical trials of investigational drugs have failed to generate promising options. Now, a team at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital has developed an artificial intelligence-based method to screen currently available medications as possible treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The method could […]

Concussion linked to short- and long-term risk for overall health. While chronic neurological effects from concussion have been widely studied, little is known about possible links between concussion and long-term medical and behavioural comorbidities. A retrospective analysis published in the Journal of Neurotrauma found that people who had a concussion also […]

Cancers subvert the immune system in order to survive, but also to accelerate their growth. Macrophages are a part of the innate immune system, and have roles in wound healing. They become engaged by a tumor; tumor-associated macrophages assist in the rampant growth of tumor cells by supporting them in […]

Have you been eating well during the lockdown? It is likely that you’ve been ordering a lot of junk food, which is not only making you overweight – it is also slowly killing you. Scientists at the University of Toronto found that consuming lots of poor-quality carbohydrates increases the risk […]

There is no stronger risk factor for cancer than age. At the time of diagnosis, the median age of patients across all cancers is 66. That moment, however, is the culmination of years of clandestine tumor growth, and the answer to an important question has thus far remained elusive: When […]

A human genetics investigator discusses new RNA research developments that may aid in treating and preventing rare genetic diseases. Altogether, over 6,800 rare diseases affect an estimated 25 million to 30 million Americans. A rare disease is defined in the U.S. as one that affects less than 200,000 people in […]

One of the most significant genetic risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s disease is a gene called APOE4, which is carried by almost half of all Alzheimer’s patients. A new study from MIT shows that this gene has widespread effects on brain cells’ ability to metabolize lipids and respond to stress. […]

Berkeley Lab researchers propose model for early pathology of this debilitating disease. Subtle memory deficits are common in normal aging as well as Alzheimer disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia in older adults. This makes AD difficult to diagnose in its early stages. As there is currently no effective […]

Brain cells called astrocytes derived from the induced pluripotent stem cells of patients with bipolar disorder offer suboptimal support for neuronal activity. In a paper in the journal Stem Cell Reports, researchers show that this malfunction can be traced to an inflammation-promoting molecule called interleukin-6 (IL-6), which is secreted by astrocytes. The […]