2021

Scientists have known for more than a decade that “good bacteria” from healthy intestines can treat and ward off potentially deadly intestinal infections by Clostridium difficile bacteria. Now researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that immune cells called Treg cells are crucial for the success […]

University of Alberta researchers have found that limiting the amount of fat the body releases into the bloodstream from fat cells during heart failure could help improve outcomes for patients. In a recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology, Jason Dyck, professor of paediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and director […]

An international research team used the ultrabright X-rays of the Advanced Photon Source to examine neurons in the brains of schizophrenia patients. What they learned may help neurologists treat this harmful brain disorder. Schizophrenia, a chronic, neurological brain disorder, affects millions of people around the world. It causes a fracture […]

As people get older, their neural stem cells lose the ability to proliferate and produce new neurons, leading to a decline in memory function. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now discovered a mechanism linked to stem cell aging – and how the production of neurons can be reactivated. […]

NineSigma, representing a global 500 medical device company, invites proposals for technologies that can alleviate the deleterious effects of calcified coronary arteries in a manner that is both easier and safer than traditional angioplasty or atherectomy procedures. The goal of this RFP is to identify technologies, beyond those that are traditionally […]

Insomnia — trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up too early — is a common condition in older adults. Sleeplessness can be exacerbated by osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis causing joint pain. While there are effective therapies for treating insomnia in older adults, many people cannot get […]

The blood-brain barrier prevents immune cells from circulating freely in the brain, and the breakdown of its function is a major cause of post-stroke inflammation. Now, for the first time, researchers have identified how a toxic stroke byproduct, acrolein, could activate the barrier-degrading enzyme proheparanase (proHPSE). The research group has […]

New research led by Swansea University in collaboration with researchers at the University of Bristol and the Francis Crick Institute in London has indicated that consuming a diet high in sugar fructose might prevent the proper functioning of peoples' immune systems in ways that have, until now, largely been unknown. […]

When you slip into sleep, it’s easy to imagine that your brain shuts down, but University of Michigan research suggests that groups of neurons activated during prior learning keep humming, tattooing memories into your brain. U-M researchers have been studying how memories associated with a specific sensory event are formed […]

In recent years, researchers have begun using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) not just for better understanding the neural bases of psychiatric illness, but also for experimental treatment of depression, ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, substance use disorder, and schizophrenia with a technique called real-time fMRI neurofeedback. While rtfMRI-NF has emerged in recent […]

Intravenous injection of bone marrow-derived stem cells (MSCs) in patients with spinal cord injuries led to significant improvement in motor functions, researchers from Yale University and Japan report in the Journal of Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery. For more than half of the patients, substantial improvements in key functions — such […]

Numerous studies have shown that trained dogs can detect many kinds of disease —  including lung, breast, ovarian, bladder, and prostate cancers, and possibly Covid-19 — simply through smell. In some cases, involving prostate cancer, for example, the dogs had a 99 per cent success rate in detecting the disease […]